Review: The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You

The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You by Lily Anderson
Grade: A+
An e-galley was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for review consideration.
Summary: Trixie Watson has two very important goals for senior year: to finally save enough to buy the set of Doctor Who figurines at the local comic books store, and to place third in her class and knock Ben West--and his horrendous new mustache that he spent all summer growing--down to number four.

Trixie will do anything to get her name ranked over Ben's, including give up sleep and comic books--well, maybe not comic books--but definitely sleep. After all, the war of Watson v. West is as vicious as the Doctor v. Daleks and Browncoats v. Alliance combined, and it goes all the way back to the infamous monkey bars incident in the first grade. Over a decade later, it's time to declare a champion once and for all.

The war is Trixie's for the winning, until her best friend starts dating Ben's best friend and the two are unceremoniously dumped together and told to play nice. Finding common ground is odious and tooth-pullingly-painful, but Trixie and Ben's cautious truce slowly transforms into a fandom-based tentative friendship. When Trixie's best friend gets expelled for cheating and Trixie cries foul play, however, they have to choose who to believe and which side they're on--and they might not pick the same side.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: I have been in such a book rut this year, and boy, was I glad when The Only Thing Worse didn't fall prey to that. It was swoony, hilarious, and all around wonderful.
So first off, I didn't realize this was a retelling of Much Ado About Nothing which only made it twenty times more wonderful because I'm a sucker for a good Shakespeare retelling. Mix in nerd culture, banter, friend groups, and driven teens, and you've got a recipe for success. I was hooked from the second chapter.
Trixie and her best friends Harper and Meg were awesome. They were smart, confident, and closely bonded. They had disagreements, but there was nothing catty about the trio. Once Ben, Peter, Cornell, and Jack hit the scene, the banter really began. I loved how much the girls teased Ben about his mustache (not a good look for most males, just saying), and I was so glad that the boys didn't exclude the girls from nerd culture or make them feel like fake nerds.
I wanted Trixie to be my BFF. Her wit was so effortless, she was actually kind when she wanted to be, she loved Veronica Mars, and her character development was A+. She works on her judgmental side, and her judginess never rubbed me the wrong way.
And then the romance. Y'all, I shipped it so hard. I love authentic bantery ships and Ben and Trixie were, like, the king and queen of bantery ships. There's a scene about 70% into my e-galley where I inhaled sharply and was trying not to swoon. They were so dorky together and I LOVED IT.
When I'm reading an e-galley, I try and highlight every instance of an f-word or s-word and I caught only eight total, so language was relatively clean. There was kissing and that was about it.

The Verdict: My review can't do this book justice, to be honest. All I can say is read this book if you love laughing and good romances.

Buy: Read Between the Lynes  Barnes & Noble

Will I be adding this book to my library?: Absolutely.