Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour

Everything Leads to You

by Nina LaCour

The award-winning author of We Are Okay and Hold Still returns with another beautifully crafted coming-of-age journey about embracing your past, and finding love when you least expect it; set within the Los Angeles film world.

Just out of high school, Emi Price is a talented young set designer already beginning to thrive in the L.A. film scene. But her artistic eye has failed her in one key area: helping her to design a love life that’s more than make-believe. Then she finds a mysterious letter at an estate sale, and it sends her chasing down the loose ends of a movie icon’s hidden life. And along the way, she finds Ava, and at long last, Emi’s own hidden life begins to bloom.

Reviewed by readingwithwrin on

3 of 5 stars

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“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.

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  • 1 May, 2015: Reviewed