Review : The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : The Start of Me and You
Author : Emery Lord
Publication Date : March 31st 2015
Publisher : Bloomsbury
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Following her pitch-perfect debut Open Road Summer, Emery Lord pens another gorgeous story of best friends, new love, & second chances.

Brimming with heartfelt relationships and authentic high-school dynamics The Start of Me and You proves that it’s never too late for second chances.

It’s been a year since it happened—when Paige Hancock’s first boyfriend died in an accident. After shutting out the world for two years, Paige is finally ready for a second chance at high school . . . and she has a plan. First: Get her old crush, Ryan Chase, to date her—the perfect way to convince everyone she’s back to normal. Next: Join a club—simple, it’s high school after all. But when Ryan’s sweet, nerdy cousin, Max, moves to town and recruits Paige for the Quiz Bowl team (of all things!) her perfect plan is thrown for a serious loop. Will Paige be able to face her fears and finally open herself up to the life she was meant to live?

Personal Thoughts

Emery Lord is a queen of YA contemporary. There. I said it. She debuted with one of my favorite books, Open Road Summer, last year and I was absolutely impatient to read The Start of Me and You. The moment it made it into my hands, I dove into the book and found myself being completely mesmerized by the beautiful story she has crafted. Once again, Emery Lord has managed to create a breathtakingly beautiful novel that shines from every page and that I have no doubt many will label a favorite.

Emery Lord just breathes life into her characters. They are always so realistic and as you're reading you get the impression you are slowly to getting to know them. The characters in The Start of Me and You were absolutely fantastic in every way. From Paige to all of the secondary characters, they were all so well fleshed-out. The author really puts effort into making them three dimensional, so that you feel like you know them personally. Paige, the protagonist, was so easy to click with. At the beginning of the book, she was struggling with the grief over the loss of her boyfriend from a drowning accident and also battling with a form of PTSD with her fear of drowning as well. I really admired Paige throughout the book. She was one strong girl and I was proud of how she herself decided to try to move on the path to healing by taking certain steps when it came to her social life. What I really love about Emery Lord's characters is how flawed they are in specific areas. You could tell that Paige was a teenager with her never-ending crush on Ryan and with just how obsessed she was with wanting to go out with him. While there were moments where I was frustrated with that, they were purely selfish because I wanted her to be with Max already. At the same time, Paige was a teenager, so it was easy to understand where she was coming from. Speaking of Max! *Insert swoony sighs and fangirling!* Oh, I just loved this boy so much! Emery Lord is one author that shows that you don't have to have a bad boy in a YA book to make him swoony! Max was nerdy and quirky and entirely too adorable for words. I was very much in love with this boy! (If you noticed, I went on a commenting spree on GR reviews of this book claiming I own him!).

The romance between Paige and Max was so slow-burn! I just really really loved it. It was sweet and was the kind of romance that just left me feeling good throughout the whole thing. As I watched them slowly build a friendship through Quizbowl and then eventually saw how they were perfect for each other, I was on a swoon high! It really was all kinds of beautiful. I'm not going to lie, it does take some time for Paige to realize that Max, not Ryan is the one, but I promise, it's all worth it. While I obviously adored the romance in The Start of Me and You, what I loved even more were the friendships. The friendship and strong bonds that existed between Paige and her girlfriends, Tessa, Morgan and Kayleigh were the highlights of The Start of Me and You. The loyalty that existed between these girls was admirable. I just loved how supportive they were of each other. Even when one of them made a mistake, they never put that person down for the mistake, instead sticking together through thick and thin. Not going to lie, it made me extremely jealous because I never grew up with such a close-knit friends group, but Paige really deserved the girls in her life. Emery Lord also paints a very realistic portrayal of family life through Paige's parents and sister. As with Open Road Summer, her writing was absolutely gorgeous.

The Start of Me and You was a stunning novel that illustrated life with grief, friends, family and romance so well. It's undoubtedly a favorite of 2015 for me and from here on, I'll be reading everything that Emery Lord writes.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 5/5
Characters : 5/5
Writing : 5/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the e-ARC of The Start of Me and You.