A review by monicalaurette
I'll Be the One by Lyla Lee

emotional inspiring fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 "I’m fat and I take up space, but that’s okay.”

I want to start this off by saying that I cried while reading this, and I don’t normally cry during my reading time. But the comfort and love, and shared trauma with Skye, that I experienced while reading this was just so much and I honestly loved every part of it. I think that this book is something that if I had it while I was in high school, would have utterly changed my life. Because it changed my life as a 25-year old.

As someone who grew up loving American Idol and other competition shows, and a current lover of The Masked Singer, I found it so fun to follow Skye in the background of it all. And as a plus-size woman who also has trauma surrounding that from my youth, this was such a nice book to read to remind myself that I’m still worthy of love and happiness. I wish that this book was 100 pages longer and was able to dig more into those moments too, just because I loved being in Skye’s world with every fiber of my being.

“You’re living your best life. They’re not.”

The only part that I didn’t like was how short the events of the finale were. I wanted to have more drama, I wanted to feel like I was there on that stage or in the audience, and I wanted to know what happened with Bora! It was a large build up to this event, that was over in a few paragraphs. However, besides that, I really and truly enjoyed this book.

I gave I’ll Be The One 4 stars because I loved it, but I wished it didn’t feel so rushed. I also saw somewhere (can’t find it now) that called this book 1 in a series and if Lyla writes about Skye’s time in Korea after the competition I’ll be sure to grab that book.

“You are beautiful. Don’t let anyone, not even yourself, tell you any different.”

Did anyone else get hairspray vibes from this? The conventionally attractive male celeb (in a small scale) falling in love with a bigger girl, really feels that way but with no racism plot line.
I couldn’t help but think that it was partly Melinda’s fault that Bora made that fake reason to get Skye out of the dancing portion. Like my gut says she was one of the reasons….
I almost didn’t want Henry & Skye together, especially after they both came out to each other. I think it would have been nice to have them just be friends after it all and maybe have them in same-sex relationships by the end. But not mad that they’re together, because we got consent for the first kiss which is something I love seeing!
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