REVIEW: Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

Summary


Pepper’s parents started Big League Burgers when their whole family still lived in the same town. Now, Pepper’s parents are amicably divorced. Her sister, Paige, is away at college, and Pepper is trying to survive her senior year at an incredibly competitive private school. Her life revolves around her school work, staying ahead of her academic rival, and swim team responsibilities as the captain. When she’s not consumed with all that, she bakes to let off steam. Her mom, in a bit of tone deaf parenting, also expects her to help with the business’ Twitter account. While there’s an employee assigned to it, she doesn’t have Pepper’s instincts or snark.

Jack’s parents run the deli Girl Cheese which was started by Jack’s grandmother. Jack’s parents seem to assume Jack will take over the deli some day, although they don’t make those assumptions about his twin brother, Ethan. Jack would rather design apps. In fact, he’s the secret designer of Weazel, a wildly popular social app at his private school. He also sometimes tweets things on the deli’s Twitter profile.

When Big League Burgers announces a new line of grilled cheese sandwiches, Jack and Ethan realize one is a direct rip off of their grandmother’s secret grilled cheese recipe at the deli. Their dad wants to ignore it, but Jack fires off a tweet. And Pepper, not knowing who is on the other side of the Twitter war, fires back.

Let the games begin.

Review


“You can’t just casually tell someone you carry caramel sauce around and walk away like that’s a normal thing. What other emergency condiments do you have stashed in your bag?”

This is delightful!! Sharp writing – and so funny! I loved Pepper and Jack! There are tons of levels to this – their assumptions about each other from school, their anonymous conversations on Weazel, their face-to-face interactions, and then the Twitter war. And it was all so fun!

There’s a lot of depth to the characters and the relationships amid the banter back and forth. Both teens are thinking about their futures. They’re struggling under expectations, and they’re trying to discover who they are. There are also some fascinating family dynamics for both teens.

And all of that – along with some mouth-watering food descriptions – is woven together so well. I loved it. The only thing missing is some recipes. Do not miss this fun novel! The paperback of this will release after the first of the year along with the author’s second book, You Have a Match. I’ll be reviewing that one in 2021. (Language, LGBTQ+)

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½*

*♥♥♥♥½ = Loved it! Would read again!

SATURDAY SMORGASBORD: Six Authors to Follow on Twitter

Twitter is a fantastic resource for anyone. Love the musical Hamilton? (Me, too!) You can follow the creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda and other cast members on Twitter. Do you have a favorite soda or candy bar? The company that makes them is probably on Twitter. Having trouble with your cable service? You can probably find the company on Twitter and get a faster result than if you called the 800 number.

On Twitter, I have found teachers and authors and publishers to be a tremendous resource for me. It’s so nice to find a cyber-tribe who loves the things I love. I can tweet out to an author when I finish their amazing book. I can ask for recommendations. I can encourage other readers.

I follow a tremendous number of authors on Twitter. Some post a lot. Some post a little. If you have never used Twitter, or you’ve never thought about following an author, I have six recommendations for you to start with!

  1. Kate Messner – @katemessner. I have blogged about Kate several times. I think she is an outstanding author. She tweets about her books, about other authors, resources for teachers, etc. She also hosts a summer program for teachers called Teachers Write which is an excellent program encouraging teachers of writing to dig into the process on their own.
  2. Phil Bilder – @philbildner. Phil is a relatively new author to me. He does a great job of tweeting about book news. As a former teacher, he is a great advocate for reading and for other authors, too.
  3. Brad Meltzer – @bradmeltzer. If you don’t know who Brad is, you should check him out. I love his Ordinary People Change the World picture book series for kids. He also writes thrillers for adults and hosts Lost History on television. He’s a funny guy and his social media is always great.
  4. Jess Keating – @jess_keating. I haven’t read any of Jess’ books yet, although I had some of her middle grade books in the library when I was teaching. I met her at a conference a few years ago and she was very cool. She tweets about science, writing and reading. She also has a YouTube show called Animals for Smart People that is fun.
  5. Josh Funk – @joshfunkbooks. Josh writes picture books and I love them! They are so clever. Josh is a major reading/book advocate. I often see him promoting books of other authors/illustrators. He’s a great resource for book fanatics.
  6. Candace Fleming – @candacemfleming. Candace is a fiction and non-fiction author for kids. I’ve met her at two different conferences and she is fabulous. Check out her Twitter for information about her various projects.

This time of year, Twitter is full of political posts. I tried to steer you toward authors who post mostly about book things. Use this as a jumping off point. If you have some favorite authors, look them up on Twitter and see if they are active there or not. If you don’t care for an author’s politics, but you love their books, wait until after the election to follow them so you can get all the best tweets from them to meet your reading needs!

You can also follow The Neverending TBR blog on twitter – @Neverending_TBR. I hope you’ll come check it out.