Happy Friday, friends! I am thrilled today to present you my contribution to the lovely blog tour, organized by Tin @ The Book Maiden. Spoiler alert: it’s about a lovely contemporary book with all the food and cuteness.
More seriously though, and as always, there are no spoilers in this review.
The Way You Make Me Feel packed adorableness, food, fun friendships and amazing father-daughter relationships all at once. This was my first Maurene Goo book and I can safely say that it won’t be my last. I read it with a smile on my face the whole time and that is exactly what I was expecting when I picked up this book. Expectations, met.
A BEAUTIFUL STORY WITH FOCUS ON PARENTS-CHILDREN RELATIONSHIPS
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In this story, we meet Clara, a Korean-American teenager living alone with her dad. Clown of her high-school, queen of the most awful pranks, Clara was a main character that was, at first, a bit complicated to root for. She was certainly not perfect and, at times, her way of thinking or acting were lost on me, but that didn’t last too long. Once we got to scratch under the surface and got to know her a bit better, as the story went on, I discovered a passionate, but lost, a genuinely sweet, funny and witty character I ended up loving.
You will probably get it right from the synopsis, this book really is character-driven and everything I expected in a contemporary like this, yet what made me feel the most, about this book, were the relationships in it.
Let’s start with the one that won my heart, right from the start: Clara’s relationship with her parents, most especially her dad. She lives with him and her parents are separated, and damn, that relationship just made me really, really happy. The way they trusted each other, the way they interacted, everything else just somehow reminded me of Lorelai and Rory’s relationship in Gilmore Girls and that made me way too happy, I live for these kind of relationships in books, especially in YA! BOOKS! WITH! AMAZING! PARENT! RELATIONSHIP!
We also got to meet Clara’s mother a little bit and how conflicted their relationship was, but how, somehow, through it all, Clara’s mother is trying her best to be a mom even when she was not meant to be, or doesn’t quite know how to. I found that relationship interesting to follow as well, but let’s be honest, father/daughter relationship in this was my favorite thing about the entire book.
FRIENDSHIPS & ROMANCE : GOALS
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The Way You Make Me Feel also focuses on some other wonderful relationships, both friendships and actual romantic relationships. I really enjoyed the emphasis we got on friendship, how the friendship grew, changed, how endearing and adorable it was. Then there’s the love interest, Hamlet, such an adorable little bean. I loved how positive he was and the breath of fresh air and laughter he brought into Clara’s life. He and Clara were so different, yet they made sense somehow and I was rooting for them from the start…. not hard to do though, I mean, you should MEET HAMLET. He’s way too adorable.
A GREAT AND DIVERSE CAST OF CHARACTERS
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Maurene Goo gave a particular attention to her characters and we got to meet an amazing and diverse cast in this book: Clara is Korean-American, both her parents are Korean-Brazilians and you can get a glimpse of THE! FOOD! YUM! With Clara’s dad and his food truck and that was really amazing. Hamlet is Chinese, Rose is black (and anxiety rep. Yes). We got to see amazing diversity in this book and I loved the attention brought to it.
I also love the feeling of wanderlust I got, traveling with them in the streets of L.A, the hometown in that story, as well as in the small villages of Mexico.
OVERALL
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Overall, The Way You Make Me Feel was certainly a feel-good contemporary, a much-needed and overall quick read if you’re looking for something sweet, fun and with great friendships and parents-relationships for the summer. It’s about finding your people, it’s a love-letter to Los Angeles and it’s a really beautiful book. I’d totally recommend it.
Final rating: 4 drops!
A million thanks to Tin @ The Book Maiden for organizing the blog tour and Macmillan for providing review copies. This did not, in any way, influence my thoughts and rating.
Maurene Goo, The Way You Make Me Feel, Published by Farrar, Strass & Giroux, May, 8th, 2018.
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.
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.
Buy the book on : Amazon – B&N – Book Depository
More about the author:
Maurene Goo grew up in a Los Angeles suburb surrounded by floral wallpaper and piles of books. She studied communication at UC San Diego and then later received a Masters in publishing, writing, and literature at Emerson College. Before publishing her first book, Since You Asked, she worked in both textbook and art book publishing. She also has very strong feelings about tacos and houseplants and lives in Los Angeles.
? The INTERNATIONAL Giveaway! ?
Enter to win a hardbound copy of The Way You Make Me Feel (ends May, 4th!)
