In this delightfully charming teen spin on You’ve Got Mail, the one guy Bailey Rydell can’t stand is actually the boy of her dreams–she just doesn’t know it yet. Classic movie buff Bailey “Mink” Rydell has spent months crushing on a witty film geek she only knows online by “Alex.” Two coasts separate the teens until Bailey moves in with her dad, who lives in the same California surfing town as … California surfing town as her online crush.
Faced with doubts (what if he’s a creep in real life–or worse?), Bailey doesn’t tell Alex she’s moved to his hometown. Or that she’s landed a job at the local tourist-trap museum. Or that she’s being heckled daily by the irritatingly hot museum security guard, Porter Roth–a.k.a. her new arch-nemesis. But life is whole lot messier than the movies, especially when Bailey discovers that tricky fine line between hate, love, and whatever-it-is she’s starting to feel for Porter.
And as the summer months go by, Bailey must choose whether to cling to a dreamy online fantasy in Alex or take a risk on an imperfect reality with Porter. The choice is both simpler and more complicated than she realizes, because Porter Roth is hiding a secret of his own: Porter is Alex…Approximately.more
Alex, Approximately is a modern You’ve Got Mail retelling that follows move-fanatic Bailey as she moves across the country to live in California with her dad. She’s been talking to a guy online on a movie website, but doesn’t tell him she’s about to land in his town. Meanwhile, she gets a job at a local museum, where she develops some conflicting feelings for a security guard there, Porter.
This was a really cute, fast book that was perfect for summer. This is a great book to throw in your beach or pool bag on a summer day!
A warm, fuzzy out-of-this-world read.
I really enjoyed my first read by this author. I was looking for books with the feel/plot line of You’ve Got Mail (a wonderful classic!) and this did not disappoint. I love “artful dodger” Bailey — she’s come to CA from the east coast to live with her father, and hopefully locate a secret online pen pal. And Porter is a great lead, too — very likeable and charming. Their enemies to friends romance blooms, and I appreciated both of their wounded pasts. The setting felt spot on and immersive and I always appreciate a well-developed cast of secondary characters, too. I loved the deep voice (first person, Bailey’s POV) and Ms. Bennett’s writing style. It was an enjoyable easy read. Highly recommend.
This was a cute, fun and quick book, that I enjoyed more than I thought I would at first.
I know I say that a lot but it’s true lol … Once I got used to Bailey (Mink) being a bit extra and over dramatic I did really enjoy it.
After reading it all the way through I saw a few people had issues with Porter saying that he is an ass and such. I actually liked him better than her…. Sure in the beginning he was a bit if a jerk but it seemed more like he was the normal teen wanna show up alpha male, than ass to me . Once they started hanging out I thought he as super cute and thoughtful in the things he did for her,sure there were a few tiny things but that was a given …
And honestly her dad was the true VIP here I though….. I loved her dad and how he handled or not handled things……
I enjoyed Porter’s family as well, even grumpy dad lol.
The online thing…. with them …. it was okay, but honestly they took it a bit too series and as far I knew they never really “dated” online so some things were a bit much for me. Speaking too much ….. also some of the situation they go thrown into seemed a bit to over the top for me , but I’m sure it worked for others.
Overall, it was good and I enjoyed it…… even though some of the things were a bit over the top for the drama. I for sure will try the author with a different book again…..
I rate it 3
I adored this book so much I had to go back and buy a paperback!
I LOVED this book! It was a great take on You’ve Got Mail. I loved everything about this book! Highly recommend!
Fun read with more grit than the stereotypical romance novel. Lovely characters and accurate depiction of northern California.
If it wasn’t for the 2 handsey explicit scenes, I would have highly recommended this for high school YA readers. It just went too far. Loved the surfer boy and anonymous texting. Wish it had resolved more happily earlier. The tacked on future scenes could have been fuller, but I’m glad it was at least there.
Fun, New Adult, beach romance
Eighteen-year-old, Bailey Rydell (known online as “Mink”) has just finished her junior year in high school. She is a classic film buff, to the point that she dyes and styles her hair in a Lana Turner, 1940’s, platinum-blond, shoulder-length, pageboy haircut, and wears vintage clothing from the 40’s and 50’s. For the past few months, Bailey has been messaging online, through a classic-film chatroom, with a fellow film geek she knows only as “Alex.” He has told her he is her age, and she is amazed to discover that he lives in the same town in California as her accountant father, who moved there from New Jersey several years ago after he and her mother divorced. In this day and age of “catfishing,” where strangers with suspect motives use fake identities to build relationships, especially romantic relationships, with other online users, Bailey rightly decides to exercise caution about arranging a meeting with Alex, and does not notify him that she has moved across the country to join her father. She decides to play detective using as clues tidbits of information Alex has given her about himself in order to track him down and check him out from a safe distance to determine if he is who and what he claims to be before she agrees to meet him.
