The Fangirl

This book is so freaking adorable. I've been wanting to check out the My Boyfriend's a Monster series for awhile and finally it came into my local library. Yay!

A Match Made in Heaven is a paranormal and geek twist. Morning Glory is a aspiring artist working on her first graphic novel and hoping to make a big splash at the local D.O.G (Do your Own Graph novel) festival. She isn't part of any of the popular cliques (all of which are ethnically diverse I might add), and gets harassed by wanna-be gangsters bad boys at school, but she doesn't care. Her best friend Julia is all the social circle she needs. Enter Gabriel, a gorgeous and mysterious new boy in school who at first seems interested in Julia, but quickly shows his intentions for Glory. Cue the swelling music and floating hearts filling the air. Ah young love. 

Let me straight with you, this is a standard manga high school dating story. Even the fact that Gabriel is an angel fits all the tropes of classic manga. The real twist here is that Morning Glory is black and this story doesn't have any explicit nudity or graphic violence. It is a sweet middle grad romance about an angel and human girl who fall in love. There are other parts of the story, a bit of drama with Gabriel's "cousin" Luci, and Julia's stepfather, but those are sorted out quickly in typical manga fashion. At its heart, the story is about Glory as it should be. 

The art is stunning. Both the hyper stylized manga-esque art in Glory's Steamgrrlz comic and the general layout of the book is gorgeous. You can see the influence of traditional Japanese manga style, but this book is unmistakable Western in it's style and specifically in it's distinct character designs. Not to mention the diversity captured in the scenes at Glory's school and the D.O.G. festival. Seriously, where has this series been all of my life? I wish I had something like this when I was a kid.

I would recommend this book to middle grade readers who like manga, fans of diverse kids books and lovers of paranormal romance.