Review: Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi

Hey all, Dani here.

First, today is Damian and my two year engagement anniversary. Later we’re going to go out for a nice dinner and a trip to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, which is where he proposed to me at the Christmas Wildlights. It should be a really fun day.

Also…Damian and I went to our local humane society a couple days ago to take them up on a holiday fostering program. We ended up bringing home two pit mix bonded sisters for a whole week, and currently I am sandwiched between two cuddly girls on the couch. I don’t think we could handle going from a one dog household to a three dog household on a permanent basis, but for the next few days, I can say that I am so happy to have these girls with us.

Anyway, I need to get more of my reviews typed up and posted. I have quite a few majorly overdue reviews that I’d like to get up as soon as possible, so I can almost start off 2020 with a fresh slate of content.

But I also have my Diverse December reads to review, so that’s what we’re doing today. Okay, let’s jump into the review.

Summary

Sana Khan is a cheerleader and a straight A student. She’s the classic (somewhat obnoxious) overachiever determined to win.

Rachel Recht is a wannabe director who’s obsesssed with movies and ready to make her own masterpiece. As she’s casting her senior film project, she knows she’s found the perfect lead – Sana.

There’s only one problem. Rachel hates Sana. Rachel was the first girl Sana ever asked out, but Rachel thought it was a cruel prank and has detested Sana ever since.

Told in alternative viewpoints and inspired by classic romantic comedies, this engaging and edgy YA novel follows two strongwilled young women falling for each other despite themselves.

My Thoughts

Rating: 3.5 stars

I’m glad I gave this book a try. I felt like this was going to be a little more of a cute rom-com type of story, but unfortunately I did not really connect with the characters the way I would have hoped.

Both Rachel and Sana are rather intelligent and strong-willed, so it’s easy for me to see the comparison to Rory and Paris from “Gilmore Girls.” They definitely have that differing competitive edge to them. Honestly that should have made me enjoy this story even more, because I thought that the Rory/Paris relationship was so incredibly fascinating.

However I just felt that Rachel and Sana were both so prideful and sometimes arrogant, and their relationship just felt incredibly strained and forced for too much of the book, so when they finally started to soften and admit to feelings, it just felt too late for me. I didn’t really care about them by that point and was just trying to finish the book since I had already read most of it. I’m not a big fan of DNFing books.

Rachel in particular was a somewhat cruel bully from the very beginning, and it just threw me off so much.

So, I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. The cover was great, and the idea of hate-to-love/enemies-to-lovers sounded interesting, but the execution was lacking, so I just ended up finding this book to be just okay.

Where to Get a Copy

You can pick up your own copy of this book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local independent bookstore.

You can also check with your local library.