I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Build a Girlfriend by Elba Luz
Published by Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers on January 14, 2025
Genres: YA Contemporary Romance, YA LGBTQ
Pages: 368
Source: the publisher
Format: E-galley
My Rating: 
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Blurb:
A teen deep-dives into her dating history to uncover her mistakes, become the perfect girlfriend, and get revenge on the wrong guy so she can ride into the sunset with the right one in this debut rom-com.
To the surprise of no one, Amelia Hernandez is once again single. It’s her family curse at work; whether it’s by heartbreak, scandal, or even accidental death, every romantic relationship that a Hernandez woman has will meet its demise eventually. And that may be fine with Amelia’s sisters, mom, and aunts, but definitely not with Amelia.
So, convinced that she is the problem, Amelia decides to embark on an “Ex Retrospective:” tracking down her exes, finding out where she went wrong, and using that information to finally become un-break-up-able for whenever her next relationship comes along. Because Amelia is determined to be free of the family curse…and her family.
However, when Amelia is unwillingly reunited with Leon, the ex to end all exes, she can’t resist having a little revenge on the side, too. After all, what better way to test out her new persona of perfect girlfriend traits than on the boy who broke her heart?
But old loves die hard, and as Amelia’s feelings grow more complicated, she suspects that she may be in for more than she bargained for.
Jenny Han meets John Tucker Must Die in this young adult romantic comedy about a bisexual relationship-cursed teenager who decides to revenge-date her ex.
My Review
The publisher reached out to me about this one and I wasn’t completely sure if I’d enjoy it, but I loved the idea of all the cultural aspects to the family, and the whole find out with the exes maybe what was the problem is one type of story that is fun as well. I was lucky enough to have snow days off from work and got to read almost straight through this in a little over a day.
There was a lot of humor, between how the family interacted with each other, which I loved – reminded me in ways of the sarcastic qualities of my own family, and the clumsiness and awkwardness that Amelia seemed to go through life and on her dates with. It was easy to see why Amelia wanted to get out and have a gap year away from her family. As wonderful as they were to have around and just be there for her, it also was a bit suffocating for her, not to mention no one had ever really asked what she actually wanted. She gave a description at the end of how she wasn’t good at anything, and not in a way that she was putting herself down, but a way she was describing that the choices she’d made led her to not know what she liked or try to get better at things other than what her family wanted or expected her to do. And those weren’t the things she was good at, or cared to get better at.
Her romantic life was funny, but also I definitely cringed for her a lot. The whole going back to try with exes reminded me both of one of my favorite books/movies – What’s Your Number? and also the episode of The Big Bang Theory when Raj had all his exes meet him and then he asked them questions about what went wrong and what he could do to improve. Of course there was the ONE ex, Leon, who suddenly showed back up in her life. The one who had broken her heart, and never apologized or even explained why he did what he did. And here he is back again in her life, and he still does neither of those things.
That irritated me for her, I mean if he’d just explained it could have saved so much heartache early on. Not to mention maybe she wouldn’t have gotten the revenge plan in her head. All the different things that made Amelia end up going viral, embarrassing things, made so much of the book, and wow, it just sucked for her! And oh did I want to punch that person at the end, I had a feeling that the little journal was going to get in the wrong hands, I just didn’t expect that to happen!
But it wasn’t just a romance, there was the whole issue with her family and how she felt with them, even as she loved them as much as she did. The moment when she talked about why she wasn’t good at anything, and then the whole what you might call “come to Jesus” discussion with her family was so good. There was so much emotion, and so many things that came out, it was great having her mom kind of come out and take a stand, as it seemed Amelia’s mother really did need to do something to take care of herself. And the things that we learned about her aunts, things they’d done and not told her, and how they reacted and possibly changed after the big talk, all of it made for so much more than just a contemporary romance type of story.
I had one small issue, but it is something that would be very unpopular as an opinion right now, so I won’t list it, and it was the reason I was unsure about taking the book and marked it down to 4.5 stars on my blog. However I was so into this story, once I picked it up with time to read I could barely put it down. Another one I can’t wait to share with my students!
About the Author
ELBA LUZ (she/her/hers) is a Puerto Rican author and a lover of stories,whether in the form of anime, manga, video games, or, of course, books.Speaking of books, she should be writing her own. Instead, you’ll probablyfind her replaying Final Fantasy, listening to classical music, or cuddling upwith her adorable pit bull, Stormy.
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