emma lord | June Reads Books

Title: You Have a Match
Author: Emma Lord
Published: January 2021
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Goodreads

Rating: 2 stars
Cover: Love it

Synopsis:

A new love, a secret sister, and a summer she’ll never forget.

From the beloved author of Tweet Cute comes Emma Lord’s You Have a Match, a hilarious and heartfelt novel of romance, sisterhood, and friendship…

When Abby signs up for a DNA service, it’s mainly to give her friend and secret love interest, Leo, a nudge. After all, she knows who she is already: Avid photographer, injury-prone tree climber. Best friend to Leo and Connie…although ever since the B.E.I. (Big Embarrassing Incident) with Leo, things have been awkward on that front. But she didn’t know she’s a younger sister. When the DNA service reveals Abby has a secret sister, shimmery-haired Instagram star Savannah Tully, it’s hard to believe they’re from the same planet, never mind the same parents–especially considering Savannah, queen of green smoothies, is only a year and a half older than Abby herself. The logical course of action? Meet up at summer camp (obviously) and figure out why Abby’s parents gave Savvy up for adoption. But there are complications: Savvy is a rigid rule-follower and total narc. Leo is the camp’s co-chef, putting Abby’s growing feelings for him on blast. And her parents have a secret that threatens to unravel everything.

But part of life is showing up, leaning in, and learning to fit all your awkward pieces together. Because somethings, the hardest things can also be the best ones.

“If you learn to capture a feeling, it’ll always be louder than words” (chapter 37)

Thank you Emma Lord and Wednesday Books for an eARC of You Have a Match in exchange for an honest review. Honestly, my feelings really went back and forth on this one. Shortly after I finished it, Reese Witherspoon announced it for her book club and I thought to myself, “Am I missing something?” So I just set it aside for a while because I didn’t really know what I thought. But here I am–I’ve gone through my notes and tried to write up my thoughts in a cohesive way; here’s the good and the bad.

Abby is passionate about photography (I love to see it!) and her friends. She feels a little overlooked by her parents sometimes because of the two rugrats who claim the titles of her little siblings. But the one person who always made her feel seen and helped cultivate her love of photography, her grandfather, “Poppy,” has recently died and she’s trying to cope and grieve while still trying to live her life. Her two best friends are her lifelines, so when one of them, Leo, wants to learn about his biological family with a DNA test, she decides to do one too in solidarity. She was expecting Leo’s test to be the most informative, but somehow her’s took the spotlight when it revealed a fully biological sister that she’s never heard of. Cue Savvy, Instagram star and practically perfect in every way. Instead of just going to their parents about this discovery (why?) Abby and Savvy decided to sign up for camp together as a way to bond and try to figure out the mystery unraveling before them. Oh, and, SURPRISE! Abby’s best friend Leo, who she’s actually desperately in love with and trying to convince herself not to be–he’s going to camp, too!

Some things I loved: Abby learning to craft her love for photography and continue that special bond she shared with her Poppy; Abby and Savvy trying to figure out how to have a relationship with a sister you’ve never met; some of the side characters are sweet and funny, and I really wish we could’ve seen more of them. I believe I said this in another review of Lord’s books, but while I love her quirky, quick voice, I also don’t like when authors try to name drop everything currently popular (brands, celebrities, etc) to stay current because I know this will cause the book not to age well. However, Lord’s writing is also very engaging and sweet.

Here are some things that I had problems with. The Big Embarrassing Incident is what Abby dubbed as the reason she can’t be in love with Leo anymore. However, when it was finally revealed (which was way too long), it is pretty anti-climatic and fell pretty short of being a big deal. Their chemistry was also not expanded on much beyond Abby’s constant “does he like me” stream of consciousness and his pretty clear hints. When they do get together, I did feel that “aww” moment mostly because I also fell in love with my best friend, but if I didn’t relate as much, I might have been asking why they liked each other instead.

Abby’s best friend Connie wasn’t fleshed out very well and it seemed she was mostly used as a plot device to keep Abby and Leo away from each other. I honestly felt like the book would read the same without her. I also felt like Savvy wasn’t easy to connect with (I don’t really like influencers, so that could be it–though Lord doesn’t really paint them in a great light either), but I did like the contrast in her personality and Abby’s, especially as they tried to navigate that.

