This Story Was Meant to Be

"I ended up acting like every single word out of Mark's mouth is a jewel crapped out by a fairy princess."

There is something about a trip to a foreign land that makes romance so inevitable. Especially for a person who has never really experienced romance. In Lauren Morrill's Meant to Be, London sets the stage for crushes, love, and adventure.

Julia is a rule-abider. She follows the rules, does her homework, and is obsessed with all things British. She read Romeo and Juliet when she was in sixth grade, her favorite band are the Beatles, and she can't get enough of Jane Austen. This may have been the result of hearing of her parents' magical time in London before they had her. After her father died when she was seven, London became the connection Julia had to him, and to the magical love her parents found there. So when she has an opportunity to spend ten days in London on a school trip, she jumps on the chance... before she realizes none of her friends are going along. Leaving all of her friends and her crush (or Meant to Be, MTB), Mark, home, she packs her guide books, her No. 2 pencils, and her pocket Shakespeare and decides to take a risk once in her life.

Once in London, it is clear to Julia why her parents loved it so much. All the history and culture surrounding her is everything she could have hoped for. Unfortunately, she is stuck with Jason as her "trip buddy". Forced to go everywhere with Jason is a nightmare, but nothing is going to stop Julia from experiencing the London she has dreamed about for years. When Jason makes her sneak out of the hotel and drags her to a party in the city, she decides to break the rules for once. Of course the hangover she experiences the next day pretty much solidifies it won't happen ever again, but she is intrigued by one experience from the night before- a boy she apparently met (but doesn't remember) named Chris keeps texting her. He wants to meet her. He finds her irresistible! 

When in London! Julia answers the texts, but with Jason's advice, plays a little hard to get. Meanwhile, she realizes Jason is quite so bad after all. He might be annoying and his brutal honesty might blow her romantic ideals out of the water on a daily basis, but at least he isn't as awful as she thought he was. But now Julia, a girl who has never even told a boy she liked him, is caught between the crush she has romanticized for so long, the boy who believed she was a model, and the boy who makes her so angry she could throw him into the water. Sometimes it takes a foreign country to bring out the truth in your emotions! 

At first, when I started this book, I thought Julia was a little too juvenile for the age she was, but it didn't take me long to realize she was just very sheltered. She had self-imposed that sheltering, throwing herself into books and school and anything else that couldn't get her hurt, because she had experienced the biggest hurt a child could ever experience- the loss of a parent. Basically, Julia was a big ole nerd! And she was unapologetic about it! She loved her No. 2 pencils and her Shakespeare, and she didn't make any excuses about it! But she is also pretty sassy. And there is nothing that makes me happier in YA than a snarky nerd who loves her nerdiness and isn't afraid to tell people to stuff it!

But the romance in this story is so much fun. Lauren Morrill is the next Sarah Dessen or Stephanie Perkins, who are some seriously heavy hitters to be in league with! But Morrill belongs there. She can write fabulous contemporary romance without all the "I saw him. He is the one. My life will be over if he doesn't pledge himself to me" nonsense we see too much in YA. She was able to make Julia finally see into the depths of her different relationships, friendship, crush, parental love, etc., without making it feel cheesy. Instead, it felt really honest and beautiful. I loved this story, and if you like Dessen and Perkins, you are going to love it to. It is also an incredibly clean romance, so feel free to give it to any age who meets the reading level (moderate). I truly feel my journey to this book was Meant to Be!!

And if you get a chance to swing by Rhinebeck today, Lauren Morrill will be there with Lauren Oliver, Jess Rothenberg, and Nova Ren Suma for the latest Hudson Valley YA Society Reading! I know I will be there! Will you?

Just One You

Gayle Forman is notorious for surprising you with a small but powerful book, and she doesn't disappoint with Just One Day. What seems like it might just be a simple romance turns into a very different kind of book, and I think you are going to like the journey!

Allyson is a sheltered high school graduate whose parents want her to "see the world" through a carefully monitored Teen Travel trip. She is reluctant to go, but her best friend is going too, so she packs the emergency kit her mother got her and heads off to England. Towards the end of the trip, Allyson and her friend stumble upon an underground Shakespeare production called Guerilla Will. Allyson is taken by one of the actors who catches up with the girls after the production. Dutch Willem is handsome, mysterious, and everything Allyson has been sheltered from. When he offers to take her to Paris for Just One Day, she realizes this is something she would never do... but Lulu would! 

When Willem nicknames her Lulu, it is like Lulu takes over Allyson. She heads to Paris with Willem, a guy she just met, on an adventure never dreamed she could have. But she wasn't expecting the "just one day" to mean she was left alone in a warehouse in the morning with no idea where she was, how to get home, or money to get there. When she finally admits, hours later, that Willem abandoned her despite their amazing night together, she calls the tour leader who gets her back to England. She returns to the states and continues on with her life, but nothing about Allyson's life is the same.

Usually a strong, confident student, Allyson's freshman year in the pre-med classes her mother registered her for is ugly. Her roommates realize she is a dud, and first semester is a nightmare. When she returns for her second semester, her advisor convinces her to take some different classes to break up her hectic schedule. It is the first time Allyson has ever veered from the plan her mother has arranged for her to go to medical school and become a doctor. But Allyson likes pottery. And Shakespeare, no matter how many ugly memories it brings back. And the saving grace is an unusual man named Dee, a classmate of hers who makes her truly examine who Allyson really is... not who her parents want her to be, or her roommates want her to be, but the real Allyson. The Lulu if you will. And the real Allyson has to know what happened to Willem that day a year ago in Paris...

