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mamanaja's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
phoebees's review against another edition
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
pixiepages's review against another edition
4.0
Childhood besties that had a falling out. Little do they know they have to spend all summer working together. At the same time Tarek and Quinn both want to branch out of the family business. This was a cute story about friends to lovers and also about finding yourself.
boniae's review against another edition
3.0
It was an interesting romance story that dealt with a lot of mental health issues and had a lot of growth for each character. I don’t know if I buy that a high schooler has such emotional intelligence as what Quinn has, which sometimes threw me off as the plot was less believable. It was an easy read as I had been trying to get back into reading after an extended break and it was a nice way to reignite my desire to read. Otherwise I don’t think I would recommend this to someone to read unless they’re a fan of romance/YA novels in particular.
mom2two's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
books4susie's review against another edition
4.0
Quinn and Tarek cross paths every summer during the wedding season. Quinn's parents are wedding planners while Tarek's are caterers. After things don't end well between the two of them, Quinn confesses her feelings for Tarek in an email but he never responds. What happens the following summer when they meet at the first wedding of the year starts a journey of recovery and reconciliation between the two of them, another enjoyable romance by this author.
rachcannoli's review against another edition
3.0
Quinn can't escape weddings; her family owns a planning business where she's expected to help out and someday join the business. Only problem is, she hates romance, doesn't believe in it, and doesn't want to follow this path that's laid out for her. The closest she ever came to love was the son of one of their favorite vendors, Tarek. He's back for the summer and now she must face him and all the feelings she'd held before and is terrified there's no future for, but doom. Will she be able to confront the truth of her feelings and ever figure out what she actually wants?
I'm genuinely so bummed. I adore RLS and all she does, but I just didn't love this book the way I hoped and have her previous works. For one, I fundamentally disagree with Quinn's philosophy and found a lot of her decisions irrational, so I found it very difficult to relate to her. So much of the plot was driven by miscommunications that could've been easily solved and it took the entire book for any of the plotlines to marginally take a step forward and when it did it felt a bit contrived. There was also just WAY too much going on and because of that none of it was fleshed out. The moments that were explained felt super info-dumpy and there was not nearly enough show-don't tell. Every aspect was interesting, but I wish two ideas were picked and honed in on rather than a dozen half baked concepts.
I love the idea of not knowing what you want to do with your life and the message of that ultimately being all right, but the lengths it took to get there was unbearable. Also the central conflict of Quinn 'hating' romantic gestures, but also fundamentally not understanding Tarek as a person and what makes those moments meaningful was so genuinely frustrating. I liked where the ending left off, but again the lengths it took to get there was so annoying. I usually find Solomon's characters and plots much more focused and impactful, even her funnier ones have a lot of great things to latch onto, but the romance and conflicts in this one just didn't work for me. I found Quinn's mother, and herself for that matter, so truly unbearable by the end that I was just getting angry.
Overall, this just sadly didn't work for me. There's the bones of an incredible story, but I just felt it wasn't fleshed out in the way I was hoping and left me feeling disconnected and dissatisfied. I consider it a fluke as every other RLS work has been incredible, just really sad that this one just didn't work for me.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
There was SO much happening in this book making the overall product feel super muddled. We had anxiety, OCD, depression, religion, romance, familial pressure, future fears, relationships, grand gestures etc. Like SO MUCH! I liked all of these ideas, but there was not nearly enough work put in to make these concepts work. Let me break them down to explain why.
Mental health: for the most part I felt it was well done. Tarek having severe depression when first going away to college and that being why he ignored Quinn's 'grand gesture' made a lot of sense and I liked it. I love that he normalized these feelings and how quickly this miscommunication was pushed out of the way. However I felt his was used for a plot point and then never touched on again other than to further allow him to empathize, but Quinn never really asks about it later and doesn't think about how much her actions could affect him, which I found super frustrating. Quinn's OCD on the other hand felt plot convenient for me. Now, I don't have OCD nor do I know anyone who does, but I feel like it's more of a constant struggle and it only really came up when the plot demanded it. Parts of it I really enjoyed and I loved normalizing it, but the way it ebbed and flowed when it was supposed to be important was kind of frustrating and ended up not really being relevant. Like maybe if it, or her anxiety, were fleshed out more it would explain more about her fear of confrontation and that's why she's incapable of voicing her feelings ever, but I just needed more of that. Her lack of simple communications leads me to my next issue.
