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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
This book was really cute. I listened to the audiobook and did not think that the voice actors had voices that were distinct enough for most characters, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I have never been to a music festival, but I have been to other events where you encounter people that you would never in your daily life and you fall for them. Johnson does a good job at slowly revealing the reasons why both Olivia and Toni are at Farmland and trying to seek clarity over their lives. I appreciated that in the end, everything wasn't super neatly resolved, but had still come to a good and realistic place of resolution. If you want a heartfelt romance between two black girls who are still trying to figure themselves and their place in the world out, this is the book.
I'm a huge fan of Leah Johnson's writing, so this book was a must-read for me. The book takes place over a single weekend, so the pacing was a bit rushed (reasonably so). I loved Toni and Liv and how they grew throughout the festival. There's joy, sadness, and DRAAAMA and perfectly sums up any music festival. Personally I wish that there had been more of a focus on the scavenger hunt just because that's what I love as a reader, but I did enjoy her vivid descriptions of the music for the Golden Apple competition. I'm also over here wanting a follow-up focusing on Imani soooo....
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was really cute. I listened to the audiobook and did not think that the voice actors had voices that were distinct enough for most characters, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I have never been to a music festival, but I have been to other events where you encounter people that you would never in your daily life and you fall for them. Johnson does a good job at slowly revealing the reasons why both Olivia and Toni are at Farmland and trying to seek clarity over their lives. I appreciated that in the end, everything wasn't super neatly resolved, but had still come to a good and realistic place of resolution. If you want a heartfelt romance between two black girls who are still trying to figure themselves and their place in the world out, this is the book.
Maybe because I loved her first book so much or because I read this at school during SSR, I didn’t love this one that much. It could have just been this funk I’m in lately.
olivia and toni have different reasons for attending the farmland music and arts festival. olivia, now an outcast at school and home because of her last breakup, wants a fun weekend with her best friend. toni, one week away from college, wants to follow in her late father’s footsteps. neither expect to find love, but this weekend has a lot in store for them.
i love leah johnson’s writing! insta-love isn’t normally something i’m a big fan of, but i definitely didn’t mind it in this book. johnson wrote this so well that, in my opinion, the romance seemed very natural and organic. so, even though this technically was insta-love due to the timing, i didn’t mind it as much. also, i loved both girls’ points of view and thought they were very interesting and lovable characters.
i recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick ya romance!
i love leah johnson’s writing! insta-love isn’t normally something i’m a big fan of, but i definitely didn’t mind it in this book. johnson wrote this so well that, in my opinion, the romance seemed very natural and organic. so, even though this technically was insta-love due to the timing, i didn’t mind it as much. also, i loved both girls’ points of view and thought they were very interesting and lovable characters.
i recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick ya romance!
challenging
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thank you to the publisher, Scholastic for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I really liked You Should See Me in a Crown and I was super excited to receive a copy of Leah’s newest book from the publisher! In this book we follow Olivia and Toni, two best friends who are heading to a music festival. They have an agreement to have a crush free, drama free weekend at Farmland music festival, but things are never that easy, are they?
I really enjoyed this and I feel like it captured the essence of a music festival so well. Olivia’s love for music really shone through and gave me the vibes I was looking for. I love how many subplots we had throughout that were also intertwined in the music festival idea itself, and it made for a very fast paced read!
Somewhere in the light-years of space between the spiritual and the scientific,
I read this book in less than a day, starting it one evening and finishing it late the next morning. Although this book isn’t particularly short, I found it so easy to read and didn’t want to put it down. I just wanted to know which way the plot was going to go and I had no idea exactly what the end of this book looked like. The chapters being from both characters also made this a really quick and easy read – although I don’t remember much of Toni’s story, I’ll admit!
I did like the characters but Olivia’s character did knock half a star off my rating because I just found her very annoying. Although I did appreciate how real her actions and mistakes were, I just found the way she acted throughout highly impulsive, immature and grated on me. I overlooked this for the most part and did manage to largely ignore it, but it did ever so slightly impact my thoughts and feelings.
between the known and the ineffable, there’s live music.
I loved how this book discussed friendship, grief, relationships and being true to yourself. I also loved the importance of music that shone through and I felt like the friendship group had a found family feeling, which I enjoyed a lot.
★★★★★
4.5 out of 5 stars
-Beth
May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽
I really liked You Should See Me in a Crown and I was super excited to receive a copy of Leah’s newest book from the publisher! In this book we follow Olivia and Toni, two best friends who are heading to a music festival. They have an agreement to have a crush free, drama free weekend at Farmland music festival, but things are never that easy, are they?
I really enjoyed this and I feel like it captured the essence of a music festival so well. Olivia’s love for music really shone through and gave me the vibes I was looking for. I love how many subplots we had throughout that were also intertwined in the music festival idea itself, and it made for a very fast paced read!
Somewhere in the light-years of space between the spiritual and the scientific,
I read this book in less than a day, starting it one evening and finishing it late the next morning. Although this book isn’t particularly short, I found it so easy to read and didn’t want to put it down. I just wanted to know which way the plot was going to go and I had no idea exactly what the end of this book looked like. The chapters being from both characters also made this a really quick and easy read – although I don’t remember much of Toni’s story, I’ll admit!
I did like the characters but Olivia’s character did knock half a star off my rating because I just found her very annoying. Although I did appreciate how real her actions and mistakes were, I just found the way she acted throughout highly impulsive, immature and grated on me. I overlooked this for the most part and did manage to largely ignore it, but it did ever so slightly impact my thoughts and feelings.
between the known and the ineffable, there’s live music.
I loved how this book discussed friendship, grief, relationships and being true to yourself. I also loved the importance of music that shone through and I felt like the friendship group had a found family feeling, which I enjoyed a lot.
★★★★★
4.5 out of 5 stars
-Beth
May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽
First off this is an excellent audiobook, I could not stop listening and finished it in less than a day. Leah's writing is so lyrical and it flows so well. I do wish the romance didn't become so deep so fast, I really think it could have gradually developed and not have been as serious by the end and the heart and all the feelings you had for the characters would have still been just as deep. Loved the music festival setting.
After having loved You Should See Me in a Crown, I was super excited for this one. This was such a fun setting, and I liked them teaming up to search for the apple. As much as I love a love story though, I felt really bad for Amani after all she put up with. Olivia put a lot of feelings of her to fix, and then she was asked for one friends’ weekend where she didn’t fall in love and she goes and does it anyway. Obviously she can’t control that, but she could’ve made more of an effort to stick with Amani instead of trying to feel better about herself by claiming she was helping her friend to find love too.