Book Review: Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

Synopsis:

Meet Pepper, swim team captain, chronic overachiever, and all-around perfectionist. Her family may be falling apart, but their massive fast-food chain is booming ― mainly thanks to Pepper, who is barely managing to juggle real life while secretly running Big League Burger’s massive Twitter account.

Enter Jack, class clown and constant thorn in Pepper’s side. When he isn’t trying to duck out of his obscenely popular twin’s shadow, he’s busy working in his family’s deli. His relationship with the business that holds his future might be love/hate, but when Big League Burger steals his grandma’s iconic grilled cheese recipe, he’ll do whatever it takes to take them down, one tweet at a time.

All’s fair in love and cheese ― that is, until Pepper and Jack’s spat turns into a viral Twitter war. Little do they know, while they’re publicly duking it out with snarky memes and retweet battles, they’re also falling for each other in real life ― on an anonymous chat app Jack built.

As their relationship deepens and their online shenanigans escalate ― people on the internet are shipping them?? ― their battle gets more and more personal, until even these two rivals can’t ignore they were destined for the most unexpected, awkward, all-the-feels romance that neither of them expected.

Review:

I said I was going to read this book way back in 2020 when it was published, but never got around to it – hence the photo with both my old phone and Kindle in it. Well until now obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t be reviewing it.

I’d mentioned Tweet Cute in a ‘romance books I want to read’ post because that’s what I thought it was. One of its main genres is romance but *spoiler* they don’t even kiss until pretty much the very end. I’m a fan of slow-burn romance but it doesn’t always work well in standalones. So, I was a little disappointed by the lack of romance, but not enough to hate the book.

However, I did really like Pepper and Jack as a pairing. They complimented each other very well and they were both very funny. I love main characters that don’t take themselves too seriously and they are pretty much the perfect showing of that. Tearing each other down on Twitter but finding it a funny little game, damn I wish I was self-assured.

I was hoping the Twitter war would stay anonymous just a little longer as the big reveal didn’t really have much impact behind it. It would have been much more effective if Pepper and Jack had been actual friends a little longer or potentially started having a romantic relationship. It would have made the ‘betrayal’ more biting and real. Although I did quite like that he didn’t stay mad at her long and they figured out his family business could actually benefit from it.

The backlash from the anonymous chat room was heavier than them ripping into each other’s family businesses on Twitter and honestly, it was a bit too dramatic. I could understand it if Jack knew from the very beginning, but he had pretty much just found out so I didn’t like the drama of it all.

The twist near the end about why the war started was a bit meh. If hints about Jack’s dad and Pepper’s mom had been dropped a little more throughout I would have cared more. But you don’t hear anything about it until about 95% into the book and by then most things have been resolved so it doesn’t make a difference.

Overall, I did really enjoy Tweet Cute. It was one of those books that I don’t have too much to comment on, other than that it was enjoyable. Nothing particularly stood out as amazing, but nothing was absolutely terrible. Which is why I’ve given it such a middle-of-the-road rating.