The explanation of what happened between Abby and Savvy’s parents and their best friends that caused them to give up Savvy, cut ties, and have Abby just over a year later was quite the information dump and I still felt confused. The whole book was working up to this big reveal and it just didn’t feel like something that would happen–or even if it did, why would Savvy’s adoptive parents not move away once they had cut ties? They’re basically setting their daughters up for finding each other and feeling betrayal toward their parents for keeping them in the dark about a pretty life changing event. Even as the book draws to a close, all the lying that has taken place, not only in Abby’s and Savvy’s lives, but also just in this one summer, everything seems to be tied up with a pretty bow with not a believable amount of resolution. Honestly, the reveal and somehow happily-ever-after conclusions were what I had the most problems with in this book. I also feel like it doesn’t have a good adoption rep, which makes me wonder if Lord had any commentary from people on this.

Overall, Lord’s writing is engaging and fun enough to carry you through the book, but you’ll be left scratching your head on how everything was resolved. I’m not sure how it made Reese Witherspoon’s book club, to be honest.

Title: Tweet Cute
Author: Emma Lord
Published: January 2020
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Goodreads

Rating: 4 stars
Cover: Like it

Synopsis:

Meet Pepper, swim team captain, chronic overachiever, and all-around perfectionist. Her family may be falling apart, but their massive fast-food chain is booming—mainly thanks to Pepper, who is barely managing to juggle real life while secretly running Big League Burger’s massive Twitter account.

Enter Jack, class clown and constant thorn in Pepper’s side. When he isn’t trying to duck out of his obscenely popular twin’s shadow, he’s busy working in his family’s deli. His relationship with the business that holds his future might be love/hate, but when Big League Burger steals his grandma’s iconic grilled cheese recipe, he’ll do whatever it takes to take them down, one tweet at a time.

All’s fair in love and cheese—that is, until Pepper and Jack’s spat turns into a viral Twitter war. Little do they know, while they’re publicly duking it out with snarky memes and retweet battles, they’re also falling for each other in real life—on an anonymous chat app Jack built.

As their relationship deepens and their online shenanigans escalate—people on the internet are shipping them??— their battle gets more and more personal, until even these two rivals can’t ignore they were destined for the most unexpected, awkward, all-the-feels romance that neither of them expected.

“It’s the thousands of miles and winding roads that stand in the way of Pepper now and Pepper then, and I’m not even sure who either of them are anymore.”

Happy book birthday to Emma Lord’s debut novel, Tweet Cute! Special thanks to Emma Lord and Wednesday Books for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review! This may be a debut novel, but I’m ready to line up for Lord’s next book!

Pepper has been the new girl at her super competitive private school for a couple years now, ever since her parents split and her mom moved her from the small town vibes of Tennessee to the heart of New York City. The only way she feels she can fit in and catch up with her classmates is by pushing herself the be the best. She’s neck to neck as the best in school, she’s swim captain, and she’s even the best (or trying to be) at being a mediator between her bitter sister and her mom. She’s even the best at helping her mom with her family-restaurant-turned-coorporate-company, especially with witty tweets when the social media “specialist” struggles.

Jack just wants to be recognized as himself instead of being confused with his mega popular, diving team captain brother. His parents have been grooming him to take over the family restaurant for forever, and he’s positive it’s because they don’t think he’ll go as far in life as his twin. What will they say when he tells them he’s got other interests? Specifically of the app development variety. When he discovers that a chain burger company has stolen his beloved grandma’s secret grilled cheese recipe, it’s too much to stuff away on top of all his self-doubt. This means war—of the meme category.

Pepper and Jack’s spit-fire personalities will keep you engaged from the first page. They are both dedicated to their respective parent’s restaurants, to the point that their school work and college applications might take the hit. Yikes. While they juggle all the moving pieces in their lives, you can’t help but root for them to figure it all out, while melting from the budding romance.

Lord writes a very current storyline without too much name dropping that will cause it to age badly. It’s a sweet coming-of-age story about two teens who are learning who they are and what they want instead of what’s expected of them. The writing was engaging and endearing, taking the reader on a fun emotional ride.

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Emma Lord is a digital media editor and writer living in New York City, where she spends whatever time she isn’t writing either running or belting show tunes in community theater. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a major in psychology and a minor in how to tilt your computer screen so nobody will notice you updating your fan fiction from the back row. She was raised on glitter, grilled cheese, and a whole lot of love. Her sun sign is Hufflepuff, but she is a Gryffindor rising. TWEET CUTE is her debut novel. You can find her geeking out online on Twitter.

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