Approximately Yours by Julie Hammerle

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Title: Approximately Yours
Author: Julie Hammerle
Series: North Pole Minnesota #3
Published by: Entangled: Crush
Release Date: October 2, 2017
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 220
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2021 COYER Fall, Lenoreo's 2021 HoHoHo Readathon
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

Danny Garland is so out of Holly’s league. And her family is only back in North Pole, Minnesota, long enough to sell Grandma’s house and say “Merry Christmas.” So telling her basketball-star, too-hot-to-be-real long-time crush that she’d like to kiss him under the mistletoe just isn’t going to happen.

And now he’s asked out her cousin, Elda. Elda is a mess at flirting, so when she begs Holly to intervene, she does. Holly helps her flirt with him over text. And then again. And again. Now she’s stuck texting him as her cousin, and Elda is the one going on the date. Holly thought she could settle for just conversation with Danny, but talking with him is some kind of magic. He’s got the perfect comebacks, she makes him laugh, they text until everyone is asleep.

She just can’t ever tell him it’s her he’s really texting.

Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book has hot texts, gingerbread wars, and a slow-burn romance that could melt a Minnesota winter.

My Review:

3.5 stars — Bummer.  This one started off really strong and I stayed up late reading it the first night.  But then I got tired of the schtik of the plot, and I just wanted things to be cleared up.  Ah well.

This had a bit of a Cyrano de Bergerac retelling feel to it — what with Holly texting Danny as Elda, and thinking she’s not pretty enough.  I’m thinking maybe I just don’t like that premise enough…or at least I want it resolved sooner.

The thing is that there was a lot of separate screen time for each of our MCs.  We got to see Danny moping about his life and being confused about his feelings on his own.  And then we got to see Holly moping about her life and being confused and hanging out with Elda and mourning her Grandma…on her own.  There wasn’t nearly enough together time for me.  I enjoyed the moments that we did get, when Elda wasn’t self-sabotaging…hence the half star bump.

The thing is that while I got Holly’s insecurities, after awhile it just wasn’t believable anymore.  I just started getting annoyed with her.  And Danny was exactly as Holly accused him — afraid of rejection and trying to get everyone to like him.  And so he wasn’t very honest about his own thoughts and feelings to himself, he let himself be swayed by what others told him he should feel/do.

The Christmas stuff was fun, and the Gingerbread competition was great.  Lots of odd side characters in this one, but they are endearing.  Elda was bizarre, Dinesh was nerdily adorable, and Craig was…misunderstood and it felt like the author was mean to him in some ways.  It was weird.

So yeah.  *shrugs*  I was hoping it would be stronger, and in the end it was just okay.

COYER Scavenger Hunt #5: Read a book that takes place exclusively in a small town.