Sam@WLABB
Written on Apr 12, 2019
Graduating from high school comes with the promise of so many wonderful beginnings, but sometimes those beginnings are accompanied by endings.
Lu was excited to be attending NYU in the fall until her boyfriend, Leo, preemptively breaks up with her since he would be attending college upstate. And so, Lu began her summer with a broken heart and a crippling case of writer's block. By some serendipitous stroke of luck, Lu overheard two other teens doing the pre-college breakup thing, and thought their story would remove her block, but as the summer wore on, the pressure to produce her column or lose her scholarship was amplified.
This was a story about heartbreak and love. It was about knowing which relationships were worth fighting for and which ones had run their course. I liked the juxtaposition of Cal and Iris' story to that of Lu and Leo. Lu may have fell in love with both Iris and Cal, as well as their storybook romance, but it also helped her dissect her her emotions with respect to Leo and her relationship with him. It took Lu quite a while, but she eventually came to terms with her heartbreak and where she stood with her ex.
There were times I felt like I wanted Lu to reach some conclusions a bit sooner, but I enjoyed the journey. I got to frolic in NYC with a bunch of kids, who engaged in some great and amusing banter. I loved Lu's mom, her penchant for Italian food, and her affection for her daughter. Pete was also a standout character. He was a straight shooter, who made astute observations, and he also cared deeply for Lu.
Obviously, I would have been more over the moon if there had been an epic romance, but this was a realistic situation, and I think Alsaid tempered my heartbreak by including Cal and Iris' story. I enjoyed spending the summer with Lu, and appreciated the ending (new beginning?) Alsaid gave her.
*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.
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