Amorova pomsta

by Wibke Brueggemann, Kristína Smolková (Translator)

Ďalšia vtipná romantická komédia od autorky knihy Láska je pre lúzrov
Tilly nemala v úmysle zamilovať sa, lenže Amor vás dostane, keď to najmenej čakáte. Presne to sa stane, keď ju jej najlepší kamarát Teddy zapojí do plánu očariť dievča jeho snov, nádejnú herečku Katherine Cooper-Buntingovú. Vysvitne, že o nej nesníva iba on.
Záujem o Katherine však neprichádza do úvahy. Viac než na citoch k niekomu, s kým sa len nedávno zoznámila, Tilly záleží jedine na tom, aby neublížila Teddymu, ktorý už má so zlomeným srdcom skúsenosť.
Ale odolať pokušeniu nie je vôbec jednoduché, hlavne keď ju Teddy nahovorí, aby mu pomohla s konkurzom do miestnej divadelnej hry a on tak mohol Katherine lepšie spoznať. Pre niekoho ako Tilly, kto v sebe nemá ani štipku kreativity a napriek tomu musel vyrastať medzi veledôležitými umelcami, ide o hotovú nočnú moru. A akoby nestačilo, že si musí poradiť s čoraz silnejšími citmi k dievčaťu, ktoré by sa jej nemalo páčiť (no ktorému sa možno páči tiež), ešte vždy trúchli a súčasne sa snaží vyrovnať s tým, že jej dedkovi nedávno diagnostikovali alzheimera. Takže hej, na jednu šestnásťročnú tínedžerku by toho bolo priveľa, aj keby vo vzduchu nelietali Amorove zákerné šípy.

Genres: Romance, Lesbian, Young Adult, LGBT, Queer, Contemporary, Fiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 2, 2023

About the author

Wibke Brueggemann grew up in northern Germany and the southern United States, but calls London her home. She originally studied acting at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts but ended up becoming a writer. She has a Master's in Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University, where she was the recipient of the Bath Spa University Writing Award. Wibke enjoys traveling, and is a clandestine lover of romantic poetry and Rennaissance art. Love for Losers is her debut novel. @wibkebruggeman

Reviews

[wyatt · Rating 2 out of 5]

tiktok buzzword soup with a gorgeous cover

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone who doesn’t know, I am a big theatre fan. Big. Huge. If I’m not reading then you can probably find me at a show, particularly - and this was SO exciting for me - at some of the ones mentioned in this book!

This was full of the kind of showmance/backstage drama I live for and it’s dialled up to 100 because it’s teens falling hard and fast and making mistakes and not always coping in the best of ways. It’s so human and bittersweet and funny. There’s sex positivity here and hormones galore and first loves and family troubles PLUS putting on a show. The am-dram group it follows is a bizarre and wonderful mix of characters that mess up and show up for each other. There is such a sense of community, and just reading about the act of people making tea for others in need was almost enough to make me tear up.

I didn’t know before going into this one that it would be set post-lockdowns, but I’m actually so glad that it touches on the effects the pandemic had on not only people but the arts and theatre industry. The discussions of familial grief, loss of work, pivoting to new careers to stay afloat etc. felt so current and relevant and getting to explore the impact it had on this one creative family as well as the wider arts world definitely worked for me. I would check out CWs on this one just because it features topics like loss, dealing with Alzheimer’s in the family, and has some mentions of disordered eating. Take care of yourselves while reading 💛

3.5 ⭐️

[Danika at The Lesbrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the most painfully realistic book I've read about being a teenager. At some points Tilly "wonder[s] if I’d have to spend the rest of my life feeling both aroused and miserable," and that really is what she's like through the whole book: confused, horny, and sad. I don't know about your teenage experience, but that felt uncomfortably true to being flooded with adolescent hormones. It's both the biggest positive and negative of the book.

I do want to give some warnings for this, not so much in terms of content but tone. I found this a stressful read, both because of Tilly having to shoulder far more of her grandfather's care than she should have had to, and because of her stress and guilt about lying to Teddy. I also want to give a content warning for outing. One more thing, if it wasn't obvious: there is a lot of sex talk.

If you want to be transported to the awkward, stressful, and often miserable time of being a teenager, this book does it perfectly. I would have enjoyed it even more if I had read it as a teen, I'm sure.

Full review at the Lesbrary.

