The release of Love Your Frenemies by Mina V. Esguerra totally made my Monday morning happier, and it also made me lose sleep because I couldn't put it down. I was so excited to read this that I put all other currently reads down, and the need to write my thoughts on feels more urgent than writing reviews for the two books that I need to reviews first. I can only think of two reasons why I have this urgency: it's because I really liked this book and I need to share my thoughts ASAP, and because I'm such a Mina fan. ;)
Love Your Frenemies features Kimberly Domingo, a familiar character for those who have read Mina's first book, My Imaginary Ex. For the uninitiated, Kimberly, also known as Kimmy, is the b*tch in her debut novel, the villain in Jasmine and Zack's romance. It's easy to hate her in that book as she was painted completely in black and white. More of a companion novel than a sequel, this gives us a different picture of Kimmy, one year after she left after being dumped by Zack. Kimmy goes back home for her best friend's wedding, changed from her one year absence. Determined to start over, she slowly faces all the things she left behind -- her family, her Country Club friends, her old job. She's also ready to cut off the people she's declared toxic in her life, namely her bride-to-be best friend, Chesca, and her first love, hunky and charismatic Manolo.
I love spin-off stories featuring other characters, especially the villains, because it gives readers an entirely different perspective. It's also a great character study and a perfect example of how our first impressions of people don't tell us much. I like how Mina built Kimmy's back story here, making her less evil and just another person who had issues to deal with on her own, issues that happened to entangle other people. It shows that people aren't always black and white, but mostly gray.
I also liked that this one focused more on Kimmy's self-discovery and friendships than the romance. Oh sure, Manolo's hot (but I still find Lucas of
Fairy Tale Fail
hotter, LOL), but Kimmy's relationship with him wasn't the sole focus of the story. Love Your Frenemies isn't really just about love but about, well, frenemies. :) I liked how Mina made the other characters three-dimensional. Like the first Kimmy in My Imaginary Ex, some of them were easy to hate at first, but as the story unfolded, I started to somewhat understand why they did what they did, even if it's not what an ideal friend would do. I found myself feeling somewhat affectionate towards them in the end, and it further proves that people are not what you always believe them to be.
Love Your Frenemies is filled with flawed characters that paints a very accurate picture of how complicated and messy relationships -- family, friendships, and romantic ones -- are. It doesn't have any of those heart-stopping, tingle-inducing romance, but more of the introspection of a woman who's trying to build her life back from the mess that it has been and is determined not to make another mistake. The characters are far from perfect, and honestly I don't think they'd be my crowd, but they're definitely the kind of people that you'd want to be on your side even if they can be a pain in the neck more than half the time.
I think Love Your Frenemies show how much Mina really thinks about what she writes. It's difficult to give a voice to a villain and make her human and deserving of sympathy, but Mina does it almost effortlessly in her newest novel. Kimmy isn't your most lovable character, unlike Jasmine or Ellie or Carla from Mina's past novels, but she's the type of character that will stay with you long after you've reached the last page, teaching us important lessons on discovering yourself, forgiveness and the ties that bind.
Highly recommended, and don't think I'm saying that only because I'm such a fan. ;)
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