Relationships: Tarek is such an angel and Quinn treats him like literal garbage from beginning to end. As soon as he invited her to that boat surprise I immediately knew it was for her. I mean come the heck on, there's no such thing as a 'Guinea pig' for a grand gesture, that doesn't happen. And of course she immediately jumps to conclusions and berates him. Then she's angry at him for not falling over himself trying to win her back after her love declaration after never once checking in with him to properly apologize or even see how he's doing in college. Despite the fact that she says he lives his life online and she barely saw anything from him, you'd think that'd be a clue. Then his mental health issues are cleared up and stable, but then we go into this ridiculous spiral of her not wanting to be in relationship despite constantly stringing him along. Quinn is so outrageously selfish and keeps claiming its to 'protect' herself, but protect herself from what? Every time her inner monologue would say the correct thing but then she'd be like 'i can't say that' WHY?! GOD FORBID YOU ACTUALLY SAY HOW YOU FEEL AND HAVE A LEGIT CONVERSATION! This girl opens up about so many of her issues, but cant tell him about her parents and why they fucked her up? And then when she finally does and this sweet angel still wants to be with her, but she just hurts him more. It's so beyond frustrating that I don't blame him at all for calling her on her shit and not wanting to be with her later. Honestly I'm really annoyed they even ended up together in the first place as I don't think she deserved him. He was nothing but patient with her, just waiting and praying that she'd feel the same way he does, and then she treats him like garbage and basically says all his past relationships are meaningless. She even says 'what's your record, a few months?' like wtf?! Also she completely misunderstands the meaning behind these romantic gestures in general. It's a legit love language, acts of service and gifts, just because she doesn't like it doesn't make it fake. For her to flip out at Tarek for wanting to do nice things for her, like god forbid someone is kind. And I love that he called her on this later saying grand gestures are meaningless when it's not coming from a place of truth and something that you'd actually do. But then she makes her fucking MOH speech at her SISTER'S wedding into her grand gesture?! That was so incredibly inappropriate and fucked up. Time and place girl wtf! And she just recently rekindled that relationship too. Side note, I feel like it's never mentioned that she's the MOH for her sister until that speech which I just found weird because they definitely didn't have that kind of relationship.
And then her freaking family!! Having a family business is awesome and even more so when it's something you can do together. But for her mother to put SO MUCH pressure on her when she's a literal child is absurd, especially for them just to assume that she's going to join the business without talking to her. Also, a big catalyst of Quinn's problems were her parents having a 6 month separation when she was 8 and then coming back together like 'nothing was wrong' and she believes she has to be perfect or they'll break up. How in the world has she let this fester for 10 years and said literally nothing?! Also how have her parents not noticed how fucked up she is from it? They're so shocked that she's so different by the end, but it seems pretty obvious she's completely miserable and yet no one is pulling her aside and forcing her to talk. They act like there's this amazing family bond, but I barely see it so I don't see the issue of just telling them. Then of course naturally when she does she confesses her feelings at the worst possible time and almost destroys the biggest wedding of their career. It's obviously part accident, but so much of this could've been avoided if she just spoke to her parents. Then it's immediately brushed over and solved in the next chapter, ridiculous.
The one aspect I really liked was Quinn not having any idea what to do with her life and not figuring it out by the end because that's completely fair. I went to school for a it. As she says, there's no guaranteed job from anything, so you may as well follow something you love. I liked her finding her love with the harp again, but honestly it took such a back seat to all the other craziness going on in this book it felt a bit superfluous.
So sadly, by the end we're left with a completely muddled mess that is just not well executed enough to really make sense. I wish it worked better for me because I adore the previous work from RLS, but this just felt like a shadow of her usual talent. Had fun moments, but for the most part just didn't work for me.
I'm genuinely so bummed. I adore RLS and all she does, but I just didn't love this book the way I hoped and have her previous works. For one, I fundamentally disagree with Quinn's philosophy and found a lot of her decisions irrational, so I found it very difficult to relate to her. So much of the plot was driven by miscommunications that could've been easily solved and it took the entire book for any of the plotlines to marginally take a step forward and when it did it felt a bit contrived. There was also just WAY too much going on and because of that none of it was fleshed out. The moments that were explained felt super info-dumpy and there was not nearly enough show-don't tell. Every aspect was interesting, but I wish two ideas were picked and honed in on rather than a dozen half baked concepts.
I love the idea of not knowing what you want to do with your life and the message of that ultimately being all right, but the lengths it took to get there was unbearable. Also the central conflict of Quinn 'hating' romantic gestures, but also fundamentally not understanding Tarek as a person and what makes those moments meaningful was so genuinely frustrating. I liked where the ending left off, but again the lengths it took to get there was so annoying. I usually find Solomon's characters and plots much more focused and impactful, even her funnier ones have a lot of great things to latch onto, but the romance and conflicts in this one just didn't work for me. I found Quinn's mother, and herself for that matter, so truly unbearable by the end that I was just getting angry.
Overall, this just sadly didn't work for me. There's the bones of an incredible story, but I just felt it wasn't fleshed out in the way I was hoping and left me feeling disconnected and dissatisfied. I consider it a fluke as every other RLS work has been incredible, just really sad that this one just didn't work for me.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON
There was SO much happening in this book making the overall product feel super muddled. We had anxiety, OCD, depression, religion, romance, familial pressure, future fears, relationships, grand gestures etc. Like SO MUCH! I liked all of these ideas, but there was not nearly enough work put in to make these concepts work. Let me break them down to explain why.
