The Way You Make Me Feel By Maureen Goo Book Review

“‘Just give me the suspension! Leave me out of this UN deal!; I cried.

Principal Sepulveda chuckled. “It’s going to be an interesting summer, Clara.”

(pg. 37)

About

Author: Maureen Goo

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

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Synopsis

From the author of I Believe in a Thing Called Love, a laugh-out-loud story of love, new friendships, and one unique food truck.

Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined. But maybe Rose isn’t so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) crushing on her is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad’s business. What if taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind? 

With Maurene Goo’s signature warmth and humor, The Way You Make Me Feel is a relatable story of falling in love and finding yourself in the places you’d never thought to look.

Review

Spoilers Contained Below

To all those young and wild,

Oh, the things this book made me feel 😆

This is my first Maurene Goo book and I’ve heard nothing but good things about her writing, so I was excited to get into this book.

At first, I was veeeeeeerrrrrryyyyy off put by everything, but the more that I read, the more appreciation I had for how and why Maurene set up the book, characters, and plot the way she did.

For me, this was genuinely the first time I went into a book and didn’t instantly love the main character. It’s such a different feeling when you read a book and you don’t already find that love with the protagonist because I think that when you find that connection or the things you like about the character, it makes the story easier to follow along and to like. I’ve never really thought about how the main character makes or breaks a book, until I read this and it’s interesting how much of a difference it made.

It’s not that I didn’t like Clara, I just thought she was a typical, rebellious, insecure, hormonal, kind-of-selfish and a jerk kind of teen. She gave me all the wrong vibes and it wasn’t that I disliked her fully, but I understood her. She was 16, it’s natural that she acted the way she did, especially given her upbringing. Her parents never really married, so she was raised by a young dad and her mom traveled the world as a social media influencer. The fact that Maureen Goo was on the whole social media influencer track as the mom’s job was very on point given how prominent a profession it is today. I also loved the fact that her dad was a teen dad who raised her because in most books we see the mom being the one who stays if it’s a teen parent situation, so to see it in the case of the opposite sex—-the dad—-being the one who stayed was such a good touch. I come from a family where my dad was the one who practically raised my siblings and I and I never felt like the media ever did dad’s justice because it’s always the mom on the pedestal. Don’t get me wrong, I HIGHLY admire mothers because, heck, HAVE YOU SEEN OR LEARNED ABOUT THE PREGNANCY PROCESS OR BIRTH? 😳 Yea, if you’ve been educated on how babies are born or you had the sex education to watch a birth video, you would know that that is NOT easy, so my utmost respect to all mothers. But I think there’s a fine line between being a mother and being a mom. To me, being a mother means you gave birth to a child and you don’t really care for the baby——no maternal care. To be a mom, means to be there for the child throughout his/her whole life and to put that child at the center of that mom’s life. It’s about going the extra mile with wiping all the spit up, bandaging the knee, holding the child during the first break up,——it’s so much more. So yes, I did think Clara’s mother was a mother because she wasn’t there for Clara, which I could also see why.

The mom was a teen mom; she was practically a baby herself. So she wanted to explore the world and not be tied down to someone or something. She also wanted to be independent for herself and that meant not being with Adrian (Clara’s dad) and Clara. For Clara, it’s hard because she idolizes her mother and you can see that in the way Clara talks or has goo-goo eyes whenever she mentions her mother. At her age, it’s also understandable why she would hold her mother on a pedestal because she’s a teen girl for crying out loud, she’s going through puberty, her hormones are changing, and she’s having boy issues, of course she would want her mom through all of that. There are things you can only share with a mom and I felt that for Clara because I know what that feels like to not have a mother figure. I also felt like Clara idolized her mom because she missed her a lot and never saw her. The only way Clara saw her was through social media like everyone else in the world and I think like everyone else, Clara saw the glamorous life her mother had and thought how magical her life must be compared to her dad’s food truck and small apartment. And it’s hard not to compare that.

Because Clara hardly saw her mom, she was supposed to meet her mom in Tulum during the summer. I could feel Clara’s excitement because it’s hard to be away from a parent, but when the whole punishment from Adrian came where she couldn’t go, part of me felt like it was the right thing to do because Clara did act childish, but I also felt bad because she should get to go see her mom.

Putting all that together, I understood where Clara was coming from. She felt like she was abandoned in part by her mother who she just wanted a connection with. This really affected her other relationships with her friends and family because I knew she never wanted to care about someone or something so much that it would leave her or disappoint her like her mother did when she left. I also felt her mother leaving made her stop caring so much because if the one person who should have cared for her so naturally could leave her, Clara might have unconsciously felt like other people could stop doing that too. To save herself the hurt of losing more people in her life, she shut them out, ran away when things got too hard, or she made jokes out of them because it was easier to shake it off as something funny that made it be seriously real.