Bailey’s father is a sweet, nerdy guy who is a loving and supportive parent. He lives in a cute bungalow, which has an actual redwood tree growing though its the back porch. He offers Bailey an extremely thoughtful gift that she adores, a bright turquoise, classic Vespa scooter with a leopard-print seat that fits right in with her vintage fashion choices and is perfect for tooling around town, feeling like Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday.” As she searches for Alex, she simultaneously explores the quirky, and extremely scenic, fictional, Northern California beach town, Coronado Cove, which is a bustling tourist destination between San Francisco and Big Sur. It has 20,000 residents and, since the weather is great all year, at least twice that many tourists are constantly clogging up the town. They come for three main things: the redwood forest, a private nude beach, and great waves for surfing.
Bailey lands a summer job at a kooky local tourist trap called the Cavern Palace Museum. She makes friends there with a female coworker her age named Grace, and a nice old man who works as a guard. Unfortunately, the second guard, Porter Roth, who is also Bailey’s age, is a pain in the neck. He has been friends with Grace for years, but toward Bailey, he is so snarky, she often gets into heated exchanges with him. She refuses to put up with his many taunts that clearly indicate he thinks she’s some kind of prissy, stuck-up rich girl, which she absolutely is not. Porter is so completely different from Alex in personality, Bailey doesn’t consider for a moment that he might be Alex. But given the fact that Porter is a gorgeous, ripped surfer boy, Bailey is unwillingly attracted to him, in spite of his rudeness.
I call this type of plot, rather than “You’ve Got Mail,” a “Shop Around the Corner” (SATC) Plot,” because it was first used in the romantic-comedy movie, “The Shop Around the Corner,” in 1940. This plot appeared a second time in the film, “In the Good Old Summertime,” in 1949, and finally in the film, “You’ve Got Mail,” in 1998.
This is a difficult plot to pull off successfully, because it requires the audience to immediately suspend disbelief in an enormous coincidence, that the romantic protagonists could somehow become penpals and also accidentally run into each other in real life. (Technically it is a spoiler to say that Porter is Alex, but since the publisher, Simon Pulse, has included that crucial tidbit in the blurb describing the plot, I feel no qualms about including it here.) Realistically, the odds against a meeting like that happening are astronomical unless the two people involved have agreed, as penpals, to meet face to face and purposefully arrange a time and place for that meeting. Those of us who like this particular, tried-and-true plot, however, willingly suspend disbelief in the unlikely setup, because it is so much fun to experience the contrast between the terrific relationship the two protagonists have in their faceless correspondence compared to the sniping enmity between them in the real world.
This book is written in first-person point of view from Bailey’s perspective entirely, so we only get to know Porter through her eyes, which initially makes it somewhat difficult to like him because he is so undeservedly scornful toward Bailey. He does redeem himself fully later on, though, and it is a necessary requirement of the SATC plot that the romantic hero be a bit of a jerk toward the heroine, as described above.
This particular version of SATC is more of a dramedy than it is a comedy because there is a lot of tragedy in the personal backgrounds of both Bailey and Porter which has left each of them with issues of trust and some degree of PTSD. There is also some on-stage melodrama in this book in the form of a violent, teenage villain.
I love the setting of this story. Though Coronado Cove has a smaller population, it very much reminds me of Santa Cruz, where I lived years ago, with its boardwalk and beaches, gorgeous redwoods, and quaint atmosphere.
I also greatly enjoyed the surfing subplot. Porter’s family is filled with talented surfers, including Porter himself, his younger sister, his father, and his deceased paternal grandfather was legendary in the surfing world. Porter’s parents also own a surfing shop right on the beach.
The progress of the romantic relationship from enemies, to friends, to romance is very well done. Given that the two protagonists are 18 years old, making them legally of age, this book is geared a bit more toward a New Adult audience rather than young teens. Their relationship is “slow burn,” but it does eventually contain sex. However, this book retains a Young Adult feel in that there are no graphic descriptions of the sex. It is implied, rather than shown.
Neither Porter nor Bailey smoke, drink or do drugs, and there is no foul language in the book. But due to the violence of the villain and the implied sexual activity, I would personally deem this book’s content to be PG-13.
I rate this book as follows:
Heroine: 4 stars
Hero: 4 stars
Subcharacters: 4 stars
Romance Plot: 4 stars
Melodrama Plot: 3 stars
Setting: 5 stars
Writing: 4 stars
Overall: 4 stars
Enjoyable YA romance set in a northern California beach community. Loved it!
