(ARC) REVIEW • Tips to Confessing Your Love at Comic Con (The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash)

[note note_color=”#CFC0B8″ text_color=”#ffffff”]The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash • June 14, 2016 • Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Indigo | Library

Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy…
Archie and Veronica…
Althena and Noth…
…Graham and Roxy?

Graham met his best friend, Roxana, when he moved into her neighborhood eight years ago, and she asked him which Hogwarts house he’d be sorted into. Graham has been in love with her ever since.

But now they’re sixteen, still neighbors, still best friends. And Graham and Roxy share more than ever—moving on from their Harry Potter obsession to a serious love of comic books.

When Graham learns that the creator of their favorite comic, The Chronicles of Althena, is making a rare appearance at this year’s New York Comic Con, he knows he must score tickets. And the event inspires Graham to come up with the perfect plan to tell Roxy how he really feels about her. He’s got three days to woo his best friend at the coolest, kookiest con full of superheroes and supervillains. But no one at a comic book convention is who they appear to be…even Roxy. And Graham is starting to realize fictional love stories are way less complicated than real-life ones.[/note]

[note note_color=”#BFD1D1″ text_color=”#ffffff”]I received this book for free from Simon & Schuster for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.[/note]

First sentence: “I know we’ve been friends for such a long time, Roxana.”

New York Comic Con is around the corner (at least, it is for the characters in The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love), and Graham Posner and Roxana Afsari are desperate to go because the creator of their favorite comic series, Robert Zinc, is coming out of hiding and is scheduled to make an appearance. With this absolutely exciting news that they may possibly see their favorite comic book creator in the flesh, Graham decides to add to that by confessing his love for his best friend. And what better place to do that than at New York Comic Con?

Tips to Confessing Your Love
at Comic Con, according to
The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love

• First, you must have somebody you’re in love with.

For as long as Graham could remember (well, actually since he moved into the neighborhood eight years ago), he’s been in love with his best friend/next door neighbor, Roxana Afarsi. He and Roxy share a lot of love for fandom and comic books, which has grown into a wonderful partnership that has them creating a comic about misfit teenagers and magical powers. There’s no Graham without Roxy. With New York Comic Con approaching, Graham decides to confess his love to Roxy even though the thought scares him.

• Plan out your confession. 

Graham has it all planned out. He and Roxy will go to NYCC together, and they’ll see their favorite comic book creator Robert Zinc. He has a couple of surprises for Roxy that will have her excited and possibly swooning at his thoughtfulness. And then, he’ll confess his love to Roxy! Simple, yes? But of course, not everything goes to plan, especially since it’s Comic Con.

• Anticipate and prepare for disasters to happen (which will happen). 

Forget all the plans you made. Nothing will ever go according to plan, especially when it comes to a big busy event like Comic Con. You can try to make it to every panel or screenings or meet-ups, but sometime, it just doesn’t happen. Mishaps will occur, so you gotta prepare for them.

That’s exactly what happens with Graham. Some unknown force prevents Graham from enacting everything he planned to do for his love confession to Roxy. Things pop up like other friends joining their adventure to NYCC spontaneously, a dreamy Brit befriending the smitten Roxy or not being able to attend the event of the century, or signs in panels that tell him it’s a bad idea. He has to roll with the punches—so to speak—and figure out a different to go about his confession. If that means sacrificing certain things he’s dreamed of or being indebted to his friend for centuries, so be it.

• If all doesn’t go according to plan, get lost and have fun in Comic Con.

It’s Comic Con! There’s a reason Graham goes, and not all of his reasons is to confess to Roxy. He’s there because of Robert Zinc and The Chronicles of Althena. NYCC can be a bit of a distraction. There’s thousands of excited con-goers bustling about the convention center; panels about comic movies, Star War toys, and The Breakfast Club, or about comic writing or drawing; signings of their favorites like Peter Mayhew from Star Wars; costume contests and raffles; and awesome strangers who may share the same interests. Everybody can have fun and nerd out. However, for Graham, he can’t stop thinking about Roxy, always putting her first in his mind.

Should you read The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love? If you want a book that’s cute and light, doesn’t really explore the characters too deeply, and celebrates geek culture, The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love is the read for you! This book is really a love letter that every lover of comics, shows, fandom, and etc will enjoy. It is actually heaven, if you can get past the romance bit in the story (which I personally didn’t care for but at least it’s realistic). It really is a John Hughes meets Comic Con if you’re looking for that type of book.