This explained to me why Clara was who she was. And she wasn’t my cup of tea in the beginning. I didn’t really like her kiddish pranks all that amusing or her little jokes. I thought they were all screaming for attention because maybe part of her felt like if she did something completely bad, someone would pay attention and care for her. I mean, her whole show at the gym with going up to the podium was kind of over the top and her making a scene at prom was uncalled for. I get it, she thought the whole Carrie fake blood thing was funny, but it really was immature. She ruined prom for everyone else because everyone was looking to have a good time and here she was making a mockery and a joke of it. People voted her for to poke fun at the whole seriousness of prom queen, which is fine—-if the people voted for her, then the people voted for her. But I think her speech was overzealous and pretentious. I also liked how Rose set her straight when they were talking about things and how Kathy Tamayo wanted to be prom queen because her sister got into a car accident and it would have been an homage to her sister to win. Clara really didn’t see past her own narrowed views of not caring to know that other people did care a lot about things. When Rose mentioned Kathy, I was glad that there was a part of Clara that was human and felt bad for taking the crown away from her. What I thought was funny though was how she knew the dad’s credit card number and how she donated to Kathy as payback for how much that crown would have cost.

Rose was Clara’s best worst enemy. Rose hated her stinking guts and Clara hated hers. Their dislike for each other started ever since Rose tattletaled on Clara for being the idiot teen she was to try to smoke in the bathroom. Later on, I liked how Clara expanded on her actions that day as being under a lot of stress and how trying to smoke was her way of control and to let go of the situation, which I again, get because she doesn’t know better and she wants to not care. But still, I DON”T recommend trying to smoke kids. Stay in school and eat pizza instead. I mean pizza tastes better! 😆

Rose was feisty to go all MMA wrestler on Clara to try to take her crown at prom, which led to the fire that almost burned down the school. I mean, you couldn’t say that their prom was uneventful 😉. That led to the whole punishment of Clara and Rose working at the KoBra, which is Clara’s dad’s food truck that combined his cultural roots of being Korean and Brazilian, which is such a unique mix of identities. I really liked both sides of that and the food sounded amazing. I would love to try his food!

The punishment was a punishment within itself because no way in heck did I think Rose and Clara could get along and work together. At first they didn’t and it was comical to watch them fight it out or be territorial in the food truck with Clara saying she had “seniority” because her dad owned the truck and Rose trying to kiss up. I mean, old habits die hard when you’re a teacher’s pet. But I also thought Rose really did want to learn the ropes of the food business and it was fun to see that. They tried multiple times to get along, but in all the situations I could genuinely see Rose putting in more effort to be civil with Clara, but Clara would get tossed up by anything and she acted out on her emotions if she was embarrassed or mad. One day her “friends” Felix, Patrick, and Cynthia came to the truck and flustered her up, so for some reason Clara had a bad mood and gave Rose a hard time when she knew Rose was right about not cooking the veggies in the pan that just had meat. It created an even bigger blowout where Rose quit.

The turning point for their relationship was when they were tasked with working the Kobra without the dad. At first, I was like the dad’s an I-D-I–O-T because if they almost burnt down the school, they would surely burn down his truck! However, the dad was also onto something 😉 It’s like the Parent Trap logic where the twins were put in the cabin after going on their all out war of sorts with their cabins on the roof, the maple syrup thing, and the fencing. When they were in the cabin they hated each other, but once they started to talk things through and really get to know each other, did they become closer—–you could say twin closer 😉 Clara and Rose were far from being twins, but one of my favorite things about the book was that shift from enemies to friends. It really started when they put themselves in each other’s shoes to understand what the other has been through and why they are the way they are. I think they were having a heart-to-heart one time and Clara opened up to Rose about her mother leaving and how hard that was for her and Rose talked about how she always felt the need to be perfect or live up to this expectation.

“I worry about everything. And sometimes the dumbest stuff keeps worrying me, days and weeks after. . . it’s like this pitch-black field where I’m forced to walk, and I know there’s a giant hole somewhere waiting for me. So I’m constantly thinking about it, when I’m going to drop into this pit.

(pg. 240)

Rose said this later on in their friendship, but I read this and I couldn’t have reacted more.

Because I’m a worry wart like Rose and when you have all these worries in your mind, it sticks with you. Knowing this about Rose also made me form a deeper appreciation for her too.

