The Start of Me and You

This novel is first and foremost about grief. Lord does a phenomenal job at showcasing the struggle that people go through when trying to move past such a defining moment in life, and how detrimental it is to handle it with the utmost care. Paige’s grief has manifested itself in an intense fear of water and drowning, nightmares, and isolation. She has isolated herself from a social life in high school and has alienated herself from herself. That sounds a bit confusing, but she has started to also define herself as the girl with a dead boyfriend, rather than moving past it. That is what is so brilliant about Lord’s portrayal of Paige. Paige wants more than anything to get out of that rut and begin to define herself again. It provides an excellent narrative arc that also allows the reader to struggle along with Paige.
Paige has an amazing support system throughout The Start of Me and You. Her three best friends, Tessa, Kayleigh, and Morgan are the absolute best example of how friends can really help you through the toughest times. No lie, it really made me miss my two best friends from high school, because we are scattered through the east coast now! All of the girls were also well written as individuals that function as a part of a whole unit. I loved that these characters could stand on their own with their differences, but they worked better as a friend group. Paige isn’t the only one who has problems, but they continually step up to help one another through anything.
As for the two main male characters, Max and Ryan, I think that Lord concocted a very interesting juxtaposition between them, especially since they are best friends. Ryan is described as being bright blonde and blue eyed, while Max has darker hair, green eyes, and glasses. Ryan is the hot guy jock and Max is the adorable, gangly nerd. The novel immediately sets up Ryan as the main love interest for Paige, but Lord does a good job of displaying how Paige and Ryan would not fit, regardless of how stubborn Paige is in her crush. While Max sneaks up on Paige and her heart, it was clear to me from the beginning that she would end up with him, but that did not deter me at all. As Max says in the story, “Knowing what happens is different from knowing how it happens. And the getting there is the best part.”
Lord really outdid herself with the relationship between Paige and her Grandmother. Not only was Grammy struggling with the early stages of Alzheimer’s, but she suffers from two strokes as well. Paige is extremely close to Grammy and considers her the only person she can share secrets with. They have such excellent conversations, and the dialogue in these scenes is on point. Lord made me cry a number of times during the scenes with Grammy, as it really reminded me of my relationship with my Mawmaw, who passed on a few years ago.
This novel really hit home with me, and I hope everyone will pick up a copy and read it.
5 Stars

It’s been a year since Paige’s boyfriend died from a drowning accident. She shut out the world since then but now, she’s ready to start moving on. She has a plan to help her. First: date Ryan Chase, her first crush. Second: join some school clubs. She’s thrilled when Ryan starts talking to her and wants to hang out with her and her friends. What she didn’t count on was Max, Ryan’s sweet but nerdy cousin tagging along. Max, captain of the Quiz Bowl Paige has agreed to join. Max, who makes her smile and who is impossible to ignore.

This book was cute, just so cute. I had a smile on my face most of the time while I was reading it. I really enjoyed Emery Lord’s first book, Open Road Summer, but this one topped that one. It had a lot of the elements I loved from the first book but added more to love.

I really felt for Paige through the book. The book was her journey of healing from both her boyfriend’s death and the fear and PTSD that she suffered from afterward. It was also about her re-discovering herself after being ‘the girl whose boyfriend died’ for so long. She was a genuinely nice person and so loyal to her friends. I loved the relationships she had with her friends, the ones that developed with Ryan and Max, and the ones she had with her family. All of them were so well written and believable.

Paige’s group of friends was small but close. Each of them had a very distinct personality so they all stood out. The friendship between them was one of my favourite things about this book. There were fights and disagreements and uncomfortable moments just like in any friendship but they knew they had each other’s backs no matter what. Adding in Ryan and Max to that small group made for an interesting dynamic and I really liked that it was more focused on friendship and supporting each other than on romance.

Not to say I didn’t enjoy the slow burn romance. It was very cute and sweet. Each moment made me fall more for Max. He was so perfect for Paige even if it took her a while to figure it out. And he loved Firefly! Heart stolen.

The plot was a lot more complicated than just being about Paige trying to succeed with her plan. It was about facing her fears, about falling for the person instead of a pretty face, about realizing and going for your dreams. It was about strong friendships and new romances. It was about healing and about growing up. It was impossible to put down.

I wanted to read this because I enjoyed emerys first book. Also books that deal with the aftermath of grief ate speaking to me as is the promise of a sweet and nerdy love interest.

I adored that friendship and family were featured asking with the introspective healing and handling fears and the way grief changes the main character throughout. I grew up very xml lose with my grandma and really related with her wanting to share her secrets and get advice. Her grandma like mine is dealing with memory loss and it is hard to see someone you love dealing with those types of health issues and the fear that you might have to watch them forget who you are.

I liked that she was organized and goal oriented. Her list has things that she believes will stretch her and hopefully guide her back to some sense of normalcy and happiness after tragedy.
I liked Paