I enjoyed the book, it was interesting, sweet and different teen's novel. I found 36 questions exactly necessary to be asked to a complete stranger, 36 is at least a start. I found the book as a big puzzle of what is behind these two characters, rather normal looking teenagers, 36 questions - some are crazy, but holds something to let you know what's the issues.
The story also involves them both getting angry to each other, withdrawing from the conversation, leaving days/weeks between only to realize the questions are the only reasons to pursue the next meeting. The plot rolls around Hildy's and Paul's family/ friends, revealing family secrets, pain/trauma, strong will and just life as it is and nobody can predict.

I was sad to finish this book, which is enough reason to give it a high score. I've found that the more novels I read, the less likely I am won over by the characters, so it was great to actually feel I liked both the main characters and felt invested in their relationship. The narrative style was also a positive. As readers we are trusted to analyse the characters without having to be hand-held through painful self-analysis so many modern novels subject us to, like we're idiots who believe that the most misinformed characters are in the best place to give us sophisticated psychoanalysis. This shows trust on the writer's part but also leads to a more enjoyable and fresh narrative. But I digress... I suspect the ARC leaves out the emojis and graphics the published copy may include, and I hope this does not spoil the effect (personally I don't see either lead indulge in emoji-overuse!) and the descriptions of the drawings continue to allow the freedom of imagination that a good book brings. Having said that, I could see this as a watchable rom-com too. A genuine enjoyable read.

I found the premise of this book interesting, though not entirely original - a psychological experiment which matches two people together, giving them questions to ask as a way of 'changing their minds' about each other. However I found the narrative voice and tone very irritating, and really didn't warm to the characters. This ticks many YA boxes - 'quirky' characters, campus setting etc, but it wasn't well enough done for me to enjoy it, or to recommend it.

Full of the sweet and adorable, as well as the angsty and heart-breaking, I enjoyed this book even when the romance did seem pretty long and prolonged at times. As the story progressed I thought it was quite cliché, maybe having 36 questions just a bit too much, but the plot and lovable characters kept me going. A refreshing and light YA read even when the writing started to feel rushed towards the end.

So, not my usual subject matter of choice, but I thought the psychological study angle would be interesting. From that point of view, it didn't really work for me, because the questions were posed without any real reference to the study. I also found the story very predictable, and raced through it not because I was enjoying it so much, but because I wanted to finish it and move on. However, that said, I think it was a "nice" story, a bit more edgy than a normal romance, and if romantic fiction is your thing, you'd probably like it.

This was cute and sweet, but ultimately not for me. I'm sure this is going to be LOVED by many YA contemp fans, but I couldn't connect with the writing or main characters. Definitely a case of me not you.

Great Concept... the execution did not work for me unfortunately... firstly I felt the premise could be better suited to adult fiction, the "New Adult" setting kinda spoiled it for me :(
As a psychology major I would have loved to gain insight on a different level altogether but the characters could not hold the content together...
But looking forward to more from Ms Grant!
Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for my ARC!

36 things
I received this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

So, I'll be honest I'm not 100% sure why I decided to pick up this book considering I've been mostly reading fantasy or murder mystery but boy am I glad I did! The cover drew me in immediately, I LOVED eating Love Hearts as a kid and haven't stopped thinking about this since I picked up 36 Questions That Changed My Mind About You!

I must say my favourite thing about this book is its format. This book isn't written purely in straight narrative and shares its style with an instant message style. It makes the book so easy to read and I didn't feel like Vicki Grant tried too hard to make the characters sound like teenagers typing with too many abbreviations or 'social media speak' which I find so many YA books fall into the trap of.
While I love the idea of the story line and have read a little on the study the book is based on I was disappointed in the ending. I’m not sure whether I just didn’t connect to the characters or that the ending just missed the mark for me. This book had a lot of potential for me but sadly missed the mark. On the positive side, I liked the writing style, a lot! And the cheeky flirting through the messaged had me smiling but other than that I don’t think I’ll be rushing to re-read this again.

3/5 Stars.

This book was interesting. I loved the premise and was really excited by it. It didn't deliver quite as I had hoped, and I wasn't too keen on either of the characters - but I was rooting for them.

