I Think I Love You

by Auriane Desombre

A YA contemporary rom com about two girls who start as rivals but after a twist of events, end up falling for one another--at least they think so. A pitch perfect queer romance--and it's a paperback original!

Arch-nemeses Emma, a die-hard romantic, and more-practical minded Sophia find themselves competing against one another for a coveted first-prize trip to a film festival in Los Angeles . . . what happens if their rivalry turns into a romance? For fans of Becky Albertalli's Leah on the Offbeat, full of laugh-out-loud humor and make-your-heart-melt moments.

Underlined is a line of totally addictive romance, thriller, and horror paperback original titles coming to you fast and furious each month. Enjoy everything you want to read the way you want to read it.

• ISBN10: 0593179765
• ISBN13: 9780593179765
• Publish Date: 2 March 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Penguin Young Readers
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780593179765

Reviews

[Angie]

Proceed With Caution:

This book contains emotional manipulation and fear of coming out.

The Basics:

I Think I Love You is narrated by Sophia and Emma, girls in the same friend group but who aren't actually friends. Emma is all about love! She's obsessed with RomComs and is waiting for her own moment to find true love. Meanwhile, Sophia is a complete cynic and is always saying love doesn't exist. So what happens when these two start filming a RomCom together? Disaster!

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed I Think I Love You. It reminded me a bit of Love and Other Natural Disasters, with its happy-go-lucky, romance obsessed heroine who finds herself center stage in her own RomCom. And queer girls, of course. But that's really where the similarities end. Rather than fake dating to get an ex back, Emma and Sophia's friends arrange for them to overhear them talking about how the other has a crush on them and is too afraid to say anything in hopes that'll make them play nice for the sake of the film.

The one thing that I actually didn't like about I Think I Love You was how Sophia just inserted herself into the film making process and tried to take over. She had just returned from a year abroad and wanted to get her friends back, so I could understand her wanting to join in on the project. I even get the creative differences as she hates RomComs. However, this was Emma's project. Sophia just popped in and immediately started talking over Emma, then cried about how much this film contest means to her! Um, excuse me?! You didn't even know about it until you crashed the meeting! It was just far-fetched and could have been worked in better.

However, I adored the rest of I Think I Love You. It was fun watching the girls try to figure out their films. Emma, obviously, had a clearer vision for her final project but friend drama gets in the way of her vision. Sophia was all over the place and was trying to hard to be "French" which thankfully her friends call her out on, because OMG girl, calm down! I also liked how neither girl was sure how they felt about the other having a crush on them, but how it brought out their own true feelings. Of course, lying to your friends is bad, and that is dealt with. But it was overall a super cute read.

[Inkslinger]

'I Think I Love You' by Auriane Desombre is a YA contemporary rom-com that centers around a pair of girls who start out as something closer to adversaries and just may end up falling for each other along the way.

 

Emma is an incessant romantic who wholeheartedly believes in love, even if she doesn't believe she'll find it for herself. When she gets an email inviting students to participate in a high school film festival, she just knows it's going to help her make her dream career a reality.

 

Badgering her friends -- Kate, Tom, Myrah, and Matt.. into working on the student film project with her, she has the perfect idea. A gay rom-com with a happy ending.. and a chance to see herself represented onscreen.  

 

When her rival, Tom's best friend Sophia, returns from Paris unexpectedly.. she thrusts herself into the middle of the project and starts contradicting everything Emma hopes to do. From that point on, the competitiveness just spirals out of control.. and that's really where the story begins.

 

Set in New York City, there are lots of great visuals and Desombre does a fantastic job of allowing the reader to really see the locations through her descriptions. Honestly, throughout the years it's been such a popular place to film rom-coms, that it kicks off the story with just the right feeling.

 

Kate is an absolute darling and you kind of just want to keep her safe, but I did really enjoy Emma for the most part as well. Sophia is incredibly annoying at first, which means the author was completely successful in her attempt to alienate and distance the character from the pack. When we meet her, she just seems rude, pretentious, and over-confident in regards to pretty much all of her opinions.

 

Don't get me wrong, Emma is set in her ways too. She's gotten used to not having to compete for what she wants with Sophia gone and she doesn't take kindly to her opinions being challenged. Honestly, I can relate. I probably wouldn't have responded maturely either.. but these two take it to a new level, driving wedges into the comfortable group dynamics.

 

Of course, in an effort to 'help' each other, there are some interesting dramatic situations that occur because meddling often makes a mess of things. The underlying theme though is love. Ultimately, these people care about each other. They want to see their friends happy and they're willing to do what they think it takes to make that happen.

 

Some of the themes are a little cliche and there are moments where pivotal points within the story seem just a tad forced, but overall it's a cute tale, with some amusing dialogue. I genuinely enjoyed it and if you're looking for an easy read.. that's a predominantly heartwarming story to brighten your day, this would be a good choice.

(I received this title as an ARC. All opinions are mine and freely given.)