Yes, incredibly touching is all I can say. Book #14 of my #100BooksChallenge. I have said this before, I can struggle with the YA genre due to my age and being so much older, it can be hard to connect. Of late I have found two authors who have sucked me in from page one, with distinct characters that I’ve found hard to forget. Find You a Real One for me, as I read, I felt like I was not reading YA with characters under the age of twenty– purely due to the plot. I quickly checked I had already pre-ordered book 2 when I finished! From what I understand the author wrote this when she herself was in high-school, all I can say is damn! Wow

About The Book:

Shorty is cool with almost everyone she encounters. She has her heart set on Marcus, but Reggie is feigning for her attention.

Elida is not the most popular girl, nor does she feel like she’s the prettiest. She’s got her eyes on a few guys but the feelings are never mutual.

Shorty and Elida connect and forge a friendship that is surprising, unlikely, and rejected by Shorty’s day one, Janie. Is Janie simply harboring innocent best friend jealousy, or is there something deeper beneath the surface?

Follow a story of friendship, heartache, growth, and betrayal in this sweet, yet poignant two-part Friends to Lovers Romance series.

Five stars!!

I’ve read this author’s work before and I became a fan in around 2019/ early 2020. I’ve found that she has a Midas touch when it comes to developing characters that you really feel drawn to, and have a very strong presence in the story. By this I mean the characters (for me) just seem very real. From the way they talk, act, and even if there are a lot of them ( this author tends to have a large character line up in her stories), you can always without a doubt tell them apart and they differ so they stand out. I really enjoy this, and in Find You a Real One she did not disappoint. The characters even though they are young are very well developed and like-able. The story-line was just to die for, for me as a reader. This is because it touched on soooooooo many issues from family dynamics, relationships, adult ones with parents, as well as the actual characters, abuse, friendship, and much more. There were parts that were touching to read in a sense that I could not imagine the life situation ( no spoilers), for the characters. Especially a very touching one that one character– ‘Shorty’ was going through. Then there was the story-line for the boys and how they were moving forward, and a very special character I became fond of Elida. I’m really not one for spoilers so I won’t say too much, but I will say that if you enjoy books with a touch of romance, reality, a strong element of ‘coming of age’ themes, and you’re cool with an urban setting I’d really give this a read. It’s free on Kindle Unlimited to at the time of this review. I totally enjoyed every ounce of it, I read it in just two sittings, it was hard to put down. 5 touching stars from me. I’d say that this author is a very talented story-teller with the YA and ‘coming of age’ genres. I would not hesitate to read them, even though I personally find them hard to crack, sometimes!