ARC Review: Love Radio by Ebony LaDelle

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Love Radio by Ebony LaDelle
Published by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers on May 31, 2022
Genres: YA Contemporary Romance
Pages: 320
Source: the publisher
My Rating:
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Blurb:

Hitch meets The Sun Is Also a Star in this witty and romantic teen novel about a self-professed teen love doctor with a popular radio segment who believes he can get a girl who hates all things romance to fall in love with him in only three dates. 

Prince Jones is the guy with all the answers—or so it seems. After all, at seventeen, he has his own segment on Detroit’s popular hip-hop show, Love Radio, where he dishes out advice to the brokenhearted. 

Prince has always dreamed of becoming a DJ and falling in love. But being the main caretaker for his mother, who has multiple sclerosis, and his little brother means his dreams will stay just that and the only romances in his life are the ones he hears about from his listeners. 

Until he meets Dani Ford. 

Dani isn’t checking for anybody. She’s focused on her plan: ace senior year, score a scholarship, and move to New York City to become a famous author. But her college essay keeps tripping her up and acknowledging what’s blocking her means dealing with what happened at that party a few months ago. 

And that’s one thing Dani can’t do. 

When the romantic DJ meets the ambitious writer, sparks fly. Prince is smitten, but Dani’s not looking to get derailed. She gives Prince just three dates to convince her that he’s worth falling for. 

Three dates for the love expert to take his own advice, and just maybe change two lives forever.

My Review

I really liked this one a lot! I love how Dani came across as pretty contradictory in a lot of ways, but she even called herself out for it. I also liked how Prince was really a pretty good guy. But, he also didn’t just roll over and let Dani push him away forever. He kept from chasing her too much in a way that would be considered to many as stalkerish, even if she did kind of call him out for it that way at times. He was so good about always asking her if something was okay and if she was okay before he did just about everything. And he didn’t do that in an annoying way either!

The character development in this was just perfect as well. Both Prince and Dani had their own backgrounds and family issues to overcome. It seemed as if both were realistic in how they reacted to things, but also realistic in how they might also know what they were doing was not always the right choice, and being able to catch themselves. The friends they had were real too. Not always just on their side, but also calling them out for things they needed to be called out for. But also always there when needed and asked for help.

Both families were also different, neither were perfect exactly, even Dani with both her parents. Since her father was military, he was gone quite often. While Prince had his mother’s health and no father figure in the picture, his mother was a great parental figure, and his uncle was there to take up the slack for the lack of a father. And I adored Prince’s little brother.

This will be another great addition to my school library, and I only had one teensy tiny personal issue. I really do appreciate when an author does a YA book with what is more slang like how they talk. But there is one slang word or butchering of a word that I just cannot stand. And I hate when people say “mines” instead of “mine”. I know, I know, it’s just that way now. But it has bugged me for probably about 10 or more years now since my students started saying it when I was a science teacher. Ugh. Sorry, personal preference! But since it is so prevalent now, it fit with the story.