SEVEN PERCENT OF RO DEVEREUX BY ELLEN O’CLOVER // spoiler-free book review: finally reviewing one of my fave books of 2023 & forever screaming over this author

It’s been a long time coming but. It’s you and me. That’s my whole world. Miss Ro Devereux isn’t a… bad bad girl? Okay fun over, that was bad. But I hope I expressed my excitement ovet this book in some small way?

If you’ve been here a while, you may have noticed and I’ve read and adored both of these author’s books. I just haven’t sat down to yell about them in their own post. Well except for this fun thing I did…

Yeah go read that, we had a lot of fun. Anyways, enough babbling because I NEED TO GUSH SO STINKING BAD!!!!

Title: Seven Percent of Ro Devereux
Author: Ellen O’Clover
Page count: 320
Date published: 17 January 2023
Genre: Young Adult contemporary romance

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Synopsis:

Ro Devereux can predict your future. Or at least, the app she’s created can. Inspired by the iconic kids’ game, MASH calculates details about your life with 93% accuracy, like where you’ll live and what your career will be. It can even match you with your soulmate.

When MASH goes viral, swanky Silicon Valley app developer XLR8 swoops in to partner with Ro. She’s thrilled until she’s betrayed by her own algorithm and matched with her ex-best friend Miller, the person who hates her most in the world.

Thrust into the spotlight and labeled America’s sweethearts, Ro and Miller watch MASH spread like wildfire. As the app takes on a life of its own, Ro realizes it’s changing how people exist in society. And that if she can’t regain control, MASH might take her—and everything she believes in—down with it.

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Big thanks to the author and Harper Teen for the eARC via Netgalley! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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STAR RATING: (5 out of 5 stars)

If a book makes me cry, then she automatically gets 5 stars!!!! Didn’t expect this one to hit so hard but we loved starting 2023 with a bang *sighs*

I AM STILL PROCESSING THIS EMOTIONAL WHIRLWIND GIMME A SECOND!!!!!

Seriously, I’m not exaggerating here. I was crying because I related SO HARD to the main character. Here’s the formula to get Ruby to cry: grief + abandonment anxiety = tears. Truly, every single time. It hits oh so very close to home and I don’t know what to tell you.

Alright, let’s attempt a review here!

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I’ll straight up say that this book is very much YA and I definitely do not mean that in a bad way. But you do need to remember that these characters are young and frustrating and make mistakes and yeah same here I relate. I’ll save characters till the end of this review, but I did want to preface that. And also a round of applause because Ellen O’Clover writes teenagers SO WELL! The perfect narrative voice, setting, and dialogue. Twas all A++++

I actually struggled with the plot at first. You need to suspend your disbelief but also this author makes this whacko viral sensation very believable. But the characters are frustrating, you watch them make mistakes and want to strangle them. But I think this makes the book all the more better watching Ro learn from her mistakes. Serious brownie points for the development.

A minute of silence for the cover folks!!! Everything in this book is just hitting wth???

The writing was… actually I don’t know how to describe it. On the surface, it’s very simplistic but underneath she really packs a heavy punch that had me floored. IT HITS ME RIGHT WHERE IT HURTS I STILL AM IN PAIN. I do not kid when I say I cried. I was glued to these pages and then all of a sudden every single pain Ro had was my pain and the tears kept on coming. For a debut? To be THAT good? Love to see it.

And Ro. OH! MY! GOD! I didn’t think I would relate so hard but I did. As soon as she talked about her mother leaving, she had me by the neck and I would literally jump in front of a bus for this silly but insanely smart girl I LOVE YOU BBY. SCREAMING INTO ETERNITY!!!!!! The way that she talks about her fears and anxieties about people leaving,,, um I don’t think I’ve read about someone who experiences that nor put into words exactly how I feel sometimes. Not to be sappy, but it’s true and… I guess we went to therapy in this book?

Also, who gave this book rights to start telling me about how unpredictable life is and will mostly never go your way but to listen to the people who love you and!!!! I did not sign up for that P-A-I-N!!!!! Don’t even get me started on her dad, Miller’s mom, Veram,,, hugs to all of you. Except Ro’s awful mother who I definitely hated. Okay, I burst into tears again… ahhh still crying…

And lastly, this beautiful beautiful romance that has my entire heart and I will protect Mo (aka Ro and Miller obvs) at all costs. Miller is… I mean too much of a sweetheart and maybe my new favourite. Where do I find a man who cries at giving away a hamster? I LOVE HIM TO BITS. Loved him faking being mad at her. Love their little enemies era. Love childhood friends to enemies to lovers as a whole. We all knew. Their relationship was far too pure for this world and must be protected at all costs. Maybe one of the best YA relationships I’ve read in a while? CHEFS FREAKING KISS

What else did this book not do? She ticked every single box and I will be screaming about it so we can cry together. If you’re looking for a showstopper debut of a YA contemporary with a deeply relatable main character, complex discussions on one’s parental figures, a glorious slow-burn romance and some tears, Ro Devereux has got you covered *sobbing wink wink*

“We heard each other in that language between two people who’ve never known a life without the other in it. He didn’t have to speak to tell me he was upset. I didn’t have to show him my hurt for him to believe it was there. When we fought, there were no teeth to it—Miller was like air, a given. He’d be there the next day, and the next.”

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“After a lifetime of sharing everything, Miller had chosen not to share my shame. Not to make space for that cowardly person inside me who spent a week crying into his voice mail. Miller had watched me wheedle for his own mother’s affection from the moment mine left. Miller had pulled me bleeding from the Gossamer Lake dam. Miller had been there for every ugly, awful thing. But when we were fifteen, I made a mistake and Miller decided the relief of being free of me was finally bigger than the pain of losing me.”

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“We were like wedges of the same fruit, the skin between us nearly translucent. Our lives blurred together.”

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“It occurs to me, distantly, that my pain is painful for him—that we’re as connected now as we’ve always been. But this is a mess I’ve made. A pain I need to feel.”

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“You’re the one place I fit,” I tell him. He looks at me and I know him, more than I’ve ever known anything else—all the stories between us, and the unguarded marvel of his laugh, and the way I feel him in a room before I even know he’s there. Like the whole universe sees us, the stars moving around our axis.”

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“My mother made me the kind of person who can write an algorithm, but Vera taught me life doesn’t follow a formula. And that its unpredictability—all its surprises and its sorrows—are what make it worth living at all.”

HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? WHAT DID YOU THINK? WHO DID YOU RELATE TO MOST? HAVE I CONVINCED YOU TO READ THIS BOOK? WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE YA CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE BOOKS? I’D LOVE TO KNOW!