How To Be the Best Third Wheel | CM: Canadian Review of Materials

Volume XXIX / Issue 24 - February 24 / 2023

How to Be the Best Third Wheel

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How To Be the Best Third Wheel

Author:

Loridee De Villa

Toronto, ON: Wattpad (Distributed by Raincoast Books), 2022

330 pp., trade pbk.

ISBN:

9781777290085

Grades:

Grades 10 and up

Ages:

Ages 15 and up

Review by:

Sarah Wethered

Excerpt:

On the front page of any great research paper are key words that should be well understood before diving into the subject matter. This can hardly be described as a research paper. However, my life, the life of Lara Dela Cruz, is as great as any scholarly article that has drained blood, sweat, and tears from its authors, so it deserves some key words as well . . .

Third Wheeling – an unfortunate state in which a person tags along with a couple. This may result in feeling left out and uncomfortable, especially when the couple decides to have a full-out make-out session in your face.

Third Wheel – me (And literally everyone on planet Earth, at some point or another.)

Relationship Expert – also me.

I’ll humbly let you know that I know what I’m doing. Romantic comedies? I can recite their scripts in my sleep. Books? Those are character ships with extra words. K-dramas? Saranghaeyo to all the leads who almost kiss the protagonist in episode ten – obviously in the rain – and who give them a piggyback ride sometime during the first season.

Single – unfortunately also me. Alternatively, a state in which awesome people with truly excellent advice are left alone because “coaches don’t play,” and totally not because the last demon I summoned did not help me land a relationship. I’m obviously joking. Maybe.
So to all the single third-wheel relationship experts out here (and anyone else who has picked up this monstrosity), I am more than pleased to present to you the official handbook to being the best third wheel.

Lara Dela Cruz is a smart and funny girl who returns home to Toronto after a summer away visiting family in the Philippines to discover her three best friends – Kiera, Carol, and Jasmine – are now all in relationships, and she has become a third-wheel to all of them. This was supposed to be their last year together before they all graduate high school and enroll in universities throughout the country, but her friends’ romantic entanglements have put a monkey wrench in that plan. Coupled with this situation is Lara’s being volunteered by her mother to tutor James, Lara’s frenemy and someone she has known her entire life, in math. This relationship is often combative, and Lara doesn’t know how to deal with the new feelings she is developing for James. Will Lara and James become a couple? Will the return of Lara’s gorgeous cousin Eliza, who once dated James, change Lara and James’ relationship status? Will Lara’s friends remember to include her in their daily lives? Will Lara ever make a decision about where she is going to go to university?

Readers of How To Be the Best Third Wheel will enjoy this smart and funny romantic comedy and will want to know if James and Lara end up together. The characters are relatable, and readers with extended family living with them will really enjoy the character of Lola Nora, Lara’s grandmother, who is fun-loving and mischievous and is always available to watch reality TV with Lara’s little sister. The dialogue is also very realistic and accurately reflects the speech of high school students.

I recommend How To Be the Best Third Wheel to readers of romantic comedies who are looking for a diverse cast of characters. The majority of the characters are BIPOC and reflect the diversity of cultures that a city like Toronto has. Lara is a strong and smart girl who is not afraid to call her friends out when they forget about her and only spend time with their boyfriends. The storyline between Lara and James is very sweet, and some readers may see a reflection of feelings that they may have with a friend they have known their entire life.

Recommended

Reviewer:

Sarah Wethered has been a teacher-librarian at New Westminster Secondary School for 23 years, and she currently lives in New Westminster, British Columbia.