This Time It's Real

Loved it, one of my favorites. Highly recommend. Many twists and cute moments in the book. I love Ann Liang.

This book started out on a pretty big lie, which made me nervous because I wasn't sure how things were going to work out.This was actually a very fun and cozy contemporary novel. It gave me all the same feels that my C-Dramas (and K-Dramas) do.Eliza was a tough nut to crack, and I got a little (lot) frustrated with her at times because of it. But at the same time I also understand why she is the way that she is. She's moved around a lot and grown apart from everyone she ever considered to be a friend. So now she's protecting herself by not letting anyone get that close. Was the growing apart also probably partly her fault? Yes. I'm sure she had a part in it. She spent a lot of time misinterpreting Caz and HIS actions and feelings, and then she would say things that were actually kind of mean and it made me wince... And then when he tried to confess his feelings she pushed him away. I get that Eliza was struggling with a lot of different things, and I am supposed to feel bad for her, but I felt worse for Caz.Caz was so kind and thoughtful and sweet, and basically just the complete opposite of Eliza. It was an interesting contrast to see them together, that's for sure. I wish there had been more of their relationship, and interactions with him and Eliza's family, because they were ALSO amazing, especially Emily.I wasn't really sold on the ending though, but I suppose it was meant to be left up to our imaginations. We didn't get to see Eliza deal with the consequences of her Big Lie... It was mentioned vaguely that she wrote something telling the truth and that she wasn't sure how people were going to respond. But we didn't see her dealing with the backlash or anything. Which, to ME, felt a little like a loose end that wasn't taken care. But it's also leaving it up to the imagination of the reader, which some might prefer.This was a story of growing up, growing apart, and learning to put yourself out there.

Someone recommended this book to me and wow, I didn’t expect to like it this much! 💜 If you love the whole fake dating trope, then this is the book for you.

This Time It's Real by Ann Liang is about two young adults who agree to fake date each other to bolster their careers. Seventeen year old Eliza Lin spent her entire life traveling the world due to her mother’s job. At her new international school in Beijing, she is given an assignment to write about her personal life. However, she isn’t comfortable sharing her personal life with complete strangers. Instead of writing a true story based on her life, she decides to write a fictionalized version of her non – existent love life, taking snippets from her parents' love story.Eliza didn’t expect much attention to her essay since she is a new student with no friends. However, her story goes viral overnight and Eliza is now famous and her classmates all want to know more about her secret boyfriend. Eliza loves the attention her article has garnered her but she is afraid of her lie being exposed.Eliza is desperate to keep her secret, so she enlists the help of a famous actor in her class. Caz Song is a charming and charismatic actor who has fans following his every move. She proposes a mutually beneficial agreement between the two of them. Caz pretends to be her boyfriend so she can keep her journalism internship opportunity and in return she will help him write his college applications.While Caz is pretending to be her boyfriend, Eliza realizes how great he is. Caz is sweet to her little sister, he passes her notes in class, he is thoughtful towards her requests, and he takes her out on motorcycle rides all over the city to try new snacks. Eliza finds herself falling for Caz but she isn’t sure if he feels the same way. Is Eliza willing to give up her dream internship for her chance at real love, seeing as the reason for her internship was to give readers an exclusive look into her relationship?The book was a clean romance with minimal hand holding or touching involved. The novel had funny moments sprinkled throughout. There weren't any twists or surprising events. The characters were fun and relatable as they navigate their lives. Eliza tries to work through her feelings of always being the new girl and not having anywhere she can call home. She rarely tries to make any new friends because in her mind they will just end up leaving her. Caz’s parents are never home and he spends most of his time being an actor and proving himself. They both had challenges of not belonging and not having someone in their corner. I do feel that fans of K-dramas or romcoms might really enjoy the book.

I enjoyed this book so much, I’m so happy for both characters at the end. How the characters were able to develop into better version of themselves especially Eliza. The book has a very youthful love story to it, like a youth drama and I couldn’t help but feel like I was there.

This was such a cute and endearing read. The Fake dating troupe can sometimes not go so well in a story, but in this case, it did and was well done. I especially liked the relationship the fmc had with others in the story, including her family. It was an absolute adorable story and I will be looking for more books from this author.

This book…rocked me. I think I stayed up the whole night to finish. I’m too embarrassed and tired to look at the time again, but I know it’s way past time for me to be peacefully passed out. That’s how good this book is.I connected with Eliza’s struggles, her fears. I envied Caz’s confidence and honesty when it mattered. And just like all the poor saps that read Eliza’s essay and cried over how much they wanted a love like hers, I want it too. I want the courage to love like they do. For anyone out there that finds themselves desiring love and, at the same time, wanting to run far away if it even threatens to appear, please read this. So we’ll be reminded why we shouldn’t run.

This arrived in perfect condition, which I always worry about when ordering online as I like to keep my books. I haven't read it yet but it's one of my favorite authors so I am sure I'll enjoy it.

This author had already gained my heart with "if you could see the sun" but this one is very different. I really love how she writes their protagonists and how she describes their feelings. When you read this, you can feel all sort of emotions, from anxiety to what is going to happen during the story but also you can feel the pain and confusion from the characters. I recomend if you want to read a very well elaborated cliché.

This is my second Ann Liang book, and she's shooting up my favourite authors list!Eliza is a great main character. She's a person with a lot of depth that we got to explore throughout the story. She has so many fears and has been hurt so many times, but she does everything she can to deal with it. It was heartbreaking to read about how she felt about all the times she'd had to move and all the friends she'd lost along the way.I was so happy to see that Caz was such a well-rounded character. I sometimes worry when reading stories with a celebrity mmc that they'll be superficial and flat, but that did not happen here. The layers to Caz's personality and feelings were slowly revealed throughout the book, and I was cheering him on more and more as the story progressed.I loved this book's setting. Beijing is one of my favourite cities, and this book made me want to go back! Reading about the food and the places just sent me back there and hit me with a wave of nostalgia.I loved the pacing of the story and how everything unfolded. There was the perfect amount of angst and drama for me. It was the perfect roller coaster!Overall, it was another amazing read, and I'm determined to read all of Ann Liang's books as quickly as possible.

I wasn't able to put this book down for a second.The writing was beautiful. I knew I would like it after reading Ann Liang's other novels but it positively surprised me and I emphathized with every character.

“I’d love to be inconvenienced by you. I wouldn’t mind being inconvenienced by you for the rest of my life.”★★★★★ann liang’s style of writing YA stories absolutely works for me. second book of hers i’ve read in a row and i absolutely loved it. THIS TIME IT’S REAL is the loveliest story about first love, friendship, sisterhood and belonging, all packaged into a modern cdrama-like tale 🎐i personally relate so much to eliza and nearly everything she went through hit really close to home for me, so much so that i even teared up a couple times. from her struggles of a fizzling long distance friendship, to feeling protective over her sister, to her not feeling like she belongs anywhere, it all felt too familiar to me and had me rooting for her in every wayeliza and caz had such a sweet, tender romance. they were witty, funny, genuine and vulnerable. absolutely 100% recommend <3thank you to Scholastic Press and Colored Pages Tours for the e-arc!