Alex, Approximately - Jenn Bennett

 My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Classic movie fan Bailey "Mink" Rydell has spent months crushing on a witty film geek she only knows online as Alex. Two coasts separate the teens until Bailey moves in with her dad, who lives in the same California surfing town as her online crush. Faced with doubts (what if he's a creep in real life - or worse?), Baily doesn't tell Alex she's moved to his hometown. Or that she's landed a job at the local tourist-trap museum. Or that she's being heckled daily by the irritatingly hot museum security guard, Porter Roth - a.k.a.  her new arch nemesis. 

But life is a whole lot messier than in the movies, especially when Bailey discovers those tricky fine lines dividing hate, love, and whatever it is she's starting to feel for Porter. And as the summer months go by, Bailey must choose whether to cling to a dreamy online fantasy in Alex or take a risk on an imperfect reality with Porter. The choice is both simpler and more complicated than she realizes, because Porter Roth is hiding a secret of his own: Porter is Alex...Approximately."

Our story starts off with an online exchange between Alex and Mink where Alex invites Mink to fly out to California over the summer and join him for his town's annual film festival. Mink brushes it off and jokes about considering, but all the while, in the wake of her mom's bitter divorce from her stepdad, she is actually moving to that very town to live with her dad, a sci-fi loving accountant who I could not possibly adore more. As noted in the summary, Mink, better known by most as Bailey, is reluctant to tell Alex that she is coming because regardless of how well they get along, she has no way of knowing whether he is who he says he is, and after a bad experience several years ago, she is cautious about who she trusts and what information she shares with strangers. (Good call, Mink! Always better to be safe than sorry.)

So...Bailey arrives in sunny Coronado Cove and promptly begins her search for Alex, relying on the few clues she has to where she might find him. Her search time, unfortunately, is limited by her summer job at The Cavern Palace, a museum better known by locals as "The Cave." Her first day comes with highs and lows - high, she meets gregarious, foul-mouthed Grace Achebe, and the two become fast friends; low, she has her second run-in with Porter Roth, grandson of local surfing legend Pennywise Roth, and as far as Bailey can tell, a complete and utter douchebag. The two butt heads immediately, and Bailey is certain working with him will make her time at The Cave unbearable. But the more time they spend together, the more Bailey realizes that there's an odd sort of compatibility to their bickering. And that she might actually look forward to their regular sparring sessions.

As Bailey and Porter start spending more time together, her search for Alex shifts to the back burner. At first she feels guilty, but he's pretty much ghosted her right back, so does it even matter that she never told him she was coming to California? After all, she and Alex got along online, sure, but an anonymous internet friendship can't compete with what she feels for Porter in real life. Can't get too comfortable, though, because of course things can't stay perfect for long...

Ultimately, this is one of those books where you know from the first page that things are going to end up all right and you're totally fine with that. It's a light read, a happy ending, and the type of feel-good story that many of us need right now. Bonus, it's super quick, so if you've been in a reading slump (like I may have been this week), it's a good one to dive into and shake the reading doldrums off. Read and be happy, my friends. (Also, bonus points for excellent modeling of what consent should look like!)