ARC Review: Recommended for You by Laura Silverman

Posted August 30, 2020 by Lisa Mandina in Review / 13 Comments

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.

ARC Review:  Recommended for You by Laura SilvermanRecommended for You by Laura Silverman
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on September 1, 2020
Genres: YA Contemporary
Pages: 272
Source: the publisher
Format: ARC
My Rating: five-stars
Goodreads
Buy on AmazonBuy on Barnes & Noble

Synopsis:

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets You’ve Got Mail in this charming and hilarious rom-com following two teen booksellers whose rivalry is taken to the next level as they compete for the top bookseller bonus.

Shoshanna Greenberg loves working at Once Upon, her favorite local bookstore. And with her moms fighting at home and her beloved car teetering on the brink of death, the store has become a welcome escape.

When her boss announces a holiday bonus to the person who sells the most books, Shoshanna sees an opportunity to at least fix her car, if none of her other problems. The only person standing in her way? New hire Jake Kaplan.

Jake is an affront to everything Shoshanna stands for. He doesn’t even read! But somehow his sales start to rival hers. Jake may be cute (really cute), and he may be an eligible Jewish single (hard to find south of Atlanta), but he’s also the enemy, and Shoshanna is ready to take him down.

But as the competition intensifies, Jake and Shoshanna grow closer and realize they might be more on the same page than either expects…

My Review:

Oh my gosh, I’m not sure where to start so I can tell you how much I LOVED this book! It totally not only encompassed all the things about working at a bookstore, but also all the things about being the nerdy competitive girl working at the bookstore. Now, at the store where I worked, you get stuck using the intercom maybe before you want to, because I never have the desire to speak over it. However we got walkie-talkies last year, and I wanted so bad to make up code words like they had in this book to call for help when you have a difficult customer, or a customer you can’t get to go away, etc.

There were so many layers to this story, and I liked how really the characters were realistic. Even when they seemed like they might be unlikable or have an unrealistic grudge, there was always a reason for it, something that people in real life always seem to have for when they behave the way they do. Shoshanna’s home life again was not perfect, but I liked that it showed everyone can have issues. She had two moms, but things aren’t always perfect just because they are already different than the old-fashioned parents. But the still loved her, and showed her how they loved her. She also did things that caused problems with her friends and her mom, something a teen would totally do! And then there was her crush on Jake, and how Jake dealt with it, and her, and really it was just all perfect the way it fit together in the end. I also liked the fact of the Jewish traditions and even how they fit in with her friends and their Christmas or Christian traditions and all that. Now maybe the fact that this took place over such a short period of time might have made it a tiny bit unrealistic, but that’s okay, loved it anyway!

The author totally got the customers of a bookstore exactly on the nose, and then there was even Shoshanna’s views on things like the Funko Pop figures. She said she’d only given in and purchased the baby Groot one. Well, that’s where it all started for me as well. I honestly don’t know if I can fangirl enough about this book and how much I loved it!

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13 responses to “ARC Review: Recommended for You by Laura Silverman

    • Lisa Mandina

      Yeah, I could see it would have been nice to have a little bit more romance. I still finished just smiling and loving the whole thing though. 🙂

  1. This sounds fantastic. I love that the characters were all realistically written. I’ve never worked in a book store, but it sounds like this book will let me know what that’s like on some level!

    -lauren

    • Lisa Mandina

      It was so cute! And it definitely had so many things that are an every day part of working at a bookstore part time. I loved it!

  2. Oh my goodness this story sounds so cute. I definitely need to read this one. I hadn’t heard of it before your review. I’m so glad you enjoyed it and it makes sense that you’d enjoy it so much with you working in a library and bookstores. Thank you for the great review, going to add this to my shelf ASAP!!

    Sharrice @Reese’s Reviews

    • Lisa Mandina

      Yes, it will be one of my top reads for the year! Hope you get a chance to read it. Thanks for stopping by!

  3. John Smith

    Walkie-talkies: ugh! I had a librarian relative who they started chaining to a walkie-talking or beeper or whatever in the 1980s or so because they wanted to be ultra-controlling and thwart his desire to just disappear at times and look at books. As he rightly felt, kicking back and looking at books is one of the perks of working at library. I mean, god, it’s not an assembly line, you’re not supposed to push products, products, products in a hard-sell way, and submit to productivity performance reviews!

    It’s all part of the sick vision of what “work” is supposed to mean in a thoroughly diseased late-capitalism, hyper-exploitative society like the United States. –Maybe kicking back the way I describe has never been quite so much the ethos among bookstore workers, but still…. It definitely shouldn’t be a grueling grind!

    • Lisa Mandina

      Ah, but bookstores are a capitalist thing, well, some are, especially the Barnes and Noble where I used to work. Probably not as much at a small bookstore. Libraries are a different breed. Although my goal as a librarian is to get my students to read, so that could be looked at as pushing products. lol

  4. Danielle Hammelef

    I too enjoyed the family dynamics and friendships and the setting was so much fun. I’m a competitive person, so I identified with Shoshanna immediately. I’m happy that the author got the bookstore setting perfect.

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