Everything Leads to You

by Nina LaCour

"I want you to do something with the place. Something epic."
 
After being entrusted with her brother's Los Angeles apartment for the summer as a graduation gift, Emi Price isn't sure how to fulfill his one condition: that something great take place there while he's gone. Emi may be a talented young production designer, already beginning to thrive in the competitive film industry, but she still feels like an average teen, floundering when it comes to romance.
               
But when she and her best friend, Charlotte, discover a mysterious letter at the estate sale of a Hollywood film legend, Emi must move beyond the walls of her carefully crafted world to chase down the loose ends of a movie icon’s hidden life, leading her to uncover a decades’ old secret and the potential for something truly epic: love.

• ISBN10: 0525425888
• ISBN13: 9780525425885
• Publish Date: 15 May 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: E P Dutton & Co Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 272
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780525425885

Reviews

[Joséphine]

Initial thoughts: Everything Leads to You reminded me why I fell in love with reading in the first place. Even though this isn’t a book I devoured in a night or two, it gave me comfort. The past few weeks, this book offered me companionship, gave me reasons to smile, and be hopeful about dreams again. It also reminded me what it’s like to find yourself at the precipice of love and to cling onto those reasons too for the times you need that lift to persevere.

[nannah]

Oops! I checked this book out by accident. I had wanted We Are Okay by Nina LaCour instead, but I couldn’t read the title font of this book. So when I got home, I just decided to read this one anyway. Why not, right? LGBT protags, same writer; it should be good. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this book at all -- so much so that I don’t know if I’ll ever read We Are Okay.

Content warnings:
-none-

Representation:
Biracial, lesbian protagonist
Lesbian love interest
Also a black secondary character

Emi, an incredibly privileged fresh-out-of-high school set designer, knows exactly where she’s going career-wise, but in love? Not so much. She just got out of her on-and-off relationship … for the sixth time. And to make things worse, her ex is also her coworker. But when she finds a letter that leads to Ava, a talented actress starring in the movie Emi’s working on, she hopes (rather, obsesses) that her love life will start to look up.

I really wish I would’ve picked up We Are Okay instead. Maybe it would’ve been better than this. Everything Leads to You is supposed to be a mystery, but the book definitely doesn't feel like one, and the so-called “mystery” is over in just about the first 1⁄4 of the novel. There’s no build-up, no tension, no nothing!

The love interest, Ava, ends up being the granddaughter of the late Clyde Jones (not sure if this is a spoiler -- doesn’t feel like one!), an iconic American actor who starred in Westerns. Emi fetishizes the HECK out of her until something happens; that’s the love story. There’s absolutely zero chemistry between them -- just Emi swooning over her looks and (of course) her relationship to the great Clyde Jones.

Then again, Emi gets everything in her life the easy way: her job from her brother’s film connections, money and freedom from her parents (she’s never at home, and her parents never even ask where she’s been), etc. She admits that she’s privileged maybe one time, but then never really checks it again. Besides one time when Ava’s friend, Jamal, gives her a (much-needed!) reality check, she lives with her head in the clouds, dreaming of celebrity connections and a future with the granddaughter of that dang Clyde Jones. As much as I loved Jamal chewing her out, it isn’t enough. Emi is a terribly annoying protagonist, and there are very few times I want to root for her. (After being told of someone's Actual Death, Emi was like, “Yeah, so sad. Are you hungry?” (← actual quote). I thought this was going to be used for character development, but it NEVER HAPPENS. The author just lets her prance around like this, unchecked!!)

The prose is weak and written very much like a first draft: “I don’t know what to do.” “Let’s think.” “Oh, let’s do this.” “That’s a great idea!” “Yeah!”
It’s also VERY dialogue-heavy, without much description. Well, besides the very random heavy description of people eating. Whenever people are eating, everything suddenly stops so you know exactly where and how the characters are holding their fries, how quickly they’re chewing, and if they picked up their food before or after they started eating, etc. Other than that, the book is mostly dialogue with prose there just to move the characters to the next spot so they can talk more.

I also find it hard to suspend my disbelief regarding the characters’ ages and where they are in the filming industry … now if they were just out of college, things would be different. After high school, I myself wanted to work up to become a cinematographer; I wanted to move out to California, become a PA and work up slowly. So when Emi said she had to be a PA in addition to like 5 other positions in that movie they were making during the bulk of the book? It seemed unbelievable, even for a smaller production -- because DANG, this girl had WAY too much free time. She even had time to slack off!

So yeah, not something for me. Two stars because I didn’t absolutely hate it.

[maggiefan]

3.5
This book had a very nice atmosphere and good characters. Sadly I didn't connect with it the way I expected. But it doesn't mean that the book is bad. It's good. It's just... I do realize that this story is not something I would remember for a long time or have a desire to reread.

