Celebrities Don’t Date Bookworms by Clara Nielsen
This is considered a clean YA RomCom. 1st in a series.
My Review: This book was cute! I loved the quirky characters and fun plot. The themes of belonging and stepping out of your comfort zone were nice, too. I do wish the romantic relationship near the end was a little more realistic in substance, but that’s just my preference. I loved the idea of a popular band coming to a high school and the students reactions to that. It was hilarious! A little cheesy, but in a cute way. There wasn’t a lot about the heroine to convince me she was a true “bookworm” since she only brought up reading once or twice, but that’s okay 🙂
Violence: none
Language: one use of d*mn, “scr*w it”
Romance: sweet, wholesome yet flirty romance. Their relationship mirrors a typical high school crush/romance, not specifically a Christian one. Also, they were very quick to date based off of attraction rather than friendship and shared values. There was a semi-detailed kiss near the end in one of the characters bedrooms. Nothing more happened, I’d just prefer them to do so outside of a private space, especially a bedroom. I don’t think the situation was alluding to anything more happening, as several friends joined them in the room after and chatted. The heroine’s best friend claims she’s “in love” a couple times, and reasons that she is because the guy is cute and kind. I don’t think that qualifies for “in love” but this is a teen in high school! The next book in this series is based off the friend.
Other content: Heroine lies to her mother a couple times over text, uncorrected. Her mother does typical motherly things, but from the heroine’s perspective, it makes her mother out to seem a little stupid. Which I understand all teens go through at times, but I thought it was worth mentioning that is the main character’s view since it wasn’t the most honoring view of the mother.
My age rating: 15+
How well this book fits my content guidelines: 7/10
*sweet and clean according to industry standard, I just wish the romance was a little more intentional rather than dating based on attraction. As a Christian ( and understanding this isn’t labeled as an explicitly Christian book) I would prefer at least a little more focus on being well suited and having similar values as a good example of a relationship in YA fiction. Since it is considered clean and not “Christian”, I don’t expect any faith elements. I just wish the relationship had more substance as a positive example for high schoolers that may pick up this book. As long as your teen girl knows this is not a realistic depiction of how a solid relationship looks(and many fiction books don’t have 100% realistic relationships anyway, I just wish there was more to it), it’s worth the read! A fun and lighthearted book, especially for rom-com lovers. As to content guidelines, there were two minor uses of language. If you consider “shut-up” a swear, there were a couple of those, too.
*These are my personal opinions. If you’d like to know more about this book and its contents, feel free to reach out.
Happy Reading!
