Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of The Redic Proposition in exchange for an honest review.

The Redic Proposition falls into a weird in-between of age ranges that makes it difficult to say it fits into any genre. The writing is blunt and not only completely telling and no showing, but it normally tells things multiple times within a page or two to make sure things stick which to me is normal a huge indicator that something that should be being targeted at the lower end of middle grade was accidentally shelved in YA, but the characters also do a lot of casual swearing which I can't see intentionally being written for younger audiences.

The relationship between the two leads also made me feel icky. If I'm remembering correctly, their parents have either been married or have been dating for a decade when we catch up with our characters (so since the guy was 8 and the girl was 6), and while I don't remember them ever calling each other "step siblings", that's definitely their dynamic. Not only does this book do that weird thing where they have them start commenting on each other's bodies and clearly developing non-sibling feelings for each other, but (especially on the guy's end) almost every time they mention those feelings it's directly after a reminder of how he used to see her as a sister or how they grew up together and that just... yikes.