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book_concierge's review against another edition
2.0
Digital Audiobook read by Laura Knight Keating
2.5**
From the Book Jacket In the two years since her father died, sixteen-year-old Eva has found comfort in reading romance novels – 118 of them, to be exact. Her romantic fantasies become reality when she meets Will. Unfortunately, after Eva falls head over heels for him, he picks up and moves to California. Not wanting to lose the only person who has been able to pull her out of sadness – and, perhaps, her shot at real love – Eva and her best friend, Annie, concoct a plan to travel to the West coast to see Will again. As they road-trip across America, Eva and Annie encounter cowboys, kudzu, and tiny towns without stoplights. Along the way the confront the complex truth about love.
My Reactions
This is a young-adult “romance” with very little romance. Instead, it is more of a coming-of-age story. Eva’s passion for cheesy romance novels was a little irritating at first, but to give Rabb some credit she deliberately has these teens occasionally speak in the extravagant prose of bodice-ripping romances; clearly, she is having fun with the genre.
While I understand that Eva’s emotional growth might have been stunted by her father’s early death and her mother’s resultant over-protectiveness, I still thought she was incredibly immature, and I was rolling my eyes at several scenes. Ultimately Eva learns some important life lessons – about grief, friendship, and forgiveness. Final verdict: it’s a decent YA novel. But not really my cup of tea.
The audiobook is read by Laura Knight Keating. She has a good pace and she really brings the cast of quirky characters to life.
2.5**
From the Book Jacket In the two years since her father died, sixteen-year-old Eva has found comfort in reading romance novels – 118 of them, to be exact. Her romantic fantasies become reality when she meets Will. Unfortunately, after Eva falls head over heels for him, he picks up and moves to California. Not wanting to lose the only person who has been able to pull her out of sadness – and, perhaps, her shot at real love – Eva and her best friend, Annie, concoct a plan to travel to the West coast to see Will again. As they road-trip across America, Eva and Annie encounter cowboys, kudzu, and tiny towns without stoplights. Along the way the confront the complex truth about love.
My Reactions
This is a young-adult “romance” with very little romance. Instead, it is more of a coming-of-age story. Eva’s passion for cheesy romance novels was a little irritating at first, but to give Rabb some credit she deliberately has these teens occasionally speak in the extravagant prose of bodice-ripping romances; clearly, she is having fun with the genre.
While I understand that Eva’s emotional growth might have been stunted by her father’s early death and her mother’s resultant over-protectiveness, I still thought she was incredibly immature, and I was rolling my eyes at several scenes. Ultimately Eva learns some important life lessons – about grief, friendship, and forgiveness. Final verdict: it’s a decent YA novel. But not really my cup of tea.
The audiobook is read by Laura Knight Keating. She has a good pace and she really brings the cast of quirky characters to life.
julie_reads15's review against another edition
3.0
I loved the road trip aspect of the book.
Eva and Annie encounter many crazy relatives and family friends on their road trip, including an aunt whose outfits resemble various vegetables.
They learn the true meaning of love and grief and how it can exist in many forms.
Eva did not treat her best friend very well. She used her and wasn't there for her when she needed her. At times, Eva acted childish for her age. I think the romance between Eva and Will was rushed.
Eva and Annie encounter many crazy relatives and family friends on their road trip, including an aunt whose outfits resemble various vegetables.
They learn the true meaning of love and grief and how it can exist in many forms.
Eva did not treat her best friend very well. She used her and wasn't there for her when she needed her. At times, Eva acted childish for her age. I think the romance between Eva and Will was rushed.
indigoivee's review against another edition
4.0
This is a poignant and heartfelt exploration of grief, friendship, and the transformative power of love. Through the eyes of its protagonist, Eva, Rabb takes readers on an emotional journey filled with longing, loss, and ultimately, hope.
