Bookish Boyfriends: a Date with Darcy by Tiffany Schmidt

Summary from Goodreads:

In this contemporary YA, a teenager’s favorite literary heroes woo her in real life

The first of two books in an intended paperback original series about a girl whose classic literary crushes manifest in real life. Merrilee Campbell, 16, thinks boys are better in books, chivalry is dead, and there’d be nothing more romantic than having just one guy woo her like the heroes in classic stories. She’s about to get the chance to test these daydreams when she, her best friend, Eliza, and her younger sister, Rory, transfer into Reginald R. Hero High, where all their fantasies come true—often with surprising consequences. 

Review:

This wasn't the best written book, or anything super new really...It just had the recipe for all things I love. And the author pulled it off extraordinarily well. It's a cute, fluffy YA for all the English majors of the world. For everyone who's fallen in love with Darcy, or who unfortunately knows a Romeo too. The literary references were everywhere (not just the two main books the main character reads, which are Pride and Prejudice and Romeo and Juliet. I definitely enjoyed the Pride and Prejudice moments the best.

What girl hasn’t read Jane Austen and connected instantly with Elizabeth Bennet? Or dreamt of her own Darcy? I feel like this author and I would be great friends. She essentially took my craziest daydreams (from teenage me) and then wrote them down in a YA contemporary book. She brought Darcy to life. And the main character is as obsessed with books as I am. It would have been hard for me not to like this book.

I loved this. I read a library copy, and am considering buying my own, so I can reread whenever I need to.

I love that the reader is never 100% sure if Merrilee is right and the books she’s reading are becoming her reality. Is her English teacher magic, or just unbelievably good? Why couldn’t I have had this teacher? I also loved Merrilee’s relationship with her sisters. I loved her best friends too. And while I have a feeling book 2 will be about her younger sister and her most likely future relationship with Toby and Little Women, I so desperately hope her awesome friend, Eliza, to get her own book magic too. She needs her own novel, for sure.

All in all this if a fluffy, fun, and sometimes silly romance. It would be a great book to take outside to the beach this summer. I give it a 9/10.