Do you want to read The Way You Make Me Feel? Did you read Maurene Goo’s other books?
Do you like books with amazing parents-children relationships? And great friendships? Any recommendations? Let me know in comments!
This is one of my most anticipated reads of 2018 and wohoo, you recommending it is the final push for me to pick this off the shelves in May! A father-daughter relationship that’s actually good?? I NEED THIS. I love my Dad so much and I’m pretty sure I’m gonna love Clara because I’ve noticed that the protagonists I don’t particularly like at the start are the ones I can die for in the end 😀
Oh YAY I am thrilled to hear this, Fanna!! I can’t wait for you to read it, I hope you’ll love it as much as I did. The father-daughter relationship was sooo adorable <3
Thank you so much! <3 <3
Oh yes, I definitely want to read this, for so long ❤️ This seems like a perfect kind of read.. like the one I prefer ? It would be good to read about a father-daughter relationship, which I always adore. Thank you so much for the giveaway Marie ❤️
I can’t wait to read this.
Oh you’re so welcome, I can’t wait for you to read that one. I’m a sucker for great parents-children relationships in books and that one did not disappoint 😀
Thank you so much! 🙂
Glad you enjoyed this Marie! I always love books that have father-daughter relationship, so I can’t wait to read this one! Lovely review <3
Oh thank you so much Tasya! I hope you’ll end up loving this one 🙂
Ahhhh thank you so much for the chance! <3
You’re so welcome, good luck!! 😀
Thank you! 😀
I have been a little on the fence about reading this one. I do love a story that has a family theme to it. The diversity sounds amazing and I am all over getting lost in a book’s setting. I think that I may give it a try. 🙂
Ohh, I really hope you’ll give it a try eventually and that you’ll end up loving it 😀 It really was a fun read 🙂
Thank you so much for your comment <3
I’ve read both of Goo’s other books, and I Believe in a Thing Called Love was just SO CHARMING ACK. I love parent-kid relationships, and Goo’s other books definitely have that. I love Vic’s parents in Just Visiting which I’m currently reading. Adorable books are so important!
Ohhh I really need to read more of her books now. Also, YAY for Just Visiting, I read that book a little while ago and remember LOVING IT! 😀
Thank you so much, Shanti! <3
Awww I’m so glad to hear you loved this Marie! I trust your taste heartedly. I actually just finished I Believe in a Thing Called Love and it was so, so good too. So I’m pretty excited to keep going forward with Goo’s writing! And YAY! Giveaway for the win! <3
Ohhh I’m so glad you loved her other book, I can’t wait to read more from the author 😀
You’re so welcome, thank you so much Dani <3
I don’t normally read contemporaries but I might pick this one up when I’m in the mood for something light. The Gilmore Girls comparison really sold it for me.
Oh yay I’m so glad! I really got that feel about Clara and her father in the book 🙂 I hope you’ll give it a chance and that you will enjoy it 😀
Thank you so much! 🙂
The father-daughter relationship was something I really loved in Goo’s last book, and I agree with you, that she does relationships quite well. I should be reading this book later in the week, so I am happy to hear you call it “feel good”, because those are my faves.
Oh I can’t wait to hear what you think of that one – hopefully you’ll have this “feel good” feeling just as well 😀
Thank you so much for your sweet comment <3
This sounds like an incredible book Marie, in fact I was convinced to add this to my to-read list after reading your first sentence where you said the book was filled with food, fun friendships and a great father-daughter relationship, because those are three things I love in contemporary books. Also, oh, the fact that this is set in Los Angeles makes me feel like it will make me want to go back and visit the city again! I need more wanderlust inspiring books on my shelf. 😀
I haven’t read anything by Maurene Goo, but I’ve heard good things about her books. Do you plan to pick up more of her books?
Great review. 🙂 <3
Ohh yay, so happy to hear this, Beth! I hope you’ll give this book a shot soon and that you will end up loving it 😀
I think I will read some of her other books at some point, yes – this one was just so much fun to read overall 😀
Thank you so much for your comment! <3
I’ve added it to my GR TBR list so once it’s released I’ll see if I can grab a copy for my Kindle or something. 🙂
In that case I hope you love her other books as much as this one, and that’s all right! 🙂 ❤️
YAY, so happy to hear it! I hope you’ll be able to get it and that you will enjoy it 🙂
Great review, Marie! 🙂 I haven’t read a Maurene Goo’s book yet but I’ve heard great things about her other book I Believe in a Thing Called Love. This one really sounds like a fun book to read! I’m glad you loved it!