[Stephanie]

This review was originally posted on Once Upon a Chapter



I'm pretty sure I picked up Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour based on a BookTube wrap up. I had never paid much attention to the author or her books but I saw a video and this title really sounded like it would be a good one. Thankfully I was able to get both the audio and the ebook from the library. I mostly listened to this read.

Everything Leads to You was really enjoyable. Emi was going through some stuff but she wasn't overly obsessed with it. She had feelings about what was happening but didn't spend entire pages hashing it out over and over. I've seen too much page time taken over by digging deep to see how the main character really truly felt and all the ramifications of that. LaCour lets Emi have her emotions but we aren't bogged down by them and neither is she.

I also really loved that Emi discovered her own self worth throughout Everything Leads to You. She starts out questioning a lot of the choices she makes and seems to really lack confidence on her own. Slowly that develops and Emi ends up being pretty proud of herself and the things she has accomplished.

The back drop of behind the scenes Hollywood was a pretty great setting. I loved the mystery that was Clive Jones and Ava. I also thought LaCour did a great job of subtly reminding us that just because we know ABOUT people, doesn't mean that we know THEM; we just know facts about them and parts of them. Fairly early on we're also reminded that when you are talking about someone's life that is a LIFE; not just fodder for gossip. I know that sounds like a dumb and rather obvious lesson but it is one that I need a frequent reminder of.

Narration was on point and highly enjoyable.

[Bianca]

We love films because they make us feel something. They speak to our desires, which are never small. They allow us to escape and to dream and to gaze into eyes that are impossibly beautiful and huge. They fill us with longing.

But also. They tell us to remember; they remind us of life. Remember, they say, how much it hurts to have your heart broken. Remember about death and suffering and the complexities of living. Remember what it is like to love someone. Remember how it is to be loved. Remember what you feel in this moment. Remember this. Remember this.

[readingwithwrin]

“Because in the conversation beneath this one, what we're really saying is I am an imperfect person. Here are my failures. Do you want me anyway?”


Last year during Blogmas I read We Are Okay by Nina Lacour and really enjoyed it. Which encouraged me to finally pick up Everything Leads to You which had been on my Goodreads tbr since 2015 and has been one that has been really hyped up for me since I first heard about it.


Emi is our main character who is a recent high school graduate who is working as a set designer intern for a movie before she goes to college in the fall. Emi is not only a huge film buff and loves to analyze every movie she watches to try and find set details, but she is also a romantic who has dating drama in her current life.

Everything is shaping up to be a pretty normal summer, until Emi and her best friend find a letter from a famous person to someone else that leads the two friends on a journey of a lifetime to find the famous persons last wish.



I ended up really enjoying this book. Emi was a really likable character who I wanted to find happiness and continue to love what she was doing. All of the side characters I actually ended up loving as well, which isn't something that happens that often for me especially when it comes to contemporary books.

The set designing that Emi was doing was absolutely fascinating to me. I loved how much detail was put into not only explaining what she was doing but also how she came up with it all and her thought process behind it.

As for the mystery person that Emi ends up finding I really liked her. She was truly someone who could do great things in life, with just a little help from others and I loved that about her.

The one character I wish we had gotten to see more of was Emi's best friend. They had a really strong and established friendship, but it seems like they hardly ever spent any time together for it being their last real summer together before everything changes. I just wish we had gotten a little bit more of that. I do want to try another one of Lacours books that have not been super hyped up for

Overall I did enjoy this book, but it was also lacking something for me again, just like We Are Okay did. I'm going to read one more of Lacour's books (hopefully one less hyped) before I make a strong opinion on if I really like Lacour's writing or not.

[laughingrachel]

I really liked this book. I'm not really all that into film on my own time, but I found Emi's passion for her work dressing sets and designing film spaces really captivating. Her love for it is very infectious and you get to see all the work she puts in. And while her advancement and prestigious positions might be a little unbelievable there are good explanations for her unusual opportunities and she's refreshingly aware of her privilege. This is a protagonist I would like to be friends with and hang out on a daily basis. Which makes me that much more interested in her story. She's a smart, capable young woman and for once in a young adult novel, she KNOWS it. She confident but not arrogant and I love how the author managed to pull that off.

I haven't said much about the plot, but I don't want to give anything good away. I will just say that if you're a fan of YA or just love stories in general I would recommend that you give this one a shot. You won't be disappointed.

[catiebug]

This was a beautiful, light, fun story.

I loved the fact that Emi, the protagonist was a set designer. That was like the coolest thing to read about. It was so fun and interesting.

And I loved the whole story of her finding the letter and then trying to get it to the person it was for. The way everything came together in one of those it-was-meant-to-be and fate type of ways.