Nina Barnes thinks Valentine’s Day should be optional. That way single people like her wouldn’t be subjected to kissy Cupids all over the place. That is, until her mom moves them next door to the brooding hottie of Greenbrier High, West Smith. He’s funny, looks amazing in a black leather jacket, and he’s fluent in Harry Potter, but she’s not sure he’s boyfriend material. West isn’t sure what to … sure what to make of Nina. She’s cute and loves to read as much as he does, but she seems to need to debate everything and she has a pathological insistence on telling the truth. And West doesn’t exactly know how to handle that, since his entire life is a carefully constructed secret. Dating the girl next door could be a ton of fun, but only if Nina never finds out the truth about his home life. It’s one secret that could bring them together or rip them apart.
Disclaimer: This Entangled Teen Crush book is not for anyone who has to get in the last word, but it is for all book nerds, especially those who live next door to so called unapproachable gorgeous guys. There’s no debating the chemistry.
Each book in the Dating Dilemmas series is STANDALONE:
* The Dating Debate
* 99% Faking It
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Wanting something fun, I chose Chris Cannon’s The Dating Debate, the first in her Dating Dilemmas series. In short, it’s about Nina, a teenage girl who doesn’t believe in Valentine’s Day, loves books, and is searching for someone who is fluent in Harry-Potter-nerd-speak. And wouldn’t you know, the perfect guy just happens to live next door! Nina and West are cute and humorous together and have some equally entertaining sidekick friends (who are the leads in the next book). Although most of the novel is not mentally taxing, the author does address the issue of mental illness through West’s mother’s hoarding. The scenes where he discusses how her illness influences his life actually took me by surprise and were some of the most moving of the book.
Side note: Look for the included easter egg when Nina is shown reading a shape-shifting dragon novel. This is in direct reference to the author’s own Going Down in Flames fantasy series.
This review was first posted on kelseygietl.com.
Nina has a crush for West since moving to the house next to his, but the boy has always been very closed almost inaccessible. One day, Nina has a chance to get close and force West to go to her boyfriend ball. He sees no alternative at the time but accepts, but has no intention of going and will do everything for her to give up. Nina is determined to go with him only to annoy him and begins to show gradually to the closed and serious West that he can trust her and that she is the ideal partner for the ball.
West is a boy who hides from people because of his parents, he begins to accept Nina’s attention but forbids her from getting close to his house and his mother.
Nina goes undermining West’s reservations and ends up understanding why he is so strange when it comes to family.
The two agree to disagree with each other all the time because Nina loves a good discussion and debating about everything present to her. This funny way of her ends up leaving West fascinated by the sweet girl of the house next door. The debates between them are the high point of the plot and reminded me a bit of the series “Moonlighting” that launched Bruce Willis, success of the 80’s.
The story is very funny, full of romantic moments as well as dramatic but even the drama is presented lightly with a perfect resolution.
4/5 stars
Harry Potter is my favorite series of all time so any book that showcases characters that can quote the books in any situation and showing love for all things HP loud and proud is a win in my book.
Nina and West are next door neighbors who have never really been much of friends but circumstances throw them together more often than not and their friendship grows. West has a lot of secrets and tends to not socialize much with anyone other than his cousins. Nina has baggage of her own that lead her family to being neighbors with the Smith family.
I loved how Nina debated everything. She keeps everyone around her on her toes but I also loved that her mom called her out on arguing things that didn’t need to be argued. My favorite part of this story was how Nina’s and West’s ‘baggage’ was dealt with. For such young people, they are handling heavy stuff but none of it was trivialized or brushed under the rug. This book is sweet and heartwarming and I can’t wait to see what’s up next in this series.