ARC Review: Love Somebody // Messy, funny, and heartfelt

Hello book nerds! Again, happy new year! I hope you’re all doing okay for today. As for me, today is a good day! This marks my first ever read of 2022 and my first blog tour for 2022! And of course, I couldn’t be happier that I’m featuring this book.

Love Somebody is a messy, funny, and heartfelt queer YA novel that teaches us the importance of connecting with others and the beauty of falling in love.

My thoughts on Love Somebody

Even before reading Love Somebody, I was already so excited! The synopsis sounds so interesting and I always love a good twist on the love triangle trope.

This was messy and ridiculous sometimes (they’re technically catfishing the other MC, of course it’s bound to get chaotic and messy!). However, a lot of times, this book was also heartfelt and funny and sweet.

I loved the main characters in this book! Sam, Christian, Ros are all different, and yet their lives are now connected. The perspectives alternate between the three characters which made the story all the more compelling. The characterization for me was on point, because the three main characters shined in their own ways and they went on their individual arcs. You root for them as the story progresses (even though they did have some questionable choices). And to see all of them grow as individual characters was just amazing.

I also loved how the book made an emphasis on first impressions/assumptions and how they might not be helpful at all. Yes, you’ve got an idea about someone, but that’s far from who they really are. All the three characters learn this as the story goes on, especially Ros and Sam. They both judged each other too quickly based on other people’s opinions and first impression, and that made the start of their relationship a little rocky. Ultimately, this connects to how making an effort to connect with other people and befriend them is also important, rather than merely being an observer. I love that the author chose to highlight this, and she wrote it in the story perfectly well.

Of course, family is also a big theme here in Love Somebody. All three of the main characters have their own inner struggles, especially with their families. Family can be a lot of things, and it can’t always be perfect. At the same time, the people around us can also be a family, much like how all of our three characters found comfort within each other.

Above all, this story was about love. And not just romantic love, but platonic love as well. Love that you have for your friends, love that you have your family, love that you have your dreams and your passion, love that you have for yourself. It was truly heartfelt, and for me, this reminds us that love comes in different forms and manifests in different ways. That it’s better to cherish it and see it in a positive light, rather than to dwell on pain and melancholy.

Overall, this was a great read for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it! If this represents my reading journey for the rest of 2022, then I’d say this year will be amazing.

A big thank you to Turn the Pages Tours for including me in this book tour, as well as Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)! Click the banner for the tour schedule and see other reviews, creative posts, interviews, and more!

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: Love Somebody
Author: Rachel Roasek
My rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Genre/s and tags: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Romcom, LGBTQ+
Publication date: January 11, 2022
Content warnings: catfishing, parental death, grief
Goodreads synopsis: 

A sparkling YA debut rom-com about a popular high-school girl, her ex-boyfriend-turned-best-friend, and the girl they both fall for—perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli or Casey McQuiston.

Sam Dickson is a charismatic actress, ambitious and popular with big plans for her future. Ros Shew is one of the smartest people in school—but she’s a loner, and prefers to keep it that way. Then there’s Christian Powell, the darling of the high school soccer team. He’s not the best with communication, which is why he and Sam broke up after dating for six months; but he makes up for it by being genuine, effusive, and kind, which is why they’re still best friends.

When Christian falls for Ros on first sight, their first interaction is a disaster, so he enlists Sam’s help to get through to her. Sam, with motives of her own, agrees to coach Christian from the sidelines on how to soften Ros’s notorious walls. But as Ros starts to suspect Christian is acting differently, and Sam starts to realize the complexity of her own feelings, their fragile relationships threaten to fall apart.

This fresh romantic comedy from debut author Rachel Roasek is a heartfelt story about falling in love—with a partner, with your friends, or just with yourself—and about how maybe, the bravest thing to do in the face of change is just love somebody.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rachel Roasek received her BA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2017, with a degree in Drama and two minors in Sign Language and Anthropology. When not coming up with fictional worlds, she works as both a voice actor and stage technician. She currently lives in Raleigh with a few dying plants and her dog, Lupe.

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GIVEAWAY

Up for grabs will be TWO (2) finished copies of Love Somebody by Rachel Roasek. This giveaway will run from January 10th through January 15th at 11:59 PM CST via Rafflecopter. Open to US residents only. Enter by clicking the link below!

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