3 reasons Tweet Cute is every bit as adorable as its title suggests
Emma Lord’s Tweet Cute is a debut novel that’s just as adorable as its title suggests — and it makes for the perfect escape on a cold winter day.
With so many new YA novels hitting shelves this January — and in 2020 in general — it can be difficult to decide what to read first. But anyone looking for a comical and sweet rom-com to cozy up with should consider giving Emma Lord’s debut, Tweet Cute, a chance. A romance heavily wrapped up in Twitter wars and delicious food, the story is every bit as adorable as its title and synopsis would suggest, and it’s the perfect one to escape into for some shenanigans and fun.
Tweet Cute follows Pepper and Jack, two high school students who wind up on opposite sides of a Twitter war between their family restaurants. While Pepper’s parents have turned Big League Burger into a well-known national chain, Jack’s are still running his grandmother’s local deli. But when Big League Burger is accused of stealing the name and ingredients of one of Jack’s grandmother’s recipes, relations between the two restaurants quickly heat up on the internet.
Neither Pepper or Jack wants to exhaust themselves with a useless Twitter feud, but Pepper’s mother is insistent she keeps posting — and Jack isn’t going to go down without a fight. And their increasing fondness for one another doesn’t help as the online situation escalates. All might be fair in love and Twitter, but can their friendship survive if things go too far?
To make matters worse, they’re dealing with college applications and their impending futures — which may not be the same futures their parents want for them. Jack, in particular, knows he wants to be an app developer instead of taking over the family business.
And speaking of apps, Jack and Pepper are also dealing with Jack’s latest creation: an app called Weazel that has unexpectedly taken their high school by storm. Enabling students to talk anonymously, the app only complicates things for Jack and Pepper — especially once readers realize they’ve been speaking to (and crushing on) each other for months without knowing who the other person is.
As you might imagine, both characters go on an emotional roller coaster throughout Tweet Cute (though, to be fair, it’s a fun one). There are so many reasons to pick up Lord’s new YA release, but here are the three biggest appeals.
The love-to-hate Twitter war
While Jack and Pepper hardly dislike one another for all that long, Tweet Cute does put a new twist on the typical hate-to-love romance story with their Twitter competition. Anyone who loves snark will enjoy reading their savage Tweets to one another, and they’ll eat up their text and Weazel conversations as well.
Also worth noting is how impressively Lord manages to balance the Twitter conversations and texts with dialogue and scene. The story never feels bogged down by one or the other; instead, the technology complements what’s happening to the characters IRL, both narratives constantly pushing each other forward.
The anonymous app
If you’re a sucker for the whole teens-fall-for-one-another-anonymously-online storyline (Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, anyone?), you’ll get a kick out of Tweet Cute for that trope alone. It’s almost comical watching Pepper and Jack repeatedly fail to pick up on the similarities between the person they’re speaking to on Weazel and the person they’re falling for in person, and Lord builds up this portion of the story well enough that the big reveal truly does feel earned by the end.
The foodie vibes
Anyone who loves food will find themselves addicted to Tweet Cute, if only for the quirky recipes that pop up within its pages. Not only is the entire premise of the novel based on a grilled cheese — I mean, come on, I’m hungry thinking about it — but, thanks to Pepper’s love of baking, eccentric desserts are a staple of the story. If nothing else, Tweet Cute will definitely leave you considering what to bake first: Monster Cake or Kitchen Sink Macarons. (Pro trip: Just make both!)
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