[Grayson Burns · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to stop reading this book 15% into it. I try to give every book the benefit of the doubt but this book was not it. First the comment about how life isn't like a tiktok made me cringe. Then, the several pages I had to read about "jizz" and "making sure she comes" told me how much I wasn't gonna enjoy this book. Finally, the writing throughout the book was god awful. I'm around that age and I can tell you teenagers do not talk like Tilly or Teddy do. I can tell that the author knows nothing about how teens talk, so she just used a bunch of random slang that makes the book 100 times worse.

[Sylvie {Semi-Hiatus} · Rating 2 out of 5]

Five stars for the cover, 2 and a half star for the book. #itiswhatitis

[Lou Tranchant · Rating 3 out of 5]

c’était mignonnet

[Daniëlle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVED THIS

[akacya ❦ · Rating 4 out of 5]

2023 reads: 392/350

i received a digital review copy from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review. this did not affect my rating.

when tilly’s best friend, teddy, ropes her into a plan to woo his crush, katherine cooper-bunting, tilly reluctantly agrees. this plan involves auditioning for the same play as katherine, though neither tilly nor teddy are the artsy type. in such close proximity, tilly can see what teddy sees in katherine—and, unfortunately, cupid strikes her hard.

as a former theatre kid, it made my heart so happy to read about a girl formerly uninterested in theatre find a home there. tilly didn’t play a role, but she was assistant director, which means she went to the practices and had a lot of contact with the others (including, of course, katherine). so, the aspect of friendship was pretty strong, which i unfortunately do not see enough of in romance books. i liked the romance aspect as well, since tilly and katherine’s relationship was a slowburn and they had to keep it secret. overall, this was a great read and i recommend it to ya romance readers.

[Starr ❇✌❇]

Uhhh I desperately need to know the cover artist for this bc I'm obsessed

[Prince Mendax · Rating 5 out of 5]

åh!!! kan brueggeman komma med en ny bok typ en gång i halvåret tack?
hon är så bra. älskar protagonisten tilly och allt som är hon! älskar teddy! älskar att de ska sätta upp en "cabaret" :D och det är brittiskt och gay och gulligt och lite jobbigt och det är en perfekt ungdomsbok, ja.

[ET · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is actual shite. And it’s creepy. And it’s cringy. I decided to see how old the author was when Tilly mentioned she was 16 and I couldn’t find her age but I did find a picture. She is definitely not near 16. You can tell from the way this is written. I might update this because I’m only about halfway through but I’m genuinely disgusted. I’m a sixteen year old lesbian drama kid, this is unreadable and I was shocked to see all the good reviews. Istg people just have zero standards when it comes to lgbtq ya literature.

[Star · Rating 4 out of 5]

Content warnings: grandparent with Alzheimer’s (central plot line), references to past death of friend, misgendering, bad parents (they are very selfishly focused on themselves and everyone else is inconveniencing them), hospital visit, outing, Covid-19/pandemic mentions.

Rep: Tilly (MC) is cis, white, and lesbian. Side lesbian character, side nonbinary character.

This book, like Wibke's first, was very hilarious. I adored this one just as much as the first.

There is a certain charm about these books about teenagers figuring out their places in life.

I adored Tilly's sense of humour, and her big heart. The sort-of romance between her and Katherine Cooper-Bunting was excellent, even if her BFF, Teddy was also in love with Katherine.

The plot was fantastic, the cast of characters amazing, and the entire story was completely enjoyable from start to finish.

[mtrics · Rating 3 out of 5]

The word "like" is written 746 times in the book and no one actually knows what the characters look like (hence the 20 covers all with different characters design). This was a hot mess on so many levels.

[Valentine Clément · Rating 4 out of 5]

peut être que si j'avais lu ça à 16 ans je me serais épargné quelques années de comphet... a méditer......

[Mary K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was hard to reconcile the YA side (hashtags, references to fanfiction and instagram, kids hating their parents, etc etc) with the sex-centric side of the book. Like at the end of the day it was just 300+ pages about trying to fuck, which is great, but felt weird when centering theatre kids.

redemption star for gay :)

[Ano · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Fools in love, is all.”

This book had potential, I really believe it did. Sadly, it did not meet my expectations. I’ll start off with my good points: the way Alzheimer’s and grief in your teenage years was portrayed was really good and beautiful. The author took the time to explain it through actions and thoughts. But then my negative points: this book was full of spelling mistakes and errors, it made me question if anyone had proofread it, the romance between Tilly and Katherine was bad, teenagers aren’t only horny they have other feelings too, and seriously, I think the author wanted to make the book longer by writing Katherine’s full name EVERY SINGLE TIME, even the side characters had more chemistry than the main couple

[Kaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a big theater fan so a YA romance centered on theater students sounded fun. Tilly is sixteen and is trying to help her best friend Teddy with a show audition. Teddy wants to do the show because his new dream girl Katherine Cooper-Bunting is also trying out. But Tilly can’t help being drawn to Katherine herself. Tilly is also dealing with her grandfather's dementia, a storyline which I thought was handled well. There are a lot of inner thoughts in the story and a lot of drama. There is frank and honest talk about sex and good representation, lesbians, gay and nonbinary characters.

