Friday, March 27, 2015

Review: The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord

The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord
Following her pitch-perfect debut Open Road Summer, Emery Lord pens another gorgeous story of best friends, new love, & second chances.
It’s been a year since it happened—when Paige Hancock’s first boyfriend died in an accident. After shutting out the world for a year, Paige is finally ready for a second chance at high school . . . and she has a plan. First: Get her old crush, Ryan Chase, to date her—the perfect way to convince everyone she’s back to normal. Next: Join a club—simple, it’s high school after all. But when Ryan’s sweet, nerdy cousin, Max, moves to town and recruits Paige for the Quiz Bowl team (of all things!) her perfect plan is thrown for a serious loop. Will Paige be able to face her fears and finally open herself up to the life she was meant to live?
Brimming with heartfelt relationships and authentic high-school dynamics. The Start of Me and You proves that it’s never too late for second chances.

”add

Publishes in US: March 31st 2015 by Bloomsbury
Genre:
Source: bloomsbury via netgalley
Series? no
review of 1st Lord book

Buy it:  B&N online! Via Amazon

Author stalk away: ~site 
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    I wanted to read this because I enjoyed emerys first book. Also books that deal with the aftermath of grief ate speaking to me as is the promise of a sweet and nerdy love interest.

    I adored that friendship and family were featured asking with the introspective healing and handling fears and the way grief changes the main character throughout. I grew up very xml lose with my grandma and really related with her wanting to share her secrets and get advice. Her grandma like mine is dealing with memory loss and it is hard to see someone you love dealing with those types of health issues and the fear that you might have to watch them forget who you are.

    I liked that she was organized and goal oriented. Her list has things that she believes will stretch her and hopefully guide her back to some sense of normalcy and happiness after tragedy.
I liked Paige`s character and I connected with her pretty well. She has several things going on that makes her story have an emotional impact. She is recovering from the accidental drowning of her boyfriend. Its left a pretty big impact on her. She hasn't nightmares about drowning and she doesn't do anything near standing water now. There's also her parents who were divorced and she was actually kind of relieved because of their fighting... she just saw that they made each other miserable. But now they're dating again and she is afraid that it will happen again.

    I like how friendship was a big theme in this book. however having three best friends was kind of overwhelming for me at times. The girls all have different personalities, different ways that they met Paige and different families difficulties of their own. So not really sure why I had such a hard time remembering which was which unless it's just the case of being handed too many characters all at once.

    The romance was pretty sweet. I like that she had a crush on Ryan even before he was popular. I even like her reasoning behind it because she had seen him with his sister who had cancer and he was dancing shamelessly in the middle of the grocery store just to make her laugh. Ever since then she has harbored the crush on him. But in the process of trying out new things in order to help her have a better year and also wanting to get closer to Ryan she starts falling for his very nerdy but also very sweet cousin Max.

    I love her friendship with Max and even though it started out as a reason just to get closer to Ryan, they developed a deeper bond and a trust that I really loved. It was the best kind of slow burning romance I adore and every time that there is nerdy love, of course, I have to be all over it. My husband's one of the more nerdy type so Max reminds me a lot of him. I love how he listens without judgement and how he made her feel so comfortable and that he opened up to her as well.

    There's a pretty big fight between them and I was really anxious about if things will be able to be patched up between them and it was hard to see how much careless words can really damage another person. I think it made the story super realistic, especially when we find out why Max was having more distance between them after and Paige was trying to be grown up about it.

   I really connected with Paige as she continued her closeness with her grandma. Her grandma has Alzheimer's and she also had a stroke and it sounds just so much like my grandma who I lost a few years ago that it just made my heart ache. I love how Paige trusted her and talked to her about everything and it just really makes me miss the days that I had with my grandma and the time that we had and how I felt that she understood me better than so many other people.

    I really liked how much Paige's character grew throughout the story. She learned so much about herself and how to move on after the tragedies of life. She learned to let new people in and she also kept supporting the friends that she had had for years. She realized how much in friendship and with family you're supposed to depend on one another and share each others problem. With that, the punch card is never full because you bear their burdens as well. I think that the loss of her boyfriend Aaron will always shape some of the ways that she looks at life but I like how she realized that it didn't have to define her and that she could move on from her fears a little bit at a time. Also that she can keep his memory alive with others who also misses him.
   I really like tells the story ended-- how things were wrapped up but also that we had room in our own imaginations to make more of a future and relationship with the characters that we had met. I definitely wouldn't mind another book about Paige and Max although I doubt that there will be one. But maybe they'll be a companion novel about one of her friends and will get a peek into what becomes of them after their summers and finally admitting things to themselves and each other.

Bottom Line: Emotional story that focuses on friendship, family, love and loss.

My question to you, my lovely readers:
Did you ever do quiz bowl?

20 comments:

  1. Glad it focuses more on friendship and family than the romance, and I think I'll love to see how Paige grows after everything. Sorry to hear about your grandma! :( And nope, I never did quiz bowl.

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  2. This is my kind of YA. I think this will make me weep

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  3. This sounds so good and I have heard nothing but good things about this author. Great review!

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  4. I definitely enjoyed this one and it's one of my favourite contemporary reads now. I'm dying to get my hands on whatever Emery Lord chooses to write next. Great review Brandi!

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  5. Hearing lots of positive things about this. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I may well have to add it to my wish list.


    http://pettywitter.blogspot.co.uk

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  6. I loved the way families, with all of their flaws, were portrayed in this book.

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  7. I love when characters grow in a books. That's what keep me reading.

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  8. I really love the idea of friendship being so important in this novel as well... you don't get too many of them like that nowadays which makes me happy :) It sounds like a sweet book which will be worth my time to try!

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  9. Yes-you got me. I might just want to read this one when it comes out. Thanks :)

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  10. I liked this too! It's definitely not as romance-focused as I thought based on the cover, but I liked that it was more about Paige and her journey!
    Thanks so much for stopping by! Jen @ YA Romantics

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  11. I'm thrilled to see that you enjoyed this one too Brandi, I've been reading nothing but praising reviews for this one, so really need to order my copy soon! :)

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  12. I like how this was realistic for you. It does sound like Paige grew a lot. I love seeing character growth :)

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  13. I'm afraid it's the kind of book I can't read now : losing someone dear, someone you love who loses her memory and doesn't recognize you, it hits too close to home :) But it looks like a great novel and I'm glad you enjoyed it so much !

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  14. I'm happy that you enjoyed this one Brandi! The friendship and sweet romance sounds really good, and I've read some great reviews on this series.
    Thanks for sharing - have a great weekend :)

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  15. It seems I'm the only person IN THE WORLD that still hasn't read this! I'm loving your review :) Actually, I haven't read any reviews about this one that weren't stellar (yet another reason to get reading!). I can't wait to see for myself what all the fuss is about - I'm pretty sure I won't be disappointed. Have a lovely weekend, Brandi <3

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  16. I also really enjoyed this one and thought the character development was absolutely amazing and how she grew and came to terms with everything. Nice review! For your question, I would like to do quiz bowl but I think I would be too nervous!

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  17. This sounds wonderful from the friendships to the romance..lovely review Brandi. I am so glad you enjoyed it.

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  18. This is suppose to be on the top 10 YA books to read this year. Happy it was good.

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