The Way You Make Me Feel - Maurene Goo
From the author of I Believe in a Thing Called Love, a laugh-out-loud story of love, new friendships, and one unique food truck. Book Synopsis: Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined. But maybe Rose isn't so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) crushing on her is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad’s business. What if taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind? With Maurene Goo's signature warmth and humor, The Way You Make Me Feel is a relatable story of falling in love and finding yourself in the places you’d never thought to look.
You knock me off of my feet now, my lonely days are gone. ♬
From the words of Michael Jackson's song, The Way You Make Me Feel. Absolutely love that song and I was definitely guilty of singing that in my head while reading this book.
Clara Shin is the main character in this book, and she is delightfully annoying, if that makes any sense. She means well, but she is very immature and a lover of disruptive pranking. Her heart of gold and crazy practical joke antics get her in hot water real quick.
When her dad sentences her and a fellow classmate, Rose Carver, to a busy summer vacation working on his food truck, the KoBra, things will never be the same.
Clara is lazy, and she talks back, but she has good intentions. I loved the character development and overall arc of the storyline, it was so relatable and I just wished it was a bit longer too. If there is a sequel to this, please let me know - Maurene Goo's writing has improved so much ever since her debut book, Since You Asked.
Rose Carver is Clara's rival, and she is a character that I grew to love, and I'm sure you'll find her more likable than Clara Shin at first.
The love interest in this book is so quirky and it just matched up so well with the main character's personality, it was simply fate that brought them together.
Let's talk about the cover, it is so gorgeous and I just love the font of the t-shirt and the ombre effect on the dust jacket.
Also, how cute would it be to own one of those KoBra shirts - I think that Maurene Goo should definitely be capitalizing on that. I've seen the KoBra food truck enamel pin that it came with - probably from the pre-order campaign.
If only I had snagged the pre-order swag, oh well, next time. It's so great that authors are now giving free stuff away with the purchase of their books, it really makes the incentive higher to purchase the book and it is a good deal for the booklovers.
I finished this book last year, but I never got the chance to review it until now, I can't wait to see what else Maurene Goo has after Somewhere Only We Know.
Rating: ★★★★★ 5/5 Stars!