I think this book tries too hard to be hip. I never hear kids speak this way. Also so many hashtags. At its core it is a sapphic romance which I wanted to enjoy more. I’m too old to be the target audience and can see this for high schoolers and up. It will probably hit better with its intended audience.

[Adrika_G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Viete ako sú niektoré young-adult tak napísané, že sa dajú čítať aj keď má ten, čo berie knihu do ruky, 40? No, tak toto bol ten druhý prípad. Čistý young-adult pre young-adult :)

Osobne mi to nevadilo. Bolo to milé, úsmevné. Vždy som sa pri čítaní vrátila do svojich vlastných šestnástin. Trošku sme pohladkali aj dôležité témy ako stratu blízkeho, Alzheimera, coming out…

V zásade si myslím, že presne takto má vyzerať kniha pre násť-ročných a ľahko sa s ňou stotožnia (ja sama by som ju zbožňovala tak 10 rokov dozadu). To, že sa v nej bežne spomína napríklad aj pandémia bolo skvelé osvieženie. I liked it :)

[this_eel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly cute, fairly funny, dragged on a bit long, not enough development of the central romance, lovely treatment of relationship between the narrator and her grandfather with Alzheimer’s and of her grandfather himself. In response to other reviews: it’s literally fine that the MC is a sex-crazed teen lesbian, the hash tags ARE annoying, and if you have not read Louise Rennison just go do that and this whole book will make so much more sense to you.

[Zadie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t love the ending and the hashtags got to be a bit much, but otherwise it was good.

[bea ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was really cute!!

[Jess Twibey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfect display of British youth. Tilly is in crisis. The pandemic lockdown has just ended, but it took her grandmother with it leaving her grandfather alone and dealing with dementia. Her dad feeling guilty for not being there decides to move him into the spare room. The problem being only Tilly is there to care for him as her family are too focused on their creative careers and never thought through the impact of caring for someone. In comes Teddy, Tilly’s best friend, who has suddenly fallen in love with Katherine Cooper-Bunting, great news since his last crush was their best friend who tragically passed away. Tilly agrees to be Teddy’s wingwoman, happy he’s moving on, even agreeing to go with him to audition for a play his crush is attending. There’s just one problem. Tilly has also fallen in love with Katherine and between the production of Cupids Revenge and handling family matters Tilly’s life gets flipped upside down, the good, the bad and the horny are about to take over.

[Eva Helena · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 or 4 stars?? I don’t know…

It was really cute and fun and kind of heartbreaking (but also heartwarming, don’t worry) and a little cringy sometimes. I listened to the audiobook, which was amazing because I don’t think I would have enjoyed actually reading it quite as much as just listening to the story while walking, as it was really easy and obviously written for actual teenagers.
Also big theatre nerd myself so a book about a bunch of queer kids doing theatre?? Yes please :))

[Claudia Bellenger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brittisk engelska vilket bidrog till att det var svårare att komma in i boken, men alltså sen!
Historien kändes otroligt verklighetstrogen, några nya trådar plockades upp på vägen och saker kunde kopplas samma.
Otroligt bra bok som förtjänar sin plats i hyllan. Tyvärr drar den brittiska engelskan ner betyget ett snäpp

[Missnöjd Konfirmand · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,75 Krambjörnströjor i betyg! Hade blivit fem om den varit lite längre (kankse typ dubbelt så lång?), särskilt mot slutet. Alla karaktärer var superduper, det var perfekt blandning av kärlek och allvar, och så himla älskvärt att dom tar paus och gör te hela tiden. Mer Brueggemann tack!

[Romana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 ⭐

[Charlee Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5
Cute!!! Got a bit too tmi in some places but thats just my personality preference. I really enjoyed this!!!

[Sandra4444 · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Egentliga betyget: 2.75 stjärnor*

[ayah ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. coverbaiting (when the cover is better than the book) is a very real and serious phenomenon.

[hannah! · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was baaaaaaad. no editing whatsoever. every time the word ‘technology’ was written, it said ‘techŸology’ wtf.

also this is not how teenagers act idk ill have you know.