[Review] Finding Mr. Better-Than-You - Shani Petroff

Summary: Camryn Roth has it all planned out: a perfect senior year with her friends and then it's off to Columbia with her boyfriend, Marc. But the first week of school, everything falls apart. Not only does she not have enough extracurriculars for her dream school, her relationship falls to pieces when Marc publically dumps her!

With the help of her two best friends, Camryn is determined to pull her life back together. Step one, more extracurriculars. Step two, get over Marc and find someone better.

Shani Petroff's newest rom-com is a love letter to friendship: to those who help you find your true self, stand by you no matter what, and support your plans even when they know they're doomed.(Pub Date: Jan 14, 2020)


Camryn is in shock when on top of finding out she hasn't done enough to get into her dream university, her long-time boyfriend breaks up with her in the middle of a crowded diner, and the video even gets posted online. She decides then to work harder toward college and finding someone better.

Unlike most contemporary YA's, or like 95% of the ones I read, this isn't a romance. And I don't mean it in a way there's this boy but no emphasis on him. It really isn't a romance. I was a little surprised because I thought it would the former case. We do have boys, lots of them, as Camryn goes on her search, but there isn't any ongoing character for to cheer for, since the only male is her best friend's ex and you just know it won't be him—I know there's a trope, but in this case you know it's not him.

So this is really a book about getting back on your feet and also about counting your blessings. She does lose the one she loves but because of that Camryn gets to enjoy a lot of stuff she wouldn't if they were still dating. I think it's a great lesson to any broken-hearted teenager (or older reader) that love relationships aren't everything.

But of course this is told in a funny way, since Camryn's attempts to find the next boyfriend don't go too well. For this point, though, I think the writing wasn't all that creative. You know things will go wrong and you have a good idea of how. Despite not getting bored, it wasn't that much fun to read. I do think the gold in this book is the friendship part and whoever did the official summary knew that.

This book was more like a 3+ that got close but enough to a 4-star read. It was good food for thought, but it could have been more entertaining.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Edelweiss. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 3 out of 5.