OK. If you read this review, you have to promise me you will read the whole thing because it is going to describe the wild journey my opinion of this book took from start to finish, and if you stop early, you won't know how the journey ended! So this book started like a mediocre romance that was any parent's nightmare: your sheltered 18 year old daughter agrees to go to a foreign country with a strange, mysterious boy (whom she doesn't even know his last name), very little money, and no one knows where she is going. Sounds like a Liam Neeson thriller, right? Yep. Pretty much. I was waiting for her to get kidnapped and sold into an ugly prostitution ring. That didn't happen, but when Willem abandoned her in the artists' squat, I was intrigued. Maybe this wasn't the cliche novel I was starting to imagine it as (and was shocked Forman would write). And it wasn't...

The Allyson went to college and acted like a whiny, depressed lump and I was totally unimpressed. Yes, honey. Some guy made you think he liked you, you slept with him, and he bolted. It sucks, but is it enough to throw your life away for? I think not! But then I started to realize something. When Allyson starts to take the Shakespeare class and meets Dee, it occurred to me she wasn't acting this way because of Willem (although he was part of it). She missed Lulu! When I realized this, the book took on a whole new light for me. Dee was this amazing guy who morphed himself to any situation he was in. When he a girl saw his pink boots and assumed he was gay, he played gay. When someone heard he was from the Bronx and assumed he was form the ghetto, he played ghetto. He even had a persona he put on to pacify Allyson's parents. Seeing Dee's continuous, unapologetic act made Allyson realize she had been living an act- the one she thought everyone wanted her to live. 

And this is where everything came together for me. It was beautiful really... poetic. I loved it. Dee was a phenomenal character who really made Allyson realize how she had been living her life. It wasn't a romantic relationship, but rather a mutual understanding and respect. And while Allyson's trek back to Paris was clearly to find out about Willem, it was more about finding Lulu- the person Allyson knew she really was. And I loved this transformation in Allyson. More to the point, I loved this novel. It is so much more than a romance, a story about lost love, or even a story about breaking free of your parents. It is about finding yourself. And what 18 year old girl doesn't need to take that journey? So push past the frightening actions of a girl who finally found her will (and took some huge risks that make me cringe) and see the journey of a girl you will be proud of. You won't be sorry!

Tragedy in Paper

What constitutes a real tragedy? For a young adult, the answer to that question could be any number of things. For the students of this East Coast boarding school, the tragedy paper is their final goodbye and their biggest revelation. In Elizabeth Laban's The Tragedy Paper, traditions, a social hierarchy, and a literature assignment can change someone's life forever.

Duncan moves into his new dorm room for his senior year, and he finds his "treasure" left from the senior before him to be a bundle of CDs. Despite the crapshoot of a tradition, he had hoped for a better treasure and certainly a better room. But once he starts listening to the legacy Tim, last year's senior who happened to be albino, he has a hard time looking at everything the same way. After what happened last year during the tradition of the Senior Games, he has been different this year anyway. Now, hearing Tim's story about how it all happened, Duncan has a choice: either the tragedy changes who he is or he changes how the tragedy controls their lives.

Tim has always been an outcast. It is hard to hide your differences when you are albino- everyone notices. But starting a new school his senior year, across the country, and in a private school, is more than Tim really thought about when he agreed to give it a try. But on his journey out there, he was stranded in an airport hotel with a beautiful girl named Vanessa. And as luck would have it, Vanessa is headed to the very same school Tim is now a part of, traditions and all. After their whirlwind night building igloos and ordering room service, Tim feels a connection to Vanessa like he has never felt before. However, her boyfriend might not feel the same way about their connection. And now, in a school full of traditions he is completely oblivious to, Tim must find a way to finally find out who he is and how far he is willing to go.

As I started to read this, I immediately thought of Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why. With the CD's and the story left as a legacy, it all sounded very familiar, but it was still really well written and the story was interesting, so I was excited to find out what happened. Add to that this layer of intrigue surrounding the traditions at the private school. This is one of those true East Coast boarding schools layered with generations of students, traditions, and mystery. But the traditions are actually kind of sweet. The idea of the senior before you leaving a treasure for your moving-in day or the seniors hosting an event each year to tap in the new junior committee. All of it is kind of quaint, actually. It wasn't the Skull and Bones stuff you might be thinking of. 

And the Tragedy Paper, a kind of thesis culminating in a Literature class's study of true tragedy, is brilliant! In fact, it gave me a lot of insight into my own senior class, and Laban's ideas surrounding this class and this teacher are brilliant. Then comes the adults in the book. Supportive, loving parents, and even a wonderful step-father Tim adores! The teachers? Let's put it this way, the headmaster picks Tim up at the airport after his flight is delayed! This really was a jackpot of stellar adult role models. And I really liked this! So many YA books have absentee parents and cruel, useless teachers. The adults in this book were truly great, and I appreciated that.

*SPOILER* My biggest struggle with this book was the "tragedy" at the end. I hate to even say this, but I wanted a bigger tragedy. Yes, I am sure the tragedy would have been life-altering for those involved, but as they all survived relatively unscathed, I am unsure how believable Duncan's traumatization would have been- it felt forced. Like Laban didn't want to kill anyone she liked, so she just banged them around a little bit. I think the build-up of Duncan's reactions and the tragedy paper needed a tragedy so devastating it would have shaken my world up. But I didn't get that. And sadly, it ruined the ending of a really good book for me. *END SPOILER*

So, I would definitely pass this onto my students, especially being part of a boarding school. It was a great, clean book and perfect for a younger student even though it is about seniors. I wish the ending was a little bit more powerful, but that doesn't detract from the really beautiful writing. And I can't wait to meet Laban at Oblong next month! I hope she has a lot to talk about!