“No. I mean, yah, of course I worry about what they think. But literally everyone. Like a stranger on the street. If I say something dumb to a barista, it bothers me for weeks. If someone doesn’t respond to a text or e-mail right away , I’m convinced I did something wrong. I feel as if my brain is trolling me.”

(pg. 241)

To some extent, don’t we all feel like our brains “troll us.” It comes from this natural place where we care too much about what other people think of us, whether they like what we wear, whether what we say is offensive or not, or whether or not a reply time equates to a person disliking us or not. And I know all these feelings all too well. Even more so today, I feel like kids are constantly worried about what other people think and to have that overall acceptance from people because we live in a digital age where we want people’s input. I feel like we’ve all been there where we sent pictures of outfit choices to friends asking which one looks better or we’ve gone out of our way to do something nice for someone just so they could like us more. It’s hard because we vie for that approval when it shouldn’t always be about what other people think of us, but what we think of ourselves.

Rose’s characteristic of caring too much also contrasted well with Clara’s attitude of not caring at all and that’s why I believe the friendship worked out so well. They balanced each other. I really thought it was funny how in the beginning Clara and Rose would fight over not playing NPR on the radio and then eventually Clara gave in and didn’t care. I also enjoyed the way they would text each other as friends and how you could start to see their dynamic really take off when Rose develops a thick skin because she got used to Clara’s antics/jokes. The more they also started to hang out the more I enjoyed their friendship because who literally would have thought they would ever be close. They didn’t even think they would be. I thought it was sweet when they talked about how they never had a real “girlfriend’ to talk to before because Clara would hang out with the guys and Rose never had time for friends. But they found friendship in each other and I liked how they were there.

I loved their hang outs at the pool and how in tune they now were at working at the Kobra. They were a literal team.

But I loved how Rose helped Clara during her whole crush with Hamlet.

To be or to not to be. . . . I mean, we had to throw in a Shakespeare joke!

Hamlet’s an eccentric, one of a kind young man. I mean that in a good way. The guy can work a sign with his gymnastic moves and everything so I give him credit. IN some ways, Hamlet came across too good to be true because no boy I have ever met in real life is any ounce peppy or kind as Hamlet. His crush on Clara also seemed a bit pushed if you know what I mean. I feel like obviously, Hamlet would be the love interest because he’s the only teenage boy in this book so DUH Clara and him would be a thing. I knew that, you knew that, my imaginary dog knew that (I don’t own a dog, but a girl can dream 😁). So having Hamlet in the book and him already being instantly drawn to Clara with looking at her longer, getting nervous around her, and being scared to touch her was like a big DUH moment for me that the romance seemed inevitable for them when I like my romances natural.

If I’m being honest, part of me was pinning that Rose and Clara would fall in love 🤭 I mean, it would be a good love-to-hate romance and it would have been very progressive. I feel like if Maurene Goo were to rewrite this book, there would be a real special thing going for the plot to have Rose secretly be in love with Clara and Clara figuring out her sexuality or exploring her sexuality with Rose. I mean, it would have made an interesting story because Hamlet didn’t even show up until page, I don’t know, 100?!

Nevertheless, I liked Hamlet because he cared about Clara in the right ways. He was always the gentleman and gave her smoothies and he bought her a bouquet of roses (TWICE!) when assigned and going on a date with her. I thought it was cute the way Clara and Rose texted about what Clara was going to wear for the date and Clara sent her a picture of her sweats, hair in a messy bun, and eating chips on the couch! I mean, what a beauty! Rose was not having it and came over with all these dresses that Clara could try on and I loved the whole sisterly bonding vibe I got because it’s such a sisterly thing to do. I also thought it was funny that Rose didn’t know whether or not she was invited to stay for dinner because she’d never been over to someone’s house before in that way. It’s kind of sad to think about.

Hamlet was also such a good person because it took it slow and on Clara’s pace. I MEAN GET YOU A 16 YEAR OLD BOY WHO IS THAT PATIENT! 👏🏼👏🏼 I mean, they don’t make boys like that anymore! Whoever raised Hamlet, did a job well done! *Chefs kisses* I absolutely loved how he had the kindest to have OPTIONS for Clara on their first date because he didn’t want to assume that she would like the place he picked for their date. I have never heard of someone doing that before, but now I expect no less 😂 Hamlet’s out here reasoning my unrealistic realistic expectations! We love that for me!

Their date was highly awkward as first dates go. I thought it was kind of off the way they got in the restaurant and they were both nervous, so they tried to pass their nerves off with humor. I could feel the awkward tension. When the date switched to going to Hamlet’s friends Grandparents/his caregivers home, I thought the date went much better. Clara kind of pegs me as someone who doesn’t have the best social skills around older people. And she still doesn’t because she doesn’t care the age, she’s going to talk sas no matter what. Which goes back to that idea that she needed a mother to talk her down, but hey, she’s outspoken and there’s some good to that. I also thought it was kind of ridiculous how Hamlet would always say Clara’s funny. “You’re so funny!”