As Eva grapples with the devastating loss of her father, she finds solace and strength in unexpected places, including a newfound friendship with the spirited and adventurous Will. The authour’s prose is evocative and beautifully captures the complexities of teenage emotions and relationships. Will and Eva are both grieving familial loses and deal with their emotions respectively. And while Eva continues to pine after Will, Will later realises his feelings for her. They fall fast and hard, until Will is set to leave.
Eva, not wanting her first love to be the only love, convinces her friend to join her on a cross country roadtrip, with a competiton worth big bucks on the end for just a chance to see Will again. The adventure, the emotions and the overall heartwarming and cosy feel this book brought made me wish I was a teenage again in America with nothing but love in my heart!
The pure friendship between Eva and Grace, the honest love Eva had for Will, the grief over her father and the broken bond with her mother was raw and realistic but poignant and inspiring.
There is something so nostalgic about reading books that took place in the early 2010’s. The use of cellphones are minimal—mostly landlines and text messages and calls—having to actually make plans to hang out with someone and talking to them face to face to see how they feel. Also, the use of maps as a guide and having to use a laptop to look things up and just the overall cuteness of writing letters and making mix tapes. They don’t do romance like this anymore, and this book made me realise this.
Such and adorable read. It was sweet, wholesome and so cute. However, I will admit, it would’ve been nice to have Will and Eva get their happy ending. She deserved that love story more than anyone else.
Favourite quote: “Maybe there were as many different types of strength as there were different types of love.”
As Eva grapples with the devastating loss of her father, she finds solace and strength in unexpected places, including a newfound friendship with the spirited and adventurous Will. The authour’s prose is evocative and beautifully captures the complexities of teenage emotions and relationships. Will and Eva are both grieving familial loses and deal with their emotions respectively. And while Eva continues to pine after Will, Will later realises his feelings for her. They fall fast and hard, until Will is set to leave.
Eva, not wanting her first love to be the only love, convinces her friend to join her on a cross country roadtrip, with a competiton worth big bucks on the end for just a chance to see Will again. The adventure, the emotions and the overall heartwarming and cosy feel this book brought made me wish I was a teenage again in America with nothing but love in my heart!
The pure friendship between Eva and Grace, the honest love Eva had for Will, the grief over her father and the broken bond with her mother was raw and realistic but poignant and inspiring.
There is something so nostalgic about reading books that took place in the early 2010’s. The use of cellphones are minimal—mostly landlines and text messages and calls—having to actually make plans to hang out with someone and talking to them face to face to see how they feel. Also, the use of maps as a guide and having to use a laptop to look things up and just the overall cuteness of writing letters and making mix tapes. They don’t do romance like this anymore, and this book made me realise this.
Such and adorable read. It was sweet, wholesome and so cute. However, I will admit, it would’ve been nice to have Will and Eva get their happy ending. She deserved that love story more than anyone else.
Favourite quote: “Maybe there were as many different types of strength as there were different types of love.”
lilianaj's review against another edition
5.0
I did not expect to love this book as much as I did. I felt like Eva was a very relatable character and I loved the lowkey diversity in this book. Eva and her family are Jewish, her best friend is Korean. Obviously it's the king of diverse YA, but it was nice to read about characters that deviated from the usual subtle Christianity and sea of white faces. I loved Eva and Annie's friendship. It was one of the things I liked best about this book. I also loved the relationship between Eva and her grief, and Eva and her mother. All around a fabulous book.
itscassreads's review against another edition
4.0
Full review up on my blog! www.bandcbooksblog.wordpress.com
janelleleigh12's review against another edition
2.0
I hate to rate a book less than three stars because I know the author poured a lot of effort into their work. But, Kissing In America was not for me. I found it very difficult to get into the book; and the times that I did get into it, I was frustrated by the protagonist’s stilted outlook on life. Additionally, some of the protagonist’s choices in the story had me cringing. At times, I didn’t even want to pick up the book and continue reading because I knew she was going to make terrible once-in-a-lifetime choices, which she would never be able to undo. Overall, not a terrible read, just not an enjoyable one.
betwixt_the_pages's review against another edition
4.0
In the two years since her father died, sixteen-year-old Eva has found comfort in reading romance novels—118 of them, to be exact—to dull the pain of her loss that’s still so present. Her romantic fantasies become a reality when she meets Will, who seems to truly understand Eva’s grief. Unfortunately, after Eva falls head-over-heels for him, he picks up and moves to California without any warning. Not wanting to lose the only person who has been able to pull her out of sadness—and, perhaps, her shot at real love—Eva and her best friend, Annie, concoct a plan to travel to the west coast to see Will again. As they road trip across America, Eva and Annie confront the complex truth about love.
