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A review by laura_cs
We Can't Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon
4.0
I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Quinn Berkowitz has spent a lifetime attending weddings. After all, her parents run one of Seattle's most successful wedding planning businesses, Borrowed and Blue. Quinn acts as an assistant and frequently plays her harp for processionals, but with her anxiety and OCD, she can't quite bring herself to tell her parents that she doesn't want a future in the business, despite her parents' having perfectly mapped out her college career in business to do just that. She's just sick and tired of weddings, and even playing the harp has lost the luster she once had. And now her last summer before college has taken another dip when she finds out that Tarek Mansour is back.
Tarek's parents run a successful catering company that works with Borrowed and Blue for nearly every event, which means that Quinn and Tarek have spent most of their lives attending other people's weddings together. While weddings have lost the appeal for Quinn, Tarek loves them. He's a romantic at heart, and loves big romantic gestures--and why not? His parents got together because of one. Plus, Tarek's dream is to create wedding cakes for celebrating Happily Ever Afters. And he also hasn't spoken to Quinn in nearly a year, ghosting her after she poured her heart out to him in an email about her crush on him.
Yeah. The summer is not looking great for one Quinn Berkowitz. Unless.... Tarek does actually feel the same way? Maybe? One way or another, they can't keep meeting like this....
This is as much of a story about self-love and self-care as it is a romance, as both Quinn and Tarek navigate young adulthood and all that comes with it (such as sex and interpersonal relationships with family, friends, and romantically) but also their mental health and trying to determine where they fit in the world. While initially there was a bit of drama because neither of them were good at talking to each other about how they felt (Tarek leans towards "actions speak louder than words" and Quinn is incredibly uncomfortable with grandiose displays of love), they both have a lot of conversations as they go from awkward ex-friends/coworkers, to friends, to lovers. They've got problems to sort out, yes, and they don't always handle situations well, but they present a very realistic relationship as they talk about problems and feelings and why they do the things they do and how they feel about certain aspects of relationships (again, such as physical intimacy, other expressions of love, and emotional vulnerability). You don't see that a lot in most romance novels, but especially not YA, and I'm happy to see Rachel Lynn Solomon not only break that barrier, but smash it into a gazillion pieces with how realistically she portrays these conversations and emotions!
Quinn Berkowitz has spent a lifetime attending weddings. After all, her parents run one of Seattle's most successful wedding planning businesses, Borrowed and Blue. Quinn acts as an assistant and frequently plays her harp for processionals, but with her anxiety and OCD, she can't quite bring herself to tell her parents that she doesn't want a future in the business, despite her parents' having perfectly mapped out her college career in business to do just that. She's just sick and tired of weddings, and even playing the harp has lost the luster she once had. And now her last summer before college has taken another dip when she finds out that Tarek Mansour is back.
Tarek's parents run a successful catering company that works with Borrowed and Blue for nearly every event, which means that Quinn and Tarek have spent most of their lives attending other people's weddings together. While weddings have lost the appeal for Quinn, Tarek loves them. He's a romantic at heart, and loves big romantic gestures--and why not? His parents got together because of one. Plus, Tarek's dream is to create wedding cakes for celebrating Happily Ever Afters. And he also hasn't spoken to Quinn in nearly a year, ghosting her after she poured her heart out to him in an email about her crush on him.
Yeah. The summer is not looking great for one Quinn Berkowitz. Unless.... Tarek does actually feel the same way? Maybe? One way or another, they can't keep meeting like this....
This is as much of a story about self-love and self-care as it is a romance, as both Quinn and Tarek navigate young adulthood and all that comes with it (such as sex and interpersonal relationships with family, friends, and romantically) but also their mental health and trying to determine where they fit in the world. While initially there was a bit of drama because neither of them were good at talking to each other about how they felt (Tarek leans towards "actions speak louder than words" and Quinn is incredibly uncomfortable with grandiose displays of love), they both have a lot of conversations as they go from awkward ex-friends/coworkers, to friends, to lovers. They've got problems to sort out, yes, and they don't always handle situations well, but they present a very realistic relationship as they talk about problems and feelings and why they do the things they do and how they feel about certain aspects of relationships (again, such as physical intimacy, other expressions of love, and emotional vulnerability). You don't see that a lot in most romance novels, but especially not YA, and I'm happy to see Rachel Lynn Solomon not only break that barrier, but smash it into a gazillion pieces with how realistically she portrays these conversations and emotions!