The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord

Hey, everyone! Before I get into the review, I wanted to just say one thing (since this is a book by Emery Lord). She’s writing a new book called When We Collided, which is partly about mental disorders and the difficulties that come with living with them. Anyway, she wrote this amazing post about her new book, and I just thought you guys would enjoy reading it. So here it is: http://www.emerylord.com/2015/06/when-we-collided.html?m=1. Hope you guys enjoy the post and the following review on The Start of Me and You!

Synopsis:

Following her pitch-perfect debut Open Road Summer, Emery Lord pens another gorgeous story of best friends, new love, & second chances.

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.

It’s been a year since it happened—when Paige Hancock’s first boyfriend died in an accident. After shutting out the world for two years, 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?

Source for image and synopsis: www.goodreads.com

Overall Review:

    Okay, first of all, I love Emery Lord. She’s kind of like Sarah Dessen in the fact that she writes stories about love that aren’t totally about love. Ever since I read Open Road Summer, I’ve been waiting for her to write another book so that I could read it and enjoy its amazingness. And The Start of Me and You definitely lived up to my expectations.

    Sorry, I hope this review makes sense. I’m a little distracted by the Spider-Man cartoon that’s playing on my left. Flash literally just blew a spitball at Peter Parker that made Peter fly off of his chair. I couldn’t believe it. Seriously, ask Kalee.

Annnnyywayyy . . . first off, I want to say how much I loved Max. He’s so sweet and unassuming, and even though he’s kind of a jerk in one section of the book, he completely redeems himself by being so apologetic about it. And he’s funny in a totally geeky way, which is perfect for Paige because they can keep up with each other. And have you ever noticed that guys--and pretty much everyone else--in books are, like, incredibly poetic?

“. . . You were in another world, completely occupied with whatever you were reading. And you just had this look . . .”

“I had a look?”

“Yeah. Totally.”

“What look?”

Max thought hard, his eyes moving away from me. He blinked and then returned his gaze to mine. “Like you had been drowning, and the book was air.”

Crazy, right?

So, onto the other characters. I liked how a majority of the book--despite the love story-ish storyline--was about Paige’s friends. She has three best friends: Kayleigh, Tessa, and Morgan. Kayleigh seems kind of selfish (sorry, Kalee) and boy-crazy, but she was okay for the most part. Morgan is a little better, though, she’s kind of like Kayleigh in the sense that she’s obsessed with boys. I really liked Tessa, though. She’s one of those tough-on-the-outside-but-mushy-on-the-inside characters, and I liked how protective she is of her friends.

I pretty much loved the whole book, and although there were a few underdeveloped characters, I really liked that the lessons and themes in the book were relatable and didn’t all have to do with love. I’m cutting this short because it’s getting a little long. But if you want me to expand on anything, I can totally update this with some new points.

So I would definitely recommend this for anyone who likes sweeter, lighter stories (especially since it’s FINALLY summer . . . woohoo!). Overall, my rating for this is a 9.3 out of 10.

Thanks for reading,

JC <3