Charming as a Verb
Ratings6
Average rating4.2
From the award-winning author of The Field Guide to the North American Teenager comes a whip-smart and layered romantic comedy. Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Jenny Han. Henri “Halti” Haltiwanger can charm just about anyone. He is a star debater and popular student at the prestigious FATE academy, the dutiful first-generation Haitian son, and the trusted dog walker for his wealthy New York City neighbors. But his easy smiles mask a burning ambition to attend his dream college, Columbia University. There is only one person who seems immune to Henri’s charms: his “intense” classmate and neighbor Corinne Troy. When she uncovers Henri’s less-than-honest dog-walking scheme, she blackmails him into helping her change her image at school. Henri agrees, seeing a potential upside for himself. Soon what started as a mutual hustle turns into something more surprising than either of them ever bargained for. . . . This is a sharply funny and insightful novel about the countless hustles we have to keep from doing the hardest thing: being ourselves.
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4.5 round to 5 for LIVING UP to it's title and cover! Clearly now I need to go back and put Ben Philippe's first book higher up on myTBR list. The audio was great, felt so right for the story and character. The only false step was that his major climatic decision didn't feel 100% in character for Henri, but the rest was such a delight that that feels small. Strong and nuanced primary and secondary characters, great dialogue and overall tone with some genuine laugh lines, and every bit (with the one exception) of the plot and setting felt super realistic and earned. Will definitely be recommending and could see this on the BOB list.
this was a super cute YA contemporary but i went in expecting this was a romance and it didn't have an HEA. i did actually really love the characters and i was going through what they were going through just a couple years ago so it was super relatable. i loved that this was from the perspective as a black man because for the most part this had very little trauma which is not a common thing you see from black YA books let alone those from the perspective of a man. i would highly recommend this for the age group it's for
I very much wish I had not discovered Mr. Philippe until later in his career so there were a bunch of his books I hadn't read yet. sigh