I loved this book. It may be YA but it easily applies to us all. Life is about risks, those you take and those you don’t. I loved how it was addressed in this book. If you like this book and want more in a similar style check out The Stand-In Boyfriend (The Boyfriend Series Book 5) , The Summer Boyfriend (The Boyfriend Series Book 8) and The Maybe Boyfriend (The Boyfriend Series Book 6)
Alex, Approximately was of the “grin until your cheeks hurt” variety of books. And boy, did I ever love it. Books like this one remind me of why, even as I near 40 years old, I’m still compelled to pick up YA every now and then. This was an absolutely delightful book that I read from cover to cover in one sitting. With, you know, short food or bathroom breaks as needed, which was about as long as I could bear to be away from it. Alex, Approximately has been on my TBR for ages now and, as is often the case, I’m totally kicking myself for just now picking it up.
I’m not even gonna lie, I basically fell in love with Bailey from the first chapter. I felt like I totally “got” her, especially understanding her need to “evade” uncomfortable situations. Which was totally understandable after we find out what she went through when she was younger. I adored her quest to find “Alex,” the guy she had been chatting with online for ages now, who just happened to live in the same town as her dad. (It’s not as stalker-ly as it sounds, promise. It really was sweet and it’s not like he’s the ONLY reason she chose to move in with her dad.) Hello, kismet.
Naturally things got complicated from there. Partially because she couldn’t seem to find “Alex,” and she never admitted to him she had, in fact, moved to California. Then there was her sexy, if jerkish at times, coworker Porter, who she had a total love/hate relationship with. As she finds out more about him, and spends more time with him, she realizes there’s a whole lot more to him than what he shows the world… and maybe she isn’t so intent on finding “Alex” any longer.
Bailey and Porter were everything, even before they were really anything to each other. I was totally charmed by their interactions, particularly enjoying the banter. I’m not lying when I say I read most of the book with a giant grin on my face. It was so perfectly YA contemporary, I couldn’t help but swoon all over the place. It wasn’t all rosy perfection as both of these characters had been through some heavy stuff in their past, and of course, they’re both lying to each other in a way, but it all worked so well.
I loved every little thing about this book. It was charming and sweet and funny, with plenty of feels of the good variety. Not only was the romance A+, Bailey’s transition from evader to lion was wonderful. I was so proud of her my heart felt like it might burst. She was taking chances and putting herself out there and I loved it. The coming of age tale was as special as the romance. If you ask me, Alex, Approximately was the total package.
FAVORITE QUOTES
That’s the thing about being an evader. You have to be flexible and know when to bail before it all gets weird. Better for everyone, really. I’m a giver.
“Sometimes you have to endure painful things to realize that you’re a whole lot stronger than you think.”
I swear, every time I have any interaction whatsoever with Porter Roth, something always goes screwy. He’s an electrical outlet, and I’m the stupid toddler, always trying to poke around and stick my finger inside.
“You always go around sticking your hands down boys’ clothes?”
“When they’re full of baked goods.”
Once you’ve had an amazing kiss, can you do if you don’t get another one? Because I feel like that’s what’s happening to me.
But the thing he doesn’t know, the thing that shocks even me, is that I’m not the gentle guardian spirit; I’m the hungry shark. And I fear his arm won’t be enough. I want all of him.
I am Mink. Hear me roar.
I really enjoyed this book! I wasn’t sure what to expect, as I haven’t read anything by this author before, but I was definitely pulled right in and had trouble putting it down.
This is a different twist on a YA romance with the online aspect going on before she meets the guy and then all that unravels after. Watching Bailey come into her own a bit as she realizes how strong she can be is fascinating, and I liked how she sort of brought that out in Porter as well.
I did have a little bit of an issue with the mom part of the story. I, being a mother, had trouble understanding how Bailey’s mom could act the way she was. It wasn’t until the dad tried to explain to Bailey that I could see how something like that could affect the way you treat everyone around you. I still find it hard to imagine being that way with my own kids.
The ending was just about perfect, so if you’re in the mood for a heartwarming HEA story, this is the one for you. I’ll definitely want to check out more by Bennett in the future.
Jenn Bennett is my go-to for witty, sexy YA! Her newest story, Alex, Approximately, hit all the right notes I expect from her writing: funny and interesting female narrator, ridiculously swoony love interest, some angst, some kissing, and a whole lot of wit.
Alex, Approximately is being called a YA You’ve Got Mail, which fits. Bailey has been messaging with fellow film fanatic Alex online, but she’s nervous to meet him in-person, even when she moves to his California town without telling him. Instead she gets wrapped up in arguing with, and then crushing on, complicated surfer boy Porter Roth. Surprise, surprise: it turns out Porter IS Alex, only they won’t know it until near the end.
The suspense of the big reveal here is fun, and watching the two teens fumble toward each other is adorable. Bennett interjects some seriousness into the novel with the backstories of both Bailey and Porter, but the wit and romance makes this ultimately a breezy, enjoyable read that will leave a smile on your face.