Rachel Lynn Solomon

This was a really fun and adorable read, and had some hilarious lines, like...

"Excuse me while I walk right into downtown rush-hour traffic. 'Cool' is the Kevin Jonas of compliments. It's like saying your favourite color is beige."

I died laughing when I read that! Whoo boy!

Plus, I am a complete sucker for a good enemies-to-lovers trope, which can be difficult to pull off in a modern context, but I could really feel the tension between Shay and Dominic at the beginning and loved how their show more relationship developed with aid of forced proximity. I also liked that while there was a bit of miscommunication sprinkled in, in general, the characters actually said what they were feeling so the miscommunications did not last long. Refreshing!

As a side note, I now have a new mantra to live by, WWAMWMD (What would a mediocre white male do)! Too good! show less

Review also posted on my blog: https://bennilovesbooks.wordpress.com/2018/01/08/review-youll-miss-me-when-im-go...

This book has content warnings for suicidal ideation and self-harm.

Wow. I don’t even know where to start with this book. I’ll just go with the words “exceeds expectations” and then try to work from there.

The tension in this book is so thick that you could cut it with a knife. The dueling points-of-view between the twins shows just how much they misunderstand each other, show more and while it feels frustrating while you’re reading it it also makes their worlds make that much more sense to you. That’s kind of the point — they don’t understand each other, and they don’t know how to interact with each other because they don’t understand each other’s wants and needs. It’s a tense and complicated relationship, and it worked so well.

I loved how central the family as a whole was to the story. Ima and Aba were caring and supportive, and while they didn’t always understand their children they did their best to listen and talk to them (something so often missing in YA). Also, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with bilingual Jewish rep in it and I’m loving it. Ima came to the US from Israel after serving in the Israeli army, and she and Aba speak both English and Hebrew with Adina and Tovah at home. Judaism is explored as both a religion and as an identity, and through the twins (and other Jewish characters like Zack) we were able to see a variety of ways in which Jewish people express themselves, especially as Adina questions her religion while still fully embracing her heritage. As someone who isn’t Jewish, I really loved getting this view of the family.

The mental health issues covered in this book were very relatable to me. I absolutely loved how anxiety and depression were depicted as illnesses that can cause very real physical symptoms in people; this is something that a lot of people tend to forget, and showing that they can be behind symptoms that seemingly point to another illness was refreshing. The portrayal felt very real to me, and it’s heartbreaking. I know little about Huntington’s Disease, but the portrayal appeared well-researched, honest and raw. The prospect of not knowing when you’ll develop a disease is terrifying, and I feel like this was well done.

(If you liked You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone and want more teenagers and parents dealing with early-onset illnesses and more Jewish characters (as well as Deaf characters and romance and terrifyingly challenging races), you might want to give Wild by Hannah Moskowitz a try! I definitely kept thinking of that book while I was reading this one.)

I loved how well-developed all of the characters in this book were — not a single character in this book came off as flat to me. The twins themselves were the most well-developed characters I’ve read in a while, and their parents were definitely some of the most well-written parents I’ve read period. The characters felt real and were well-grounded in the setting, and I love when books give me this feeling.

Also, I looked up Rhode Island School of Design’s mascot and I was not disappointed.

This was one of my most anticipated 2018 releases, and I was definitely not disappointed. This is a book that I would love to pick up again in the future!

Final rating: 5 of 5 stars show less

I confess that I was a little sad when I learned Rachel Lynn Solomon wasn’t going to be writing more YA books that dealt with serious chronic illness. She does that so well and I was looking forward to the next one. That said, this rom com with two graduating seniors who have a serious enemies-to-lovers vibe going on was simply adorable. McNair and Rowan have competed in everything all throughout high school. Every assignment. Every school club. Every attendance award. They are so wrapped show more up in each other that they can’t see maybe there’s a little spark of something there, too. Or maybe it’s just Rowan that’s never noticed. On the last day of school, the seniors get to go on a Seattle-wide scavenger hunt/”kill” expedition (which was totally fun) and they’ll have to team up when a plot forms to take them out. And as these two work together throughout the day and night and slowly get to know one another better, I couldn’t help but fall for their romance. So cute. This was one of my favorite reads this year!

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. show less

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review here and on my blog Samwise Reviews. Oh. My. God. I’ll be honest, the first 10% of this book didn’t really grab me, but I was sucked into the rest of it and couldn’t put it down. I even snuck in some reading while I was at work, cause I just had to finish it. The characters are delightfully sweet and perfectly awkward, and their rivalry/romance was very well done. I felt every emotion they did, and loved the whole show more roller coaster ride of them. I loved how honest and open Rowan and Neil are, and I shipped them hard. I was not disappointed. I haven’t read Rachel Lynn Solomon’s other books, but I’ll be definitely picking them up after this. show less