I get it, she’s hilarious 🙄

It was kind of like Liam Hemsworth’s character in Isn’t it Romantic always saying beguiling. If you watched it, you would know what I mean 🤪. But I thought the whole “funny” thing was comical to a point.

It kind of made me wonder why Hamlet liked her anyway. Not that there’s nothing to not like about Clara, but why her. I mean, why not Rose? But it was because she was funny and she wasn’t afraid to tell it straight. She was the balance that Hamlet needed and I really liked how Maurene created these relationships around Clara that balanced her finesse with calmness and intelligence. Her having Hamlet and Rose in her life really changed her for the better because they were positive influences on her rather than her other three “friends.”

“Friends” as in Patrick, Felix, and Cynthia.

When they say you become the people or you are like the people you surround yourself with, I truly believe that. If you spend time with people all the time and they aren’t a good influence on you, you start to pick up on their behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs because you want to be more like them. But when Clara started to hang out more with Hamlet and Rose, I could also see the growth in her. It was a good move on her part not to cut her “friends” out of her life, but to drift apart as to be with people who added meaning to her life.

And I think no one talks about friendship breakups as much as real breakups because it’s so much harder. I would know. But including this aspect in the book was different and meaningful to see how a person can evolve to surrender herself with people who make her better, but how it’s natural. I could feel Clara pull away from her “friends” once she started to befriend Rose more and how she started to pour her love into something like the Kobra. When she got a text to go to the beach, old Clara would have ditched, but this Clara stayed because she knew she had a responsibility to the Kobra, and yes, she might have stayed so she could possibly go to Tulum, but deep down I think she also grew to love the Kobra.

I honestly thought that Clara’s “friends” weren’t a good influence on her and when they say you become or you act like the people you surround yourself the most around, I genuinely believe that. Because she would hang out with Patrick and Felix at the 7-11, acting like they were top of the world everything, when literally I wanted to knock all of them off their high horses to see that tier 16 years-old and to have a little respect. But it also made me wonder about Felix and Patrick’s family dynamic because maybe they had a bard upbringing and that’s why they act the way they do. It’s also like that saying, broken people attract broken people and maybe that’s why they all got along so well at first because they were bonded by their hardships and they wanted to seek attention together.

As Clara started to hang out with Rose and Hamlet more, the more I could see that those were her true friends and the people she needed to surround herself with. They were good for her and made her care about things she pushed away for so long. Felix and Patrick were her escape because they were all trying to escape whatever they were going through, so conversation with them never felt real. With Rose, she could open up and talk about real things like how she felt when her mother left or why she cared so much about her dad. Rose was also a good influence for her in how it got Clara to be around someone more academic. There’s another saying that opposites attract and I do think Rose was her opposite in the best way. Hamlet was also her opposite because he’s someone who openly wears his heart on his sleeve and Clara doesn’t. So when she starts to really fall for Hamlet, every part of me felt like she was terrified because she doesn’t know love and she never had a loving relationship to look up to to set that stage of what love is. And I get it, so I really felt for Clara when she was nervous to open her heart up because I think she also didn’t want it to be real and to have him leave her. I felt completely terrible when she asked Hamlet why he liked her and like a jokester, he said: “You’re funny.” WE GET IT 😖. Then he said the real answer and it’s much more heart-warming because Clara needed that validation that it wasn’t a joke and a guy could actually like her. Not trying to blame her mom, but because she left she felt like her mom never loved her as much.

Clara also stepped up big time at the waterpark when her two friend worlds collided. It was such an interesting dynamic to see because you could tell Clara was nervous at that too; she had her rebellious group and her more refined group. I liked how the childlike innocence of a waterpark bonded them at first, but of course we had to have the “friends” want to do a typical act of teenage rebellion and go into the area that wasn’t safe to go to. They honestly weren’t thinking because if this was a new water park and someone tells you don’t go into an area, chances are it’s because it’s 1) UNSAFE and 2) NOT DONE 😖! I was already imagining Felix, Patrick, and Cynthia sliding down the slide onto concrete because, that would be just their luck that that would happen. I liked how we got to see into Clara’s mind at this part because every part of her wanted to join them because she loves the rush and to act out, but the fact that she didn’t emphasized how much she grew as a person to not act out. Once she saw the actual concern of Hamlet and Rose, she knew it was a serious situation and flipped her mindset again from being rebellious to doing the right thing.

