This Time It's Real

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre: Romance

I did not expect myself to love this book as much as I actually ended up loving it, but I guess I had forgotten how much I love the fake dating and forced proximity tropes. This book had me giggling, squealing, and smiling throughout the story. From all of her books, the main character in this one, Eliza, is the one I related to the most! I was disappointed once I’d finished this one because I simply wanted more of Caz and Eliza.

Continue reading for more details.

💖💗💞💘💌💐🌷🌼🌺🌸

Synopsis:

When seventeen-year-old Eliza Lin’s essay about meeting the love of her life unexpectedly goes viral, her entire life changes overnight. Now she has the approval of her classmates at her new international school in Beijing, a career-launching internship opportunity at her favorite magazine…and a massive secret to keep.

Eliza made her essay up. She’s never been in a relationship before, let alone in love. All good writing is lying, right?

Desperate to hide the truth, Eliza strikes a deal with the famous actor in her class, the charming but aloof Caz Song. She’ll help him write his college applications if he poses as her boyfriend. Caz is a dream boyfriend -- he passes handwritten notes to her in class, makes her little sister laugh, and takes her out on motorcycle rides to the best snack stalls around the city.

But when her relationship with Caz starts feeling a little too convincing, all of Eliza’s carefully laid plans are threatened. Can she still follow her dreams if it means breaking her own heart?

💖💗💞💘💌💐🌷🌼🌺🌸

Review:

Eliza is a sweetheart who’s scared of loving because of her previous experiences of losing her relationships with those she cared about a lot. She is filled with love and, just like me, she experiences giving out too much love too easily and in the end, having to deal with the pressure of moving on when her heart secretly doesn’t want to. I loved Eliza so much! 💞 I hated seeing her experience loneliness at her school and smother her emotions, keeping her from making friends and embracing her feelings, in order to protect herself. I really, truly saw myself in Eliza from her trying to close herself off from people to not being able to stop herself from wanting to reach out, and wanting someone so much she was driving herself crazy. A lot of her thoughts seemed like they were pulled straight from my head which continued to make me become more invested in her and her story.

“And this, I think, is my ultimate fatal flaw. Missing people who don’t miss me back. Clinging on to strands of string that shouldn’t mean half as much as they do. It takes so little for me to love someone, yet so long for me to move on.”

Caz was just lovely 💖. He had that aloof celebrity mask on a lot of the times since he was a pretty famous actor, but the little things he did for Eliza was enough to make anyone melt 💗. I loved how he could be both teasing and snarky and caring and sweet, it’s the perfect balance! It was so adorable seeing Caz act shy when Eliza saw him out of his usual put-together self since he struggled with thinking his non-actor side of his life wasn’t good enough for people. I’m glad Eliza was here to show him otherwise. Though, one important thing I want to add is: I need Ann Liang to have a romance book with the boy’s pov as well!! I’m always dying to know what the guys are thinking since most of the time they act cold but truly care deep down.

“Whatever you say, my love.”

In general, these two were the cutest together. Caz would give her love and all the best things Eliza deserves which helped cold Eliza to accept the love she was so scared of accepting. And Eliza had no problem in accepting the side of Caz that he was afraid of showing to the world. They both helped each other grow and become more confident and braver. The way Eliza worried so much for Caz and Caz was protective of Eliza towards the end had me whipped 💕.

“He’d flirt with a teaspoon if the situation called for”

Ann Liang’s writing in this story really touched my heart multiple times. Eliza was a writer within the story so the way she strung words together and described both her worries and love was in such a beautiful way. Not because she used metaphors, and similes, and imagery, but actually because of how, even though they were simple statements, she wrote them so it felt like poetry and they encompassed true experiences and had a certain rawness to them. I’m probably making no sense, but that’s how her writing felt to me. It really captured the essence of the feelings and thoughts Eliza faced.

“Maybe I’ll always be scared. Maybe the fear of getting hurt, of being left alone,

will never truly go away. But even if it’s my default setting, I can fight it. So many beautiful things lie on the other side of fear.

Like love.

Like this.”

The plot held a good pace throughout the book, I never struggled to read this story and it didn’t ever feel overwhelming either. Though, like some of her other books, the characters are what drive the story forward. I don’t find that to be a problem in her books though because the events and conflicts throughout the book aren’t boring and they allow for the story to keep on moving.

“I hope you remember to miss me when all this is over”

Overall,

Recommended for Lovers of: