Review: Shuffle, Repeat

Shuffle, Repeat by Jen Klein

My Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

Synopsis from Goodreads:

When Harry Met Sally for YA romance readers. This opposites-attract love story is perfect for fans of Huntley Fitzpatrick, Stephanie Perkins, and Jenny Han.
 
June wants high school to end and real life to begin. Oliver is soaking up senior year’s glory days. They could have coasted through high school, knowing about—but not really knowing—each other.

Except that their moms have arranged for Oliver to drive June to school. Every. Single. Day.

Suddenly these two opposites are fighting about music, life . . . pretty much everything. But love is unpredictable. When promises—and hearts—get broken, Oliver and June must figure out what really matters. And then fight for it.

“Another song for our playlist. When will you ever learn?”

Apparently the answer is “never,” because here we are again: me falling hopelessly; him unaware and unattainable.

I was reading another book that was so intense and heavy, so I wanted to balance it out with something light. (I don’t really read two books at a time but I figured that I need to at least try at some point.) So I decided to start reading this expecting some light and fluffy contemporary. And yes it slayed all my expectations because this book is a great example of a close-to-perfect light contemporary.

High School, Senior Year— this is what this book is all about, so if you’re not into that High School stories/drama maybe this book isn’t for you.

June believes that anything and everything that happens in high school will not matter later in life. Oliver believes that high school, especially senior year, is something you’ll look back to someday so one must enjoy every moment and make it count.

Now put this two together in a car ride every school day morning and you’ll have heated conversations with two opposing teams, unexpected friendship, meaningful glances, and an unusual playlist.

One thing that I loved with this book is the build of the Romance. At start both June and Oliver were in a relationship, so they really had the time to build a strong and innocent friendship. And then their relationship goes from safe and innocent friends to heated and meaningful banter with a dash of sexual tension kind of friends (that barely made sense, but you got the idea).

The school lobby smells the same way it did at the start of last year: like beauty products and new sneakers and hormones. God, we’re predictable.

I super love June’s character. I could totally relate with her, especially with being reluctant in joining school activities and showing of school spirit. Oliver is definitely that famous Jock that every girl dreams of, but he’s not only that because underneath that attractive face, he is also nice, sweet, and adorable! He’s definitely book boyfriend material.

But this is not only the story of June and Oliver, the secondary characters are also something to share. I really liked Shaun, he’s like everyone’s friend and he has access to every clique but his friendship with June is really strong. I could feel that the author tried to give the other characters more life but I still felt that they could have been more alive. The family aspect is also great, the relationship of June and Oliver’s mothers is really commendable. June’s relationship with her parents was portrayed well especially her relationship with her father.

June’s character development was beautifully done. The ending was a little bit off for me, it felt forced, cheesy and unrealistic. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it.

I liked that this book has a great music selection, it was really fun being with June and Oliver while they were building the playlist.

Overall, this is a fun and quick read. This had me reading way past my bedtime because I couldn’t put it down until I finished it. It did a great job on dealing with high school hierarchy in a different and I guess more realistic way.

I recommend this to everyone who wants a very light and cutesy contemporary, very low drama guaranteed. I also recommend this to anyone who are in their senior year or those who want to revisit their final year of high school.

This book will take you on a memorable ride complete with a wonderful playlist and adorable romance.

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That’s all, thank you so much for reading. If you want to read more book reviews from this blog, just click here. And you could also find my reviews in Goodreads.