When We Collided by Emery Lord

Title: When We Collided

Author: Emery Lord

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's

Release Date: April 5, 2016

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Seventeen-year-old Jonah Daniels has lived in Verona Cove, California, his whole life, and only one thing has ever changed: his father used to be alive, and now he is not. With a mother lost in a deep bout of depression, Jonah and his five siblings struggle to keep up their home and the restaurant their dad left behind. But at the start of summer, a second change rolls in: Vivi Alexander, the new girl in town.

Vivi is in love with life. Charming and unfiltered, she refuses to be held down by the medicine she’s told should make her feel better. After meeting Jonah, she slides into the Daniels’ household seamlessly, winning over each sibling with her imagination and gameness. But it’s not long before Vivi’s zest for life begins to falter. Soon her adventurousness becomes all-out danger-seeking.

Though each high and low, Vivi and Jonah’s love is put to the test…but what happens when love simply isn’t enough?

In just a few years, Emery Lord has become a household name when ti comes to contemporary YA romance. She writes fantastic stories and I’ve loved every one of them. So it should come as no surprise when I say that I absolutely loved When We Collided.

It’s no secret that I absolutely love Emery Lord and her books. Both Open Road Summer and The Start of Me and You are among my favourite books of all time. So as excited as I am whenever I get to read a new book by this author, I also put a lot of pressure on that book. I almost expect it to become a new favourite almost instantly and those are some pretty high expectations to have. Add to that everyone reading the book in question and having nothing but amazing things to say, raising your expectations even more. And now you pretty much know how I felt before reading When We Collided. Honestly, I was almost afraid to read it because I feared it couldn’t possibly live up to any and all of the expectations I had. But I should have known better. Because everything everyone has said about When We Collided? It’s absolutely true. Emery Lord has written a story that is both touching and heartbreaking, a story that felt achingly real and showed the realities of mental illness. But even though mental health is featured prominently in When We Collided, it didn’t feel like I was reading a book about mental health. And that’s where the beauty of this story lies. Mental illness is just one of the many parts that make up the characters in the story as opposed to being what defined them. And those characters are why I loved When We Collided so much. 

Vivi completely leapt off the page. I’m hard pressed to remember the last time I read a story where I saw a character come alive the way that Vivi did. It was honestly hard not to be completely charmed by Vivi. She had so much personality and so much of that personality wasn’t defined by her mental health. She was just a girl who enjoyed life and was always looking for her next adventure, no matter how big or small it might be. And I loved her, every version her. I laughed along with her when she was happy, and my heart broke when she was struggling. I couldn’t help it. And that’s the same ay I felt about Jonah. Compared to Vivi, he was quiet and reserved but he still leapt off the page. Seeing him struggle with his grief all while trying to hold his family together completely broke my heart. He needed someone like Vivi to bring back some life into his life. I loved their romance, as imperfect as it was. It felt real in a way that many young adult romances sometimes don’t. Even if my heart was completely broken by the time I flipped the last page, I couldn’t have asked for a more satisfying ending. One that was right for the story and right for the characters. 

If you haven’t already, do yourself a favour and pick up one of Emery Lord’s books. Each one is amazing in its own right and will hit you right where it hurts in the best way possible. If you choose to read When We Collided (which you should really do), have a box of tissues handy, you’ll probably need it. 

The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord

Title: The Start of Me and You

Author: Emery Lord

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Release Date: March 31, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Following her pitch-perfect debut Open Road Summer, Emery Lord pens another gorgeous story of best friends, new love, & 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 a year, 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?

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.

Emery Lord wrote one of my favourite books of 2014. As a result, I couldn’t possibly been more excited about her new book, The Start of Me and You. So much so that I’ve already read the book twice and it still isn’t out for another few days. But that’s the kind of book The Start of Me and You is, a book you can reread over and over again, and each time it gets even better.

For the past years, Paige Hancock has been dealing with her grief, trying to move one from being the girl whose boyfriend died in a freak drowning accident. But it hasn’t been easy. Everywhere she goes, people give her That Look. The look that tells Paige people feel pity for her. And she hates. With the start of a new school year, Paige decides that it’s time for her to start living her life again. So she makes a plan and it should all be simple enough. Find a way to go out with Ryan Chase, the guy she’s been crushing on since the sixth grade, join a club, make new friends. It’s all simple enough. But then Ryan’s cousin Max transfers back to their school and Paige’s plan starts to go off track. But in deviating from her plan, Paige just might start living more than she thought she would, and learn all about second chances.

Open Road Summer was one of my favourites of 2014. I just couldn’t say enough good things about it, and it left me absolutely desperate for more from Emery Lord. And then I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of The Start of Me and You. As much as I wanted to wait until closer to the release date, I couldn’t help myself and pretty much read it right away. And I ADORED it. And then this past week I read it AGAIN. And loved it even more. That’s just the kind of story Emery Lord wrote, one you can read over and over again and never get tired of it. If anything, it will get even better every time. And that’s just because the story itself is absolutely beautiful and perfect. And there’s so much to love in this story. Yes there’s romance, but that’s not really the point of this story. When I was reading it felt like The Start of Me and You was so much more about the friendship than it was about the romance. It was about the longtime friendship between Paige and her girlfriends. It was about her new friendships with Ryan and Max. And to some extent it was about her friendship with the members of her family. And I absolutely LOVED that about the book. I loved seeing all the friendships grow and develop. And I loved how it led to the best and most satisfying slow burn romance I’ve read in a long time. The romance between the characters didn’t come as a surprise, not in the least. That was the point. But I still loved seeing it all happen.

