Book Review: Didn’t See That Coming

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre: Romance

This was a fun and different read for me as I enjoyed the romcom aspects of the book, but this book covered some topics I haven’t read much about. I can’t believe I read the sequel prior to reading the first book. I wish I had known this was the sequel! The summary seemed interesting, so I just went for it. Though, I am definitely going to go back and pick up the first book and other books by this author.

Continue reading for more details.

Synopsis: 

A hilariously fresh and romantic send-up to You’ve Got Mail about a gamer girl with a secret identity and the online bestie she’s never met IRL until she unwittingly transfers to his school, from the bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties, The Obsession, and Well, That Was Unexpected.

Seventeen-year-old Kiki Siregar is a fabulous gamer girl with confidence to boot. She can’t help but be totally herself… except when she’s online.

Her secret? She plays anonymously as a guy to avoid harassment from other male players. Even her online best friend—a cinnamon roll of a teen boy who plays under the username Sourdawg—doesn’t know her true identity. Which is fine, because Kiki doesn’t know his real name either, and it’s not like they’re ever going to cross paths IRL.

Until she transfers to an elite private school for her senior year and discovers that Sourdawg goes there, too.

But who is he? How will he react when he finds out Kiki’s secret? And what happens when Kiki realizes she’s falling for her online BFF?

Review:

Kiki was delightful to read about. The way she was confident in herself and saw the problems in her school and society and wasn’t afraid to call them out was fabulous. She’s also quite stubborn and thick-skinned as she didn’t easily let all the bullying get to her from her classmates after she voices her opinions and disagrees with the top student of her class. Her new school is like the traditional school and way stricter and follows stereotypes, especially compared to her old more “westernized” school. Kiki has a real culture shock, and it was sad to see how she was treated because she wasn’t afraid to speak up. 

The societal matters covered in this book were very real and common, especially in most Asian countries, so I liked how the author decided to address these in her book. Matters about how girls who game was treated online, how they were treated more harshly and differently than the boys in school, and, in general, stereotypes in female characters in gaming were talked about. Kiki’s bullying was thrown to the side by using the excuse that boys are mean to girls they like. This book would be especially relatable to girl gamers, but even if you don’t game or aren’t a girl, I think it’s still good to read this book and acknowledge how these are true problems that just simply aren’t talked about or recognized enough. 

Kiki and Liam were a friends-to-lover romance. It was sweet but, honestly, just okay. They got along well and were nice to each other, but I felt like they were more friendly in general with each other and didn’t really feel a great connection. I do love how Liam was one of the first few people who took Kiki’s side and stayed by her side, I just think their romance (at least from Liam’s side) was really out of the blue. Towards the end, I felt a bit more sparks but still not a lot. Overall, for a romance book, the romance wasn’t super great. 

The plot of the book was at a good pace, I was engaged and enjoyed the different creative aspects of the book. This included learning more about Indonesia and its culture as Kiki described it through her narration. The dating app that Kiki became involved in was also a fun touch. These things kept the story interesting and made it more entertaining. Kiki’s friendships were also really great and I loved the scenes with Kiki just being herself with her friends. The book also threw some kind of unexpected turns at us that I didn't see coming. All this kept the story fun and interesting. 

Another problem I had with the book was about how a few parts of it were unrealistic. A super genius tween prodigy was able to hack into the school system. Sure, okay. A bit of a stretch, but I could let it pass. The bigger problem I had is with how towards the end of the book things played out. This seemed really unrealistic because I wouldn’t think a school would simply sit around and do nothing as something like what Kiki and her younger friends did was playing out. This will make more sense once you read the book (I hope). This was a little frustrating as this was such an important part of the book but overall, not a huge problem. 

Overall, this book is a pretty good and a nice read for people who want to read a light book covering social topics about double standards in genders. I liked how the author incorporated these issues into the book but didn’t make the book super heavily, only based upon these issues. The romance and lightheartedness really helped balance out the story while still acknowledging these problems.

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