Tobin Bui and Lily Wang couldn’t be more different. He’s rambunctious, confident, and goes with the flow. She’s organized, slightly insecure, and type A. They often butt heads and argue, but they’ve grown up together and are part of the same friend group, the Nerd Herd. Their group is for anyone who doesn’t have friends or anywhere else to go. In other words, they’re outcasts who decide to band together and ignore everyone else.
Still, ignoring high school social orders and the allure of popularity is easier said than done. We see Lily pull away from the Nerd Herd only to get rejected from the “cool kid” table. This moment feels a little childish and elementary school rather than high school, but this rejection sets in motion elements that persist throughout the story: Lily’s need to be well-liked and accepted, and her rejection of her Nerd Herd friendships.
Fast forward twenty-some years, and Tobin and Lily have completely lost touch. He’s stayed in Ponto Beach, while she’s gone to LA. The only thing they have in common? YouTube. Lily, or EverLily, is a beauty YouTuber hoping to gain more followers; Tobin, now known as GoofyBui, makes gaming videos and large-scale sketches. As Lily aims to grow her channel and Tobin reaches a point of burnout, they’re forced to collaborate. But with their different, often at odds, personalities, pulling off the collaboration isn’t an easy feat. In collaborating and re-entering each other’s lives, their underlying issues surface, and they are forced to confront old feelings. Can their contrasting personalities clash, or can they come together?
Maybe it’s the fact that we live in a world dominated by social media, but the YouTuber scenes and influencer parties felt a little overdone. Luckily. Yardley doesn’t focus too long on these points. In fact, although she sets the story up in the world of LA influencers, she takes us back to the comfortable and dreamy Ponto for the main duration of the story. Even if it’s not LA, Ponto’s just as captivating—trendy cafes, beaches, and people wearing athleisure all the time. Yardley’s focus on Ponto shifts the story from being about influencers and networking to reunions, old friends, and rekindling feelings.
While creating this beautiful world, Yardley also takes the time to craft the other members of the Nerd Herd. There’s Asad, Tam, Hayden, Vinh, Emily, and a host of other characters. Perhaps most compelling is Emily, who was forced to drop out of Stanford and move home to help out with her family. She lives seemingly unhappily and unfulfilled in Ponto, and she seems to harbor resentment for Vinh, her now ex-boyfriend. In developing all the side characters, Yardley subverts the typical formulaic romance novel whereside characters are just plot devices for the two main characters to get together. These well-developed characters further pull readers into the story’s world.
Though there was nothing I actively disliked about the book, I wish there were components Yardley explored a bit more. I would have liked to see her play with time a bit more. She sets the story up with Tobin and Lily in high school, offering sort of a prologue, but from that point on, she
launches us into the current day, when they are twenty-eight. Although this is a sensible choice, Yardley misses an opportunity to explore the dynamics of Tobin and Lily back in high school. Maybe it’s because I liked this book so much, but I could definitely have done with a hundred more pages just detailing their high school antics.
Perhaps Yardley will play around with time and other storytelling formats in her next book, Gouda Friends. According to Yardley’s website, this will be the second book in what she’s calling the “Ponto Beach Reunion” series. I cannot wait to see how Yardley further develops this rich world, and, although no one has yet asked for it, I hope she writes a third book that explores Emily and Vinh’s relationship because I just need to know what happened there.
If you haven’t read Love, Comment, Subscribe, make sure to check it out as soon as possible, so that you, too, can become immersed in the world of Ponto Beach. I’d recommend this book to anyone who’s a fan of the friends-to-lovers trope. Even if friends-to-lovers isn’t your thing, give this book a shot, especially if you like stellar worldbuilding and an intriguing cast of characters. This is also the perfect winter read if you’ve been finding yourself dreaming of beaches and warm weather.
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