Blog Tour Review: Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli

Hi all!

My name is Chiara and I am a Bookwom.

I hope you’re all doing well so far this week. I am posting this super early in the day, at least for UK time because I actually have two posts going up today. Can you believe it?

I have been waiting a long time to review this book. I saw it when it was announced ages a go and I really thought that I would have to wait until it was published till I got to read it but then Dave announced the blog tour. Is that guy a saviour or what?!

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Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli

Blurb

From bestselling YA rom-com queen Becky Albertalli (author of Love, Simon) comes a new novel about daring to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight in love, life and theatre.

[PRINCIPAL CAST LIST]
Kate Garfield
Anderson Walker

Best friends, and contrary to popular belief, not co-dependent. Examples:

Carpooling to and from theatre rehearsals? Environmentally sound and efficient.
Consulting each other on every single life decision? Basic good judgment.
Pining for the same guys from afar? Shared crushes are more fun anyway.

But when Kate and Andy’s latest long-distance crush shows up at their school, everything goes off-script.

Enter Stage Left: Matt Olsson

He is talented and sweet, and Kate likes him. She really likes him. The only problem? So does Anderson.

Turns out, communal crushes aren’t so fun when real feelings are involved. This one might even bring the curtains down on Kate and Anderson’s friendship…

My Thoughts

What to say about Kate in Waiting?

First of all thank you to Becky Albertalli, penguin and Dave at The Write Reads for granting me a free copy of the book, and a physical books at that. Just to confirm, I was given a free book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

And second of all, I may honestly think that Becky’s acknowledgments are hilarious. I’m not sure I’d want Noah’s used cast, or a pair of Cotton Mather’s cotton trousers but I love the thanks and the gifts she has for her big support team.

The story follows Kate and Anderson, Andy for short, who are most definitely co-dependant however much they may deny it who like to have ‘communal crushes’.

Is that a thing? I’m sure it’s not a thing.

But communal crushes are just fine when they are from a distance and only last as long as the summer holidays, but when the crush turns up at school on the first day of term things get serious pretty quickly.

I’ve given this book four stars in my summary above, but in truth it was probably closer to four and a half stars because the book was pretty spectacular, with the only downfall being I found it a little predictable. I was half way through the book and I had a reasonable good guess at how the story was going to end. It is a romance after all.

I adore the way that our characters grow. Not just Kate and Andy, but Matt and Noah and Ryan and a few others. Kate and Andy learn to be together and apart and to accept who the other is without having to be the other’s whole world.

Matt and Ryan on the other hand seem so fully formed at the beginning, but even they shocked and proved that they could be more that the outside showed.

I adored so much of this book but I must say that my favourite thing was how Albertalli put into words the camaraderie that comes about through doing a show together. The trust and the feeling that you know a person even without really knowing much about them.

I was a drama kid and it brought so many happy memories to the surface.

This books is a brilliant coming of age story about growth and love and finding yourself. I can’t recommend this book enough. I hope you all read it and love it as much as I do and I hope you come back here to gush about it too.

About the Author

Becky Albertalli

Becky Albertalli is the author of the acclaimed novels Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (film: Love, Simon), The Upside of Unrequited, and Leah on the Offbeat. She is also the co-author of What If It’s Us with Adam Silvera. A former clinical psychologist who specialized in working with children and teens, Becky lives with her family in Atlanta. You can visit her online at www.beckyalbertalli.com.

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