Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

🌟🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Everything about Jessie is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?

It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son.

In a leap of faith—or an act of complete desperation—Jessie begins to rely on SN, and SN quickly becomes her lifeline and closest ally. Jessie can’t help wanting to meet SN in person. But are some mysteries better left unsolved? 

I think that I picked up Tell Me Three Things at exactly the right time. I've been in and out of a reading slump and trying to read whatever I end up being in the mood for. I really wanted to read a romance but I didn't want it to be too fluffy. This book fit those perimeters perfectly. 

Tell Me Three Things is more than just a romance. Jessie is having a hard time adjusting after the death of her mother when her father suddenly decides to move the both of them into a new house in a different state with a woman he married and her son. The book follows her journey of navigating her new life without her mom with the help of SNa fellow student at her new school wishing to be her guide anonymously. I really enjoyed all of the conversations that she had with SN. There were funny, witty moments but also moments of "real talk" where each of them spoke about areas in their lives that were difficult for them. I figured out who SN was pretty early on in the book so the wait to finally have his identity revealed was extremely frustrating. (FYI he isn't revealed until the end of the book) 

I liked a lot of the characters but the majority of them were not very fleshed out so I think I gravitated towards those ones. I thought that Jessie's stepbrother Theo was a kind of character that I haven't seen before which made him interesting for the novelty but also he seemed to have a complexity to him that I liked. I also liked Jessie because she encountered problems in the book that I have in my life as well so it made it easy to understand her and root for her. However, I think that Ethan was actually my favorite character. He was different from the rest of the students that Jessie encountered and I wanted to know why he was physically present but didn't seem emotionally present with anyone. He was also quirky which I am a sucker for  in a character if it is done right. 

Tell Me Three Things is what I would describe as a fluffier version of loss book. It won't destroy you by making you too emotional but it will get the emotions across so that it doesn't feel as if the author is just glossing over the issues either.

The book was a sweet romance but also an emotional story of loss and finding your place and path in life afterwards. All in all and enjoyable reading experience.