Review Detail

Love Stories (The Taylors Version #1) Featured

Young Adult Fiction 677

Romance, drama, and songs... oh, my!

October 03, 2025 (Updated: June 08, 2026)

Overall rating

5.0

Plot

5.0

Characters

5.0

Writing Style

5.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

Younger readers will want to learn the backstory of the Taylors by reading about when they met in fifthe grade in The Taylors, but older readers can go ahead and start with this tale of their entry into high school. We see more of their individual personalities, and see what romances come their way. Blonde Teffy is shy and quiet, and would rather stay at home with her books and music, pining over family friend Liam, than perform songs she has written with Tay. Red haired TS is determined to make the high school varsity soccer team, and when she does, is thrown for a loop by a British important to the team, Gemma, on whom she has an overwhelming crush. Tay (who drops the second Tay because it seems babyish) is the only one who is still a cheerleader, because she has a background in gymnastics. Taylor Perez is bound and determined to run for student body president, but that's before she becomes enamored of Hunter, who is gorgeous and a senior. The girls are invited to a high school party, but make the wise choice not to drink alcohol, and run into their old nemesis Hannah and her henchwoman Greta. Teffy keeps hanging out with Liam, whose parents funded her own parents business, Harrison by Design, which is struggling to get enough orders to stay afloat. She doesn't understand why he is dating Cat, even though she waffles on whether or not she is romantically interested in Liam. Taylor spends so much time with Hunter that her grades falter, and she also decides not to run for elected office. Teffy is so distracted by Gemma that her game suffers, and she tries to distance herself from her crush, which doesn't help the team. Tay meet emo rocker Reece when they have to work on a science project together, and their romance runs a somewhat rocky course as Tay has to realize how wealthy Reece's family is, and he feels inferior when he realizes how good her singing is. It's great that all four have romances and are still able to stay together as a friend group and help each other through the difficult moments.

Good Points

This is EXACTLY the type of older middle grade books that I've been looking for. Certainly, in middle school in the 1970s, I was reading a lot of titles about girls in high school, like Conford's 1976 The Alfred G. Graebner Memorial High School Handbook of Rules and Regulations: A Novel, and sometimes even college (and even now desperately want to buy Colver's 1942 Joan Foster series for myself from Image Cascade!). Eulberg does a great job of fleshing out each character so they each have distinctive interests and personalities. The wide range of love interests was impressive; Taylor's older, probably deeply creepy guy who is probably pressuring her for more physical interaction behind the scenes, Tay's "opposites attract" bad boy who's really quite sweet, Teffy's friendship with Liam that she would like to be something more, and TS's all consuming crush on Gemma. The relationships all work out in various ways that will make the readers happy. I enjoyed the fact that most of the parents were around and supportive; only Tay's mother is absent, although her father is very involved. The fact that all of the girls like Taylor Swift's music comes up quite a bit, and I think the chapter headings are all names of her songs. This will be HUGELY popular even without the inclusion of Swift fandom, especially since Eulberg has other good Young Adult titles that work for middle school readers, like Take a Chance on Me and Past Perfect Life as well as her middle grade The Best Worst Summer.

This is a fantastic choice for middle school readers who want to learn more about their future in high school, or for high school readers who (like me) can't stomach the horrific drama and trauma, as well as salty language, that seems to make up most of the Young Adult titles these days. I'm not sure what we're allowed to call books like this these days ("clean reads" is definitely out), but this is a gentler read along the lines of Kristy Boyce's Hot British Boyfriend, Jouhanneau's Kisses and Croissants, or the work of Kasie West. Readers will be looking forward to Cruel Summer (1/6/26).