It was ok. I am definitely not the target audience. In places the characters were almost caricatures, the dialogue felt a bit predicatable and I'm not at all convinced by the storyline. It was ok. Not great. Not awful. But ok. The premise of "engineering love". Hhhhmmm. . . . Well as you get a bit older your experience will tell you all you need to know,

*My review is in French but I can translate it if needed*
J'ai bien accroché au livre dès le début. La plume de l'auteur m'a plu, la manière dont commençait l'étude des deux sujets, Hildy et Paul - je veux dire, Bob et Betty - est bien menée et nous permet de voir un peu l'envers du décor. J'ai, malgré cela, eu quelques doutes quant au fait que j'allais ou non aimer les personnages : Hildy me paraissait vraiment surexcitée et Paul renfrogné au tout début. Finalement, j'ai aimé leur caractères - et leur évolution. La manière dont ils interagissaient, se lançant des piques sans arrêt, était très amusante et reflétait pour moi l'intelligence de l'auteure qui avait de la répartie. Je me serais attendu à ce que le livre soit juste à propos de l'entrevue des deux personnages, qui répondraient bien sagement à leurs questions, et basta. Mais non ! Des péripéties arrivent, on voit leur vie en dehors, leurs amis, l'école de Hildy… Et les deux protagonistes ne répondent pas bien sagement aux questions, non, ils parlent d'autres choses, se disputent…
J'ai aimé ma manière dont ils répondaient aux questions, qui petit à petit les menaient à dévoiler leurs secrets, les questions s'incluaient parfaitement dans le récit, donc chapeau à l'auteur d'avoir si bien maîtrisé ça. J'ai aussi apprécié les illustrations qui parsemaient le roman, et le poisson Kong qui était une sorte de fil conducteur du roman.

Si la majorité du roman se centrait sur Hildy, c'tait aussi sympa d'avoir quelques points de vue extérieurs pour donner un peu de recul. Bien que certains lecteurs aient reprochés aux deux personnages, Hildy et Paul, d'être stéréotypés (la fille de bonne famille, le bad boy), je n'ai au contraire pas trouvé que c'était le cas. Hildy ne correspondait pas à l'image d'une jeune fille riche : elle était pieds-sur-terre, maladroite, à la fois timide par moments et sûre d'elle à d'autres. Quand à Paul, malgré son physique et son tatouage, on devine dès le début qu'il joue un rôle, qu'il s'est créé une carapace, mais qu'au fond c'est juste une personne normale.

En bref, j'ai vraiment apprécié l'histoire, même si elle ne correspondait pas à ce que j'attendais exactement. Elle a beau n'être pas forcément axée sur le côté psychologie (malgré avoir été basée sur une étude de psycho ), elle était néanmoins d'un niveau normal pour l'analyse/développement des sentiments. Les personnages sont attachants et amusants, donc finalement, rien à redire pour ce roman que j'ai aimé !

I was really excited about this book, as someone who has studied Psychology and who has a real interest in the 36 Questions study that this has been based upon. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get much beyond the sixth question before I had to put it down. I quite enjoyed the narrative approach - telling the book in the form of a script (partly because I imagined it like a transcript of the study, taken by the psychologist after the event, but also because it increased the pace) but this also meant that there was very little information to humanise the characters. As such, I just felt like they were awful humans. I'm sure they will redeem themselves later on, but Paul is just terrible! He's SO rude and Hilda is very self-involved. I just know that if I can't bear them at 15%, I'm going to really struggle to connect with them later on, and I will dislike the book even more for forcing my way through it. It's a really interesting concept, but the characters were too much for me, and I think this would have been rectified by a bit more insight into the behaviours and reactions surrounding some of these comments. It became too clinical. Also, Anglicisation would have been appreciated - color to colour etc. Thank you for the opportunity to read the book, in any instance! It's a really great idea, I just struggled with the approach.

(I received a copy via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review)

I really enjoyed this read! 36 Questions That Made Me Change My Mind About You follows Hildy and Paul who take part in an experiment where they have to ask each other and answer 36 questions about themselves to see if two strangers could form a bond and potentially a relationship from this.

I read this book in one sitting. As the book was mostly told through dialogue between Hildy and Paul as they answered the questions it was fairly fast paced. I loved our main character Hildy, she was clumsy and talked too much when she was nervous and Paul is mysterious and acts like he doesn't care. I liked that they didn't automatically get on and it took time for them to understand each other. It was a little predictable in some places and I really wanted to see the results or aftermath of the whole experiment but overall it was a really quick, cute romance but also dealt with other themes such as family and friendship.

I'm going to be annoying and give this 3.3 stars.

The Good, the bad and the fluffy mushy end.

This very nearly ended up on my DNF pile simply because of the writing. Outside of the IMs and interview style set up that was used while they asked each other questions, I didn't like the sometimes first/third-person style that was used when Hildie was on her own or inside her head. It felt a little forced and very rough (even for an ARC). But having said that, when she was talking to her friends or Bob I sped through the pages and really enjoyed it, you just have to wait til around the 60% mark for it. And despite things not being resolved outside of the main romance, I did end up with the mushy feels for these two.