Tweet Cute by Emma Lord Published by St. Martin's Publishing Group on January 21, 2020
Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Contemporary, Clean & Wholesome
Pages: 336
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Goodreads
"A witty rom-com reinvention ... with deeply relatable insights on family pressure and growing up.” - Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka, authors of Always Never Yours and If I’m Being Honest
“An adorable debut that updates a classic romantic trope with a buzzy twist." - Jenn Bennett, author of Alex, Approximately and Serious Moonlight
A fresh, irresistible rom-com from debut author Emma Lord about the chances we take, the paths life can lead us on, and how love can be found in the opposite place you expected.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.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
My Thoughts:
Sometimes you come upon that rare gem of a book that makes you laugh out loud, relate to the characters and simply delight with its clever and witty dialogue. That book was Tweet Cute! It was such a fun, banterific book that left me so happy and thinking about the story for days afterward. Let me tell you why you need to get this book on your must read list ASAP!
Pepper was transplanted to NYC from Nashville at the beginning of high school when her parents burger restaurant took off into a national chain. Plopped into an elite high school reminiscent of the show Gossip Girl, she quickly chameleoned herself to blend in with her high achieving classmates. She is a straight A student, captain of the swim team and an avid baker, co-blogging with her older sister about the creations they’ve been putting together since childhood. She also finds herself unceremoniously saddled with the corporate Twitter account for Big League burgers when a local New York deli accuses them of stealing their infamous grandma’s grilled cheese recipe. Armed with wise cracks and snarky memes, a full out Twitter emerges between the two companies but little did she know the face behind the opposition’s Twitter is her fellow classmate!
Jack is one half of a twin and fiercely loyal to his family’s deli. Indignant about this corporate burger place stealing his Grandma Belly’s recipe, he dives into the Twitter war feet first without hesitation. As he spars with Pepper he finds that he actually is starting to enjoy her company and her smart wise cracks — and vice versa. Little do the BOTH of them know they’ve been anonymously talking on an app everyone at their school is chatting on. Rivals, Twitter war enemies…friends?
There are SO many hilarious memes and popular internet mentions in here, it’s like an Easter egg minefield and had me chuckling and snickering to myself basically nonstop. It was DELIGHTFUL. The popular memes mentioned does beg the question: how will this book age? I think the answer to that is it’ll age just fine — look at how much people love Ready Player One for the dropped mentions and nostalgic nods. I can picture Tweet Cute years and years from now and people falling into nostalgic memories in much the same way!
The banter and back and forth between Jack and Pepper not only in their biting tweets to each other but in their actual conversations is the literal best. Their comebacks are just so on point and snarky and I seriously can’t resist banter. It launches immediate heart eyes and shippy feels for me and Tweet Cute has the banter in spades! I also loved Jack so much – I basically smiled every time he flashed a smile. The swoon factor was high and he is just such a sweet and thoughtful guy!
Not only is the evolution of Pepper and Jack’s friendship so natural and fantastic, the book also explores familial relationships and other friendships so well! It addresses parental expectations, obligations and family dynamics very authentically and in a relatable way. I could totally empathize with those expectations and that weighty senior year feeling as you look out into your future of college and life beyond the four walls of high school. All the high school friendships held an authenticity that some YA novels miss but this one nails it on the head.
And I haven’t even mentioned another favorite part that made me love this book. The FOOD. My friends know me to be a foodie and the greatest compliment you can give me is to compare me to the food-loving Merry or Pippin from Lord of the Rings. This book, you guys, it made my foodie heart sing. Grilled cheeses, Monster Cakes, Kitchen Sink Macaroons and other amazing baked goods abound! I was drooling. So, of course I had to take these creations and test it out myself a la Pepper experimenting in her kitchen.
The Monster Cake had some specifics from the book that I included in mine and then I went with the few descriptions of Kitchen Sink macaroons and went with my gut! I’ve included my recipes if anyone else wants to channel their inner Pepper! (Updated to add: Emma Lord has put up her official Monster Cake recipe online! Check it out here! My Kitchen Sink Macaroon recipe will be below!)
I completely forgot to get frosting and tried to make my own icing but I was too impatient to wait so as you can see, Mr. Monster’s mouth is dissolving. What’s a monster cake to do. For those that have not read Tweet Cute yet and don’t know what Monster Cake is – Tweet Cute is OUT TODAY so go read it and find out what this crazy concoction is! 😉
Kitchen Sink Macaroon Recipe:
Ingredients:
– 14 ounces sweetened, flaked coconut
– 2/3 cup granulated sugar
– 3 large egg whites
– 1/4 tsp sea salt
– 1/2 tsp almond extract
– 6 Tbsp Hershey’s dark cocoa powder
– 4 ounces (1/3 cup) Hershey’s sea salt caramel chips (or whatever other chips you want)
– about 20 pretzels, chopped
Directions:
– Heat oven to 325 degrees F and line baking sheet with parchment paper
– Blend coconut in food processor for 1 minute
– Add sugar, cocoa powder and blend one more minute
– Add egg whites, salt, almond extract and blend until combined (I pulsed it just a few times)
– Melt the sea salt caramel chips (in microwave or over bain marie)
– Add melted chips to food processor, pulse a few times
– Use Tbsp to scoop mounds onto baking sheet
– Add a few pieces of pretzel pieces onto prepared mounds
– Bake for 15 minutes
– Let rest on tray until cool (or start nomming)
While Monster Cake is indeed amazing, I think I am quite partial to these macaroons! I gotta give the point to Jack here… Which would you vote for??
In short…
Tweet Cute was such a delightful contemporary debut! A laugh out loud, relatable story with characters I adore! Filled to the brim with banter and clever witticisms, Tweet Cute will have you falling in love with Pepper and Jack and rooting for the both of them as they battle it out online and slowly fall for each other in real life. I dare you not to crave a fresh grilled cheese and baked good when reading this and long to stroll through NYC while eating a combination of both.
About The Author:
Emma Lord is a digital media editor and writer living in New York City, where she spends whatever time she isn’t writing either running or belting show tunes in community theater. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a major in psychology and a minor in how to tilt your computer screen so nobody will notice you updating your fan fiction from the back row. She was raised on glitter, grilled cheese, and a whole lot of love. Her sun sign is Hufflepuff, but she is a Gryffindor rising. TWEET CUTE is her debut novel. You can find her geeking out online at @dilemmalord on Twitter.
What’s your favorite baked good? Do you like to bake? If you give the recipes a try, let me know how it goes!
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LOL YES I’m so glad you made these! Honestly Monster Cake looks better than I expected haha
Monster cake was actually pretty good! I did more brownie than funfetti so it mostly tasted brownie-ish but next time I kind of want to put more pb cups or MAYBE just straight up pb in there. Evolution of monster cake, if you will. 😀
I want both of those desserts like right now. please and thank you.
come on over!
MAIL ME THE MACAROONS, WENDY!
The back and forth banter between Pepper and Jack was the highlight of the book for me. And yesss! The swoon factor! <3
*sends you macaroons through the internet* I’m definitely going to make them again!
[…] [21 Jan] Tweet Cute by Emma Lord ★★★★½ […]