I can’t even begin to explain how much I loved Paige. Right from page one, she was someone I wanted to be friends with. If I’m being completely honest, I would love nothing more than to become part of her group of friends so I could hang out with Morgan, Tessa and Kayleigh. Those girls’ friendship is a friendship I would love to have. But Paige was also her own person outside of her friends, even if she struggled with figuring out who exactly that was. And I loved seeing her figure it out. Especially with Max along for the ride. And Max was just perfect. Well, he wasn’t actually, but that’s what really made him perfect. But in all seriousness, Max was the nerdy guy of my dreams. As much as I love reading about bad boys or athletes or broody guys, the nerdy ones are my favourites. And I have made it my goal to find myself a real, live Max. Apart from my love of him, I loved seeing the relationship grow and evolve between Paige and Max. Seeing them go from being friends while Paige still thinks she wants to be with someone else. And then seeing them come to the realization that they were becoming more than friends. All of it just warmed my heart and the adorableness was almost too much to handle at times. Just read the book, you’ll understand what I mean.

With The Start of Me and You, Emery Lord has easily become one of my favourite authors and one whose books I will automatically buy. Just do yourself a favour and buy a copy of the book because you’ll just fall in love with this story. And if you need some more convincing, I’ll leave you with this quote from the book. It’s perfectly describes how I felt rereading The Start of Me and You.

Open Road Summer by Emery Lord

Title: Open Road Summer

Author: Emery Lord

Publisher: Walker Childrens

Release Date: April 15, 2014

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

After breaking up with her bad-news boyfriend, Reagan O’Neill is ready to leave her rebellious ways behind…and her best friend, country superstar Lilah Montgomery, is nursing a broken heart of her own. Fortunately, Lilah’s 24-city tour is about to kick off, offering a perfect opportunity for a girls-only summer of break-up ballads and healing hearts. But when Matt Finch joins the tour as its opening act, his boy-next-door charm proves difficult for Reagan to resist, despite her vow to live a drama-free existence. This summer, Reagan and Lilah will navigate the ups and downs of fame and friendship as they come to see that giving your heart to the right person is always a risk worth taking. A fresh new voice in contemporary romance, Emery Lord’s gorgeous writing hits all the right notes.

You know those books everyone seems to be raving about? Those are the books I’m sometimes wary of. I’m afraid that it just won’t live up to the hype. But then I’ll give in and read the book and every so often, I will be completely blown away by what I read and understand what the hype was all about. Most recently that happened with Emery Lord’s Open Road Summer. And I couldn’t be happier about it.

Reagan O’Neill is ready for a summer on the road with her country music superstar best friend, Lilah Montgomery. This summer is supposed to be about getting over heartbreak and leaving behind all the drama that has followed her in the last year. But when rumours about Lilah start making front page news, Matt Finch joins the tour as an opening act and as a publicity stunt to quiet the rumours. Reagan is determined to stay away from Matt, to not let herself fall for him. But before long she can’t do much to resist Matt’s boy-next-door charm and Reagan once again finds herself falling for someone. Could things be different this time though?

To everyone who told me Open Road Summer by Emery Lord was amazing: you were so totally, absolutely right. I can’t even begin to explain how much I loved this book and how perfect it felt while I was reading it. I’m not going to lie, I just flew through this book. I picked it up and I couldn’t even handle having to put it down to sleep and go to work. And the whole time I was reading, I just had this big smile on my face. Because if nothing else, Open Road Summer made me happy. It was just the light and fun summer read I wanted it to be, but it was also a whole lot more. Once I started scratching the surface, I saw that there was so much more to this story. Sure, it was a about a summer country music tour, but it was also about growing up and finding your place in the world. It was about mending a broken heart but also still being open to love. It was about learning to live with grief and finding joy in life again. So yeah, Emery Lord’s Open Road Summer was a whole lot more than just a fun summery read. 

I couldn’t help but love Reagan. I started reading, and right away I connected with her and I knew that I would spend the entire length of the story rooting for her. How could I not? She was trying to do better for herself and give herself more credit. And I loved seeing her growth over the course of the story, even if sometimes I wanted to yell at her to see what was right in front of her. More than just Reagan by herself, I loved her friendship with Dee (Lilah). The way Reagan and Dee were portrayed as friends just felt real and honest. It wasn’t always pretty, but they would be there for each other no matter what. And now for the gushing. Because how can I not gush about Matt Finch? Everyone always seemed to be talking about how awesome Matt was and in my mind he couldn’t possibly have lived up to that. But he totally did. In fact, Matt Finch surpassed any expectations I may have had for him. And I LOVED him. I highly doubt anything I could possibly say about him would even come close to doing him justice. He’s just that fantastic a person and character. But what I loved most about him was that he wasn’t perfect and he didn’t pretend to be. And he was just a genuinely GOOD and SWEET guy. And honestly, those are the best.

So yes, I loved Emery Lord’s Open Road Summer. I can’t even begin to describe how much. But hopefully you’ve gotten the idea. If you’re afraid of the hype surrounding this book, don’t be. I was hesitant and afraid, but in the end, I couldn’t possibly have loved this book any more than I did.