In this honest and emotional journey that National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr calls “gorgeous, funny, and joyous,” readers will experience the highs of infatuation and the lows of heartache as Eva contends with love in all of its forms.
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Quick Reasons: quirky, imaginative characters; lots of secondhand embarrassment feels; hide-your-face disturbing moments; a powerful look at the different ways love touches us...and the many ways we take it for granted every day; haunting, poignant read
This novel is light, quirky, and fun with a running theme of love and disappointment. Margo Rabb has penned this poignant tale of first love, taking risks, and discovering yourself with elegant, gorgeous prose and a clear-headed sense of destination that is sure to grab and hook you until the very end, and leave you feeling satisfied despite the complex emotional baggage hanging from every page.
I picked this book up at Walmart purely on a whim. I'd seen it a few trips before, and kept examining the cover and the blurb. I finally decided to just take the chance and get it; if I didn't like it, nothing lost except a few dollars. Besides, I've been looking for more contemporary reads lately; I seem to be going through them fairly quick, and want to continue reading them. Also, I took the dust jacket off and spent a good five minutes squealing over the naked hardcover (my husband made fun of me the entire time, but who cares, it's GORGEOUS. It's the coolest thing I think I've ever seen.)
I was expecting, going in to this, a light, fluffy read filled with teenage angst and the flutterings of first love. What I didn't expect were all the other emotions that came along with it. Because this read is powerful; the characters are human and so well-written, they'll drag you along with them to their separate destinations.
I really enjoyed the MANY different ways Margo Rabb explored love—and how it touches, stays with, or scars each of us in turn. She examines: loss of love, great loves, finding love again after swearing off it, disappointed loves, familial and friendly loves... It's a plethora of love, all wrapped up in a neat little box and topped with a bow. And I adore the journey such an expose takes us on—it reminds us all that even if we don't have the love we necessarily WANT right now in our lives, we always have the love we need (though often in places we never think to look, or recognize).
I think what I loved most about this read, however, was the emphasis on the idea that love is NOT something you need to give up living to find. Love happens when you're least expecting it—in the middle of a plane, on the road to nowhere special, right next door. There are so many out there who feel if they're not loving (and I mean loving in the sense of a significant other), they're not really LIVING. They're empty, or missing something. This is an idea I think we need to stop perpetuating; life isn't all about romance. Margo Rabb does a good job reminding us of this with this book.
The writing was gorgeous. There are so many vivid, descriptive scenes, I sometimes found myself feeling slightly uncomfortable or needing to set the book aside. The characters are diverse and realistic; Aunt Janet (or Aunt Gonorrhea, as she's called by Eva and Annie) was my favorite, despite the disturbing (nightmare inducing, if I'm being honest!) scene with the STD video. The dialogue is humorous, true to life, and often veiled with wisdom or advice. And it all circles around to tie together neatly and concisely, with a satisfying and delightfully hopeful ending.
This is not your typical love story, and I loved it so much for that. I highly recommend the read!
In this honest and emotional journey that National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr calls “gorgeous, funny, and joyous,” readers will experience the highs of infatuation and the lows of heartache as Eva contends with love in all of its forms.
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Quick Reasons: quirky, imaginative characters; lots of secondhand embarrassment feels; hide-your-face disturbing moments; a powerful look at the different ways love touches us...and the many ways we take it for granted every day; haunting, poignant read
This novel is light, quirky, and fun with a running theme of love and disappointment. Margo Rabb has penned this poignant tale of first love, taking risks, and discovering yourself with elegant, gorgeous prose and a clear-headed sense of destination that is sure to grab and hook you until the very end, and leave you feeling satisfied despite the complex emotional baggage hanging from every page.