And she did the right thing because gosh darn it, Felix and Patrick ate cement and they ate it gooooood! I feel bad because they’re just kids and they wouldn’t know better, but at the same time they should have listened to Hamlet and Clara when they were screaming at them to literally not do it.

There was that moment when the ambulance came and Clara walked over to Felix and they really had a moment.

“You’re right, we were being jerks. He looked down at his lap/ : But I mean, it kind of sucks. Being ditched, you know?”

. . . “I didn’t ditch you guys.”

He glanced behind me at Rose and Hamlet, who were talking to the EMTs. “Maybe not. But you’re going to.”

(pg. 225-26)

At that moment I felt bad for her “friends” because they’re not bad people, but they just did bad things. They also genuinely liked Clara and I respected that, but I also think deep down Felix and Patrick also knew Clara was better than them and they were always afraid that she would find that out and leave them one day. And now that she was hanging out with Rose and Hamlet, they were living that fear of being left behind. I also respected Clara a lot in how even after this situation with them, she still found a way to reach out to them to ensure that she would always be there. That showed a lot of character because I think in most situations a friend would just leave and forget about the other friends, but I liked how she still wanted them in her life even if her life was evolving.

Speaking of her life evolving, Clara’s going through a lot of changes with her dad.

That is her dad’s dating someone named Kody, whom he has dated before and things fell out. Apparently not too much because they were able to rekindle their romance seriously. Naturally, Clara’s receptive of the relationship because it’s the first time since her mom left that her dad actually was serious about someone. And I can’t speak from personal experience, but I know that it can’t be easy to see your parent be with someone other than the people who gave you life. It’s hard. It’s awkward. It’s uncomfortable. Because as kids we put our parents on a pedestal like their wise sentiment beings who didn’t have a childhood or adolescent years where they screwed up, made mistakes, and dated along the way. We just see them as older people——parents—– and that their life revolves around the child. There’s nothing wrong with that kind of thinking, but when a parent does something so wrong or childish to a child’s eyes, it really erases that pedestal to realize that parents are just older kids who don’t have it figured out. It was a hard pill for me to swallow when things happened in my family. I never realized that parents could make mistakes because somehow they knew “everything.” Sorry to break it to you, they don’t.

So for Clara’s dad to be serious about someone, it’s like that pedestal was finally fully erased. The pedestal was always gone for her since she was young because her relationship with her dad was very much like an older brother rather than parental. He was very lenient to her and never overstepped because I feel like he wanted to be the “cool” parent his parents weren’t. I get that, but I also felt like doing so made Clara feel like she could step all over her dad and get whatever she wanted. In the beginning of the book, another reason I just didn’t like Clara was her outburst and tantrums with her dad because she would say rude things or yell at him like she had a right to everything and the dad had no say. But the dad was in charge of her, so he should have established that structure. But since it was never there, she felt she could always get away with things.

It also explains her outburst towards Kody because she didn’t want her dad moving on from the mom. Maybe a part of her felt like one day things would be “normal” or maybe part of her was just scared that if another woman came into their lives, she wouldn’t be the center of her dad’s attention. So I honestly don’t blame Clara for how she acted with this part of her life because when you’re going through the GUTTER with puberty and hormones, the last thing you want to feel is instability at home.

Over the course of the book, the Kobra becomes like a second home to Clara. It’s funny to look back and think how much she didn’t want to work there and how much passion she had for it. The food truck competition was such a fun idea because I liked how it would boost the dad in hopefully starting his business. I liked that Clara and Rose signed up for it without Adrian’s permission because they wanted to surprise him. When they did, I just could not wrap my head around why he wouldn’t want to enter the competition.

I understand why he might feel intimidated with all the other trucks there, heck, it’s like a Master Chef for food trucks, but he didn’t have to react the way he did to Clara. I think it was unfortunate because he wasn’t in the best mood already and Clara caught him at a bad moment, but I still think that didn’t excuse how he treated her. We also never fully know why Adrian blew up about not wanting to be in the competition and why he needed a 16 year old Rose to convince him to do it. I mean, you’re a grown man who had the guts to start his own gosh darn food truck and you have the nerve to say you don’t want to take another risk for the $100,000 food competition that your daughter good-intentionally signed you up for because it might that kick start your business? What a DWWWEEEB! 😅

I’m joking.

But the way Clara reacted to the situation!?

MY GOODNESS! 😳

Someone take that darn credit card number away from her!!!!!

Like I’m sooooo happy Adrian changed his credit card number after everything! Good for him because giving a 16 year old your credit card number screams bad news.

