By this stage it’s no surprise that I love Cathy Cassidy. I may not be a middle grade student but I can at least appreciate her writing talent and how light hearted her romances are.

BUT…

I have one teeny tiny issue with her books that constantly appears and that is the classic (and equally annoying) cliche of insta-love. Let’s face it we’ve all seen it before: when theres a cute boy who the girl (or boy) goes heart eyes for and the crush (unexpectedly to the main character but so very obvious to us readers) falls in love with them and before you know it… THEY’RE AN ITEM AND #COUPLE GOALS! Yes… that is EXACTLY what I was reading during Cherry Crush. Now just for having insta love in a book would be something I’d downgrade to at max: a 3 star rating. But given this book was published in 2010 where insta-love wasn’t as hated on, I’ll be generous with it.

But basically, Cherry Costello’s life is about to change. When her dad tells her that they are going to be moving in with his new girlfriend, Cherry didn’t expect to be staying with her 4 cool, pretty and smart step-sisters in Somerset. On her first day there she meets the gorgeous Shay, a boy she immediately falls in love with and hopes might like her in the same way. But little did Cherry know that his heart already belonged to another… her step-sister Honey. Cherry knows her friendship with him is dangerous but that doesn’t mean she’s gonna stay away from him.

I think what made the whole book was the characters and character development. It was spot on and I loved how each girl had their own special talent or hobby that they enjoyed doing. It made the girls and side characters seem more three-dimensional which is always a major positive for a novel. I specifically liked how Cherry was constantly making up fantasies and stories and she had the ability to story-tell like a pro! (I wish I had her skills) and I loved how Cassidy incorporated Japanese culture! Me writing a whole story set in Japan, watching a heck of a lot of Tokyo Ghoul (anime) and being a weekly Jpop/Jrock listener absolutely loved this aspect of Cherry Crush and I really hope to see it in more novels nowadays!

But I think my actual rating for this novel was a 3.5 simply because of the whole insta-love cliche. Maybe if it didn’t have that included then I would’ve loved it even more.