The Map from Here to There

by Emery Lord

[Sam@WLABB]

Paige felt she was ready to take on senior year after spending the previous year re-introducing herself to high school society and with an amazing summer under her belt. She was ready for anything, or so she thought. As senior year began to unfold, she was faced with major decisions, evolving relationships, and suddenly, her future didn't seem so clear cut any longer.

I will start by saying, this was not what I had anticipated. I just recently read The Start of Me and You, and had expected this book to focus more on Paige's romance with Max. It seems that Paige's journey wasn't finished, and I was perfectly ok with that, because this was utterly beautiful story of beginnings and endings and everything in-between.

Senior year can often be a crossroads year for many, and I think Lord captured that quite well. A big issue facing Paige was being separated from her loved ones, her family, her support system. All her friends seemed to be going in different directions for school, as well as her boyfriend, Max, and her interests were in universities on the coasts. Her struggle and anxiety with this was understandable and conveyed so well.

As much as I had hoped for this to be a gooey romance, I loved that Lord focused on friendship, especially the strong female friendship which existed between Paige and her three besties. Not only was Paige experiencing some reservations about her future plans, which were morphing, but so were those of her friends, and this caused a bit of a change in their dynamic, though, the friendship still remained strong. The conscience effort they made to nurture their relationship during this tumultuous time period gave me hope that they would be ok, should they be geographically separated.

We also saw the reemergence of Paige's anxiety. As with the previous book, Lord depicted mental health issues in a real and sensitive way. I spent many years in treatment for anxiety, and I always appreciate when it is handled well.

I don't know if I should be surprised or not, because Lord never fails to make me feel, but this book hit me harder than I thought it would. I am over here, tears running down my cheeks, as I write this review, because I just have so many emotions about this story. It wasn't tragic, but endings of any sort seem to evoke such a strong response from me. It's quite a testament to Lord's skills, that I am sitting here, reliving the emotions of this book, one week later, and still shedding tears.

Quick list of things I LOVED!

❤️ Friends bucket list
❤️ Life in the theatre
❤️ Paige's sappy dad
❤️ Max's Christmas gift
❤️ Honest and open discourse
❤️ Friendship!
❤️ Family time

Though I still have questions and wonder about what will happen next, I am very hopeful for Paige and everyone else I grew to love in this book. Paige's journey was not an easy one, but I do think it was well worth the trip.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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