But the thing was when she ran away from being yelled at by Adrian, Hamlet went to find her and she told him how she was going to run away out of the country and then Hamlet got mad at her because he said he loved her. And if I’m being honest, not to discredit a 16 year old boy’s feelings because you know, he could have felt like he loved her, but still, to be that quick as to say he loved her was kind of unbelievable to me. Sure, to him it was love. To me, it was childish love. Heck, it could be real love in the future and work out for them because I’m not a complete pessimist, but I don’t know, I just don’t buy it with them. Sorry 😅.

But it was sweet he was there when she literally needed a shoulder to cry on.

BUT WHEN THAT GIRL IS UPSET, she is U-P-S-E-T!!!!

In the words of Adrian:

“HOW IS THAT LEGAL? WHAT HAS THIS COUNTRY COME TO? OH, BETTER NOT LETTER IN REFUGEES, BUT SURE, HEY , LET A MINOR FLY TO CENTRAL AMERICA!”

(pg. 262)

I mean that is kind of fishy. Can you really travel to another country as a minor 🤔? I don’t think that’s ethical nor safe. If you’re 18 years old, I could see how you could travel to another country by yourself, but younger than that, that just doesn’t seem right. I would have screamed my head off on her too. Heck, I would have choked on my spit yelling at her because honestly Clara’s overreaction takes the Grammy, the Oscar, the Super Bowl trophy. It was grand.

But you know what?

Adrian was pretty cool about it after he knew Clara was safe. And I think as a parent, you will probably be COMPLETELY MAD at your child for having done something as bonkers as fly to another country without permission, but you just want your child to be safe too. I think he also thought that Clara needed space and maybe she really did need her mom. I respect Adrian as a father in this way because it’s not easy raising a teenage girl because there’s somethings you just don’t know how to do as easily as a mom would do. I feel like maybe he also gave her space because part of him felt bad like he failed her—–like he didn’t react the best and he regretted it or that he couldn’t be the “fun” or the “cool” enough parent compared to the social influencer mom.

The mom was a piece of work and I loved that we got to see her in this book.

Clara puts her mom on a pedestal because of the glamorous lifestyle she had. She also hardly sees her mom so she wants to form that connection with a maternal figure. But it hurt my heart for Clara when the mom didn’t arrive to pick her up at the airport, but she didn’t know so it’s not like she could have gone. But the mom said she would have sent a car to get her. Clara stood there and made all the justifications for her mom, but nothing can really justify how obvious it was the mom didn’t care. Because if the mom cared enough she would have been the one to get Clara if she knew she was coming. She also wasn’t in tune with the way Clara just wanted to spend time with her rather than party.

It’s those intimate moments that mean the most with a parent, you know. I thought it would have been cute if they cuddled up in the same room and watched a movie like mother and daughters should. But I was also off put by the idea that Clara had her own villa. Like, did the mom really have to get her own daughter her own villa? Why wouldn’t you want to be under the same roof as her to spend time with her after not seeing her for literally a year? 🤔

*Shakes head*

I also didn’t like how the mom would Story everything because for me that just meant everything was for show. I know whenever someone posts something about me on purpose, it’s just for the sake of other peoples’ viewing pleasure so they know I did this with this person and we “had such great time.” It’s honestly unsettling because if a person truly was having a good time with you, they wouldn’t feel the need to record it and then say it for millions to see. I think there’s a difference though between Storying something showing you’re having a good time rather than saying it. There’s just something inauthentic to that—-like you have something to prove. I just wanted the mom to be present with Clara and to really catch up with her daughter instead of being engulfed in her party because your daughter flew literally across the country to come see you and you can’t even give her two seconds of your undivided attention and love?

My absolute favorite part of the book was when Clara took a day to herself in Tulum with the iPad and she saw all the emails between her mom and dad. All this time the dad had been emailing the mom about what Clara wanted for her birthday, to even remind her of Clara’s birthday, what Clara felt at the time and to talk to her. The dad was always the one who noticed things and cared for her. He knew that Clara also wanted a connection with the mom so he went out of his way to include her in Clara’s life so that Clara could have that relationship. What hurt me about the whole thing was how Adrian never got the credit because, yes, he wasn’t the richest dad and couldn’t buy Clara everything she ever wanted, but the mom could. And she got the glory from Clara when the dad didn’t. Instead, for the longest time Clara felt like their life was “average” or grimy because they lived in an apartment. But when she saw those emails and had that ache in her heart for her dad, it meant a lot because in that moment she truly understood how much her dad did and cared for her; how much her dad was there for her in her life rather than the mom.