Oh thank you so much, Raven! I hope you’ll want to give this one a shot someday and that you will love it 🙂
This is such a sweet review and the book seems just as sweet! ❤ I didn’t know this one had such a close father-daughter relationship, it sounds absolutely lovely! And so diverse as well, and Hamlet is adorable??? Okay, I need to read it. ❤?
YES YOU DO, this book was just a whole bunch of cuteness???!! It was such a quick read, too, so…. you should read it someday, just saying haha 😛
Thank you so much!! <3
This sounds absolutely wonderful! The mc sounds really good and I love the sound of the relationships! Great review!
It was such a sweet read 🙂 I hope you’ll give it a try someday!
Thank you so much <3
Great! You’re welcome! <3
This book sounds adorable. I recently added it to my tbr list and I am so happy to see that it’s a hit. More importantly, I love the emphasis on the relationship between Clara and her parents. I always say this, but having the parents play an active role in our main character’s life just makes the book all the more relatable. I can definitely see this book giving me a severe case of wanderlust and also really hungry haha.
I so agree with you here, I love when parents are present and have such an important role in the story as well. These kind of books with characters like that happen to be my favorites 🙂
I hope you’ll get to read it soon and that you’ll enjoy it! 🙂 Thank you so much <3
I’ve heard so many good things about this book, and I really want to pick it up! (The plan is to read it after finals 😉 ) This book is actually located in one of my hometowns 😀 so I think it’s absolutely amazing how it’s getting so popular. I’ve also read her other book “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” and it’s also super cute! <3 This is coming from someone who normally doesn't even love contemporaries~
AHH REALLY that’s so amazing, I dream of visiting these places someday!! I hope you’ll love that one when you read it – I can’t wait to read I Believe in a thing called love, it sounds adorable 🙂
Thank you so much for stopping by <3 <3 <3
Ahh I’m so glad you liked this one Marie! I can’t wait for it, especially since I enjoyed Goo’s debut novel. 😀 I love the family relationship you talked about, and the wanderlust aesthetic the story portrays. Sign me right up!
I really want to read the author’s debut novel now, if it’s as adorable as that one, I’m sure I will enjoy it a lot 😀
I hope you’ll get to read this one soon and that you will love it 🙂
Thank you so much for your sweet comment, Aila <3 <3
I personally haven’t paid enough attention to this book, I guess it kinda slid under my radar, but it sounds genuinely gorgeous! I am here for healthy parent-child relationships.
There are way too many books, we can’t follow them all I guess haha 🙂 I’m glad that I could put that one back on your radar though, it was really good and I LOVED the parent-child relationship, amazing <3
Thank you so much for your sweet comment! <3
i wasn’t too interested to read this book, but when i found out that there was brazilian representation, i instantly added it to my TBR list! this will probably be the first time i’ll see my country represented; even if it is a minor character, it’s still amazing and exciting. i loved maurene goo’s “i believe in a thing called love”, despise how annoying our main character, desi, could be. i’m hoping that i’ll love clara just as much!
Oh I’m so glad to hear this, Lais! <3 I hope you'll read and love that one. Clara was one character I had to learn to love, but she was a sweet main character for sure. And I LOVED THE FOOD in that one and the rep and the cuteness and parents relationship. Hope you'll love it 😀
Thank you so much! <3 <3
This sounds PERFECT Marie. I already wanted to read it, but I had no idea there was that much more rep in it! That’s wonderful. Also great father/daughter relationship similar to Rory and Lorelai? Great friendships and romance? Food? TRAVEL? It sounds like this book has everything haha. Can’t wait to pick this up. Lovely review like always ?
YES YES I feel like you could LOVE this book, it was so adorable overall <3
Thank you so much for your comment, Michelle!! <3 <3
I LOVE her I Believe in a Thing Called Love – definitely check it out! I’ve added this one to my TBR list (which is ever growing and kind of out of control again, but what’s life without a little excitement!)
Oh I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I’ll have to check it out soon then, I want to read more from the author for sure, I really enjoyed that one 😀
Thank you for your comment! 😀
This sounds so good and if you bring all of that and food into the picture, I am bound to read it! It sounds so good and I’m here for the great parent relationships!
It was a really fun book 😀 I hope you’ll enjoy it 😀 Thank you!!