The thing with THE NEW GUY is that it sounds hilarious, and while I can't deny it had its funny moments, most of them were just too cheesy or unbelievable, making me cringe instead of laugh. I actually felt secondhand embarrassment for the dialogue and characters' actions. 
 The actual plot of the novel revolves around the main character, Jules, and her former-star-sometimes-boyfriend, Alex, and how they sort of end up on opposite sides of a newspaper vs. new media war. Unfortunately this aspect doesn't even come into play until about 30%, meaning that up until that point, the book focuses on the romance between the two characters. 
 Speaking of the romance, what was that romance. From the very first meeting, it's obvious that the characters are into each other. While I wouldn't quite call it insta-love, it was definitely random and had no basis. So that 30% was full of awkward moments and almost every single person around the main character saying that he's totally into her. Not to mention they were on and off again enough times to make your head spin, and broke up for really stupid reasons. 
 While I do enjoy contemporary novels, the one thing I don't miss is the drama and angst, especially in a high school setting. I would almost consider this a Middle Grade novel if not for a few random moments like when the character mentions that one particular day would be a good day to have sex. What? What? 
 Jules makes it easy to understand the reasoning behind her actions and her motives, but I felt totally disconnected from her. As a character, she lacks a background and story, although she has a unique voice that is easy to relate to. She is also one of those naive, inexperienced characters that can't understand why a guy would like her. Actually, no explanation was ever really given why a former star would like her. The side characters have even less depth, and very little backstory. 
 I would recommend this book to contemporary lovers that don't mind revisiting the dramatic antics of high school with a few jokes in between.