And don’t even get me started on how the mom tried to take credit for raising Clara because in no means did she do ANY OF THAT!!! Past Clara would have gone off on her mom to defend her dad. That would have been the only time I would have liked to see Clara throw a tantrum. But, now we have a changed woman who kept her mouth shut. A mature one. I tell you, I am no parts mature 😆.

“But everything about my mom—-her uncomplicated ambitions, the superficial friendships, never leaving her comfort zone—-it all reminded me of . . . well, me. And I understood her.

I just didn’t want to be her anymore.”

(pg. 293-4)

When Clara came to this realization while watching her mom, I felt her maturity really cemented inside of her. Because her mom was a free, go -with-the-flow person with her social media influencer job, she had fake friends that she partied with kind of like Clara had “friends” back home that she never had a real conversation or connection with, and her mom never left her comfort zone because she never wanted to be a mom enough to try because it might have scared her, so she left. And Clara never left her comfort zone because she was scared to try and when things got hard back home, she flew to another country. And they were alike. But Clara saying she didn’t want to be her mom anymore was a step in the right direction for her to be better. Not that her mom isn’t a good person or someone other people could look up to—-heck, she’s an influencer—–but for Clara, I don’t think it was healthy for her to be everything her mom was when that didn’t challenge her to be better. It was also Clara owning up to her own identity by choosing to not be her mom and to be the one to have dreams, create meaningful relationships, and to not run away.

So she booked it home just in time for the competition.

As much as Hamlet and Clara’s relationship wasn’t my favorite, I had to admit it was pretty darn sweet when he showed up at the airport and did his whole sign twirling thing for Clara. The sign said my girlfriend. I mean, HOW CUTE🙈 Get you a Hamlet!

But the CUTEST moment of the entire book was when Clara saw her dad.

“The day my mom left, the feeling of her hard pressed against my face and the wetness of her tears were immediately forgotten when my dad scooped me up in his arms and took me down to this very park we were standing in. Putting me on the little train that traversed through creeks, horse stables, and trees. The worst day turned into a magical one.

My first day of kindergarten, the first time I’d been truly apart from my dad and left with strangers. He let me wear his old Bone Thugs-N-Harmony T-shirt, tied into a knot at the waist, and the animal charm bracelet my mom had mailed me for good luck. When I couldn’t stop crying, he stayed parked outside the school, within view of the window all day—-missing his first day at a new job and getting fired.

Being picked up from a sleepover in fifth grade when all the girls circled around me and asked me why my dad was so young and was he really my brother and where were my real parents. My dad pounded on the front door of Lily Calling-Wang’s house so hard that the entire family woke up. He bought me a McDonald’s hot fudge sundae on the midnight drive home and we sang along to TLC’s “No Scrubs.”

My dad’s expression as he sat in the doctor’s office with mea I got a shot for a bacterial infection, wailing. Not being able to tell if it was his palm that was sweaty or mine as he grasped my hand, so tight.

My dad’s expression, again, as he read the instructions on the back of a tampon box out loud to me as I lay curled up in a fetal position on my bed, torn between laughter and tears.

And his expression, now. I realized right then—-how disappointed you could be when you were all in with someone. When you cared so deeply. How your heart could break, so precisely.

But I’d always known that. Ever since my mom left my dad, left us. And everything since then has been an attempt to keep myself so far away from all that. Anything teal, anything difficult to hold onto.

(pg. 303-4)

Rose was crying. Hamlet was crying. I WAS CRYING 😫

I MEAN, HOW COULD YOU NOT HAVE CRIED!?????

There’s just something that resonated a lot with me with the whole reflection of how her dad was there throughout it all because I have a similar situation to Clara’s. And as I said before, no one gives credit to dad’s as parents, but we need to highlight them more as so. Because there are strong, caring, independent dad’s out there who do so much for their kids and never get the love or recognition they deserve. It warmed my heart up in the best way possible in how her dad was there to show her the happiness when Clara’s life was falling apart. How he was also losing someone he loved, but how he put his daughters happiness before his own. I loved how he sacrificed his job to be there with Clara when she was scared to go to school and how he also gave her pieces of him to remember him when he was in school. I loved that he bought Clara McDonald’s ice cream when she cried at a sleepover and they sang “No Scrubs.” It’s just so weird because I remember I cried at a sleepover too when I was young and my dad came to pick me up. He didn’t buy me ice cream. But heck, he was there. And “No Scrubs” is a bop 😁! I loved how the dad was there, feverous as Clara was when she was sick. Because dad’s—all parents—-get worried for their kids that they feel their nerves, their pain, and their happiness. But I absolutely LOVED how the dad read the tampon box instructions because not all dads would do that. And it showed how much he wanted to help her and how close they were. My dad loves me, but I don’t think he would have ever done that. EVER. And I would have been MORTIFIED to even ask.

But the way Maurene Goo led it up to seeing the dad in the moment was BEAUTIFUL. Chef’s kisses 😘👌🏼! Because seeing her dad reminded her of all the good times and bad times that they’ve been through——-but been through together. It also emphasized how they were able to push past all those hardships as a team. And that was also the moment Clara knew that she pushed things away because she didn’t want to hurt, but now she wanted things that were real as the love her dad had for her.

“There were two faces looking out at me from the windows on the Kobra. Rose wiped her eyes, and Hamlet was openly crying.”

(pg 306)

Can I CRY WITH THEM!? 😭

If you have such a close relationship with a parent or your parents, this part really hits you in the heart.

I liked how Clara apologized to Adrian, but he couldn’t stay mad at her no matter how much he wanted because she was his daughter and he loved her. When they made up, they buckled down and got to work making their food. When the winners were going to be announced there was a big part of me that KNEW that they weren’t going to win. Not because I didn’t want them to, but it would have felt too easy for the plot if Clara came back, made up with her dad, and then miraculously won the food truck competition.

So it didn’t surprise me when they had their Camp Rock 2 kind of ending when their name wasn’t announced. I could just see Demi Lovato’s face fall as Camp Star cheered behind 🤪

What made it more meaningful was the fact that the food judge went up to the dad and wanted to invest in him because anyone can win a lot of money with a food competition to start a business, and yea, that can do wonders for someone’s career. But to lose and still have the interest of a renewed chef who wants to invest in your business because he believes in it that much, is much more gratifying. I think. Adrian also deserved it because he pours his love and soul into his work and it shows. I also thought after everything he’s been through and all that he’s done as a father, he needed one good thing to happen for him and this was it. This was his moment to make his dream come true.

What I still don’t get is why Adrian would let a 16 year old drive a food truck, let alone a food truck in the dark? I mean, I can’t even drive a Corolla in broad daylight and yet she can drive a GIGANTIC FOOD TRUCK!? My gosh, Adrian should become a driver’s ed instructor if his business doesn’t take off 😆

But the ending scene where Clara took them to the California lookout area was beautiful. It was very serene in the way that she had all the people she loved with her looking out over the place she loved. I also liked the self-reflection she had in knowing her life was forever changed and how it definitely wasn’t the summer she thought it was going to be. It was better. And I think that’s the beauty with life in how sometimes you plan things and you put things on a pedestal because you want so badly for things to work out, but sometimes plans change and those can be the best situations. They can also be the worst, but maybe it’s through the worst that you learn the most from to be better. This was her good and her bad.

I also enjoyed the conversation she had with Hamlet about how she couldn’t tell him she loved him. APPLAUSE FOR CLARA FOR BEING MATURE ENOUGH TO OWN UP TO HER HEART. She could have given an empty I love you to him to pacify him like any other girl or she could have ran away from her too real feelings—–what she started to feel with him—-but she owned up to knowing she liked him. And hey, maybe it wasn’t love, but it wasn’t a great enough a feeling to give it a shot. And I respect that. Because it takes a lot to say, “You know what, I like you, but I don’t love you and I’m figuring things out.” It never has to be an all or nothing thing and I also liked how Hamlet understood that and was courteous enough to give her time. Sure, it sucked not being told you’re loved by the girl you fell in love with, but as a teenage boy, my GOSH, he was also so mature enough to let her have her space. And it all kind of goes back to how I never really pinned for Clara and Hamlet as a couple and who knows, maybe they will be or will not be something in the future, but as of the moment I liked how she was open to love.

Clara really is someone who gets under your fingernails in the best way because I REALLY did not like her when this book started, but I really appreciated how she learned to love, be vulnerable, and to care. I loved the maturity she displayed when she really put her heart into something. She’s not a bad kid and I think if she had more structure and she had a stable model for love early on, she wouldn’t have been as rebellious as a kid. But I think you have to go through what you grow through and Clara did exactly that.

If you read this book, what was your favorite part? Least favorite part? What would your cultural food truck be a mix of? 😄 Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕

I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this.

And as always, with love,

Rating

4.53 Full Bloom Flowers

Characters: Clara is a Lindor chocolate. She’s rough on the outside, but when you slowly bite in and get to know her, she’s all smooth and wholesome inside. She really is someone you learn to love.

Plot: I really loved the way Maureen Goo included different topics in one story from friendship, family, and growing up. It wasn’t just a typical romance and that was the best part.

Writing: The humor had me cracking up and every page had me turning

Romance: Not a big fan of the romance in this book, but I appreciated how it played out in a very mature way.