Mental health: for the most part I felt it was well done. Tarek having severe depression when first going away to college and that being why he ignored Quinn's 'grand gesture' made a lot of sense and I liked it. I love that he normalized these feelings and how quickly this miscommunication was pushed out of the way. However I felt his was used for a plot point and then never touched on again other than to further allow him to empathize, but Quinn never really asks about it later and doesn't think about how much her actions could affect him, which I found super frustrating. Quinn's OCD on the other hand felt plot convenient for me. Now, I don't have OCD nor do I know anyone who does, but I feel like it's more of a constant struggle and it only really came up when the plot demanded it. Parts of it I really enjoyed and I loved normalizing it, but the way it ebbed and flowed when it was supposed to be important was kind of frustrating and ended up not really being relevant. Like maybe if it, or her anxiety, were fleshed out more it would explain more about her fear of confrontation and that's why she's incapable of voicing her feelings ever, but I just needed more of that. Her lack of simple communications leads me to my next issue.
Relationships: Tarek is such an angel and Quinn treats him like literal garbage from beginning to end. As soon as he invited her to that boat surprise I immediately knew it was for her. I mean come the heck on, there's no such thing as a 'Guinea pig' for a grand gesture, that doesn't happen. And of course she immediately jumps to conclusions and berates him. Then she's angry at him for not falling over himself trying to win her back after her love declaration after never once checking in with him to properly apologize or even see how he's doing in college. Despite the fact that she says he lives his life online and she barely saw anything from him, you'd think that'd be a clue. Then his mental health issues are cleared up and stable, but then we go into this ridiculous spiral of her not wanting to be in relationship despite constantly stringing him along. Quinn is so outrageously selfish and keeps claiming its to 'protect' herself, but protect herself from what? Every time her inner monologue would say the correct thing but then she'd be like 'i can't say that' WHY?! GOD FORBID YOU ACTUALLY SAY HOW YOU FEEL AND HAVE A LEGIT CONVERSATION! This girl opens up about so many of her issues, but cant tell him about her parents and why they fucked her up? And then when she finally does and this sweet angel still wants to be with her, but she just hurts him more. It's so beyond frustrating that I don't blame him at all for calling her on her shit and not wanting to be with her later. Honestly I'm really annoyed they even ended up together in the first place as I don't think she deserved him. He was nothing but patient with her, just waiting and praying that she'd feel the same way he does, and then she treats him like garbage and basically says all his past relationships are meaningless. She even says 'what's your record, a few months?' like wtf?! Also she completely misunderstands the meaning behind these romantic gestures in general. It's a legit love language, acts of service and gifts, just because she doesn't like it doesn't make it fake. For her to flip out at Tarek for wanting to do nice things for her, like god forbid someone is kind. And I love that he called her on this later saying grand gestures are meaningless when it's not coming from a place of truth and something that you'd actually do. But then she makes her fucking MOH speech at her SISTER'S wedding into her grand gesture?! That was so incredibly inappropriate and fucked up. Time and place girl wtf! And she just recently rekindled that relationship too. Side note, I feel like it's never mentioned that she's the MOH for her sister until that speech which I just found weird because they definitely didn't have that kind of relationship.
And then her freaking family!! Having a family business is awesome and even more so when it's something you can do together. But for her mother to put SO MUCH pressure on her when she's a literal child is absurd, especially for them just to assume that she's going to join the business without talking to her. Also, a big catalyst of Quinn's problems were her parents having a 6 month separation when she was 8 and then coming back together like 'nothing was wrong' and she believes she has to be perfect or they'll break up. How in the world has she let this fester for 10 years and said literally nothing?! Also how have her parents not noticed how fucked up she is from it? They're so shocked that she's so different by the end, but it seems pretty obvious she's completely miserable and yet no one is pulling her aside and forcing her to talk. They act like there's this amazing family bond, but I barely see it so I don't see the issue of just telling them. Then of course naturally when she does she confesses her feelings at the worst possible time and almost destroys the biggest wedding of their career. It's obviously part accident, but so much of this could've been avoided if she just spoke to her parents. Then it's immediately brushed over and solved in the next chapter, ridiculous.
The one aspect I really liked was Quinn not having any idea what to do with her life and not figuring it out by the end because that's completely fair. I went to school for a it. As she says, there's no guaranteed job from anything, so you may as well follow something you love. I liked her finding her love with the harp again, but honestly it took such a back seat to all the other craziness going on in this book it felt a bit superfluous.
So sadly, by the end we're left with a completely muddled mess that is just not well executed enough to really make sense. I wish it worked better for me because I adore the previous work from RLS, but this just felt like a shadow of her usual talent. Had fun moments, but for the most part just didn't work for me.
layeredirony's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
a very light read; a good book to read when you want a break from heavier books. didn't feel particularly invested in the romance aspect though - i was more excited to read/learn about quinn's growth in other aspects of her life