I picked this book up at Walmart purely on a whim. I'd seen it a few trips before, and kept examining the cover and the blurb. I finally decided to just take the chance and get it; if I didn't like it, nothing lost except a few dollars. Besides, I've been looking for more contemporary reads lately; I seem to be going through them fairly quick, and want to continue reading them. Also, I took the dust jacket off and spent a good five minutes squealing over the naked hardcover (my husband made fun of me the entire time, but who cares, it's GORGEOUS. It's the coolest thing I think I've ever seen.)
I was expecting, going in to this, a light, fluffy read filled with teenage angst and the flutterings of first love. What I didn't expect were all the other emotions that came along with it. Because this read is powerful; the characters are human and so well-written, they'll drag you along with them to their separate destinations.
I really enjoyed the MANY different ways Margo Rabb explored love—and how it touches, stays with, or scars each of us in turn. She examines: loss of love, great loves, finding love again after swearing off it, disappointed loves, familial and friendly loves... It's a plethora of love, all wrapped up in a neat little box and topped with a bow. And I adore the journey such an expose takes us on—it reminds us all that even if we don't have the love we necessarily WANT right now in our lives, we always have the love we need (though often in places we never think to look, or recognize).
I think what I loved most about this read, however, was the emphasis on the idea that love is NOT something you need to give up living to find. Love happens when you're least expecting it—in the middle of a plane, on the road to nowhere special, right next door. There are so many out there who feel if they're not loving (and I mean loving in the sense of a significant other), they're not really LIVING. They're empty, or missing something. This is an idea I think we need to stop perpetuating; life isn't all about romance. Margo Rabb does a good job reminding us of this with this book.
The writing was gorgeous. There are so many vivid, descriptive scenes, I sometimes found myself feeling slightly uncomfortable or needing to set the book aside. The characters are diverse and realistic; Aunt Janet (or Aunt Gonorrhea, as she's called by Eva and Annie) was my favorite, despite the disturbing (nightmare inducing, if I'm being honest!) scene with the STD video. The dialogue is humorous, true to life, and often veiled with wisdom or advice. And it all circles around to tie together neatly and concisely, with a satisfying and delightfully hopeful ending.
This is not your typical love story, and I loved it so much for that. I highly recommend the read!
faithl's review against another edition
4.0
MY RATING:
I was both like this:
And this:
Don't get me the wrong, the romance was totally sweet but my inner sense was going off about something.
Eva was too trusting. Her expectations of love came straight of romance novels and she over analysed way too much. I have to admit, Will was sweet and daydreamy with his poetry writing and confident swagger but there was just something wrong......
I did kind of enjoy Eva's character. She was down-to-earth realistic. She didn't lie to herself about her father's death and even though I will probably try to deny it, I would act the same as she did if I had that kind of whirlwind romance. I REALLY loved Margo's style of writing. She depicted the awkward girl teen life so accurately and I related to that so much since that is the story of my life.
Now, to the road trip part!
Surprisingly, the road trip section of the book was briefer than I expected. I love road-trips and I love when books are about them. There's always that laid-back humor and funny anecdotes and while this book had them, I wanted it to be uniquer.
There were those fun bits on the bus, listening to crazy ladies, visiting even crazier relatives but it just lacked this tiny bit to make it even more interesting than it already were. Adding to that, I wanted more out of Annie and Eva's best friend relationship. I got that they were super close but I wanted more development of how and why they were close.
This book did great of depicting a mother/daughter relationship, though! Almost perfectly actually. I loved how through their arguments and fighting, they still end up going back to each other and reconciling their relationship.
Overrall, it was a super, great book! Lesson of this story; don't a guy overwhelm your life. I LOVE IT! It was a great open ending that still gave me closure. It drew me from the very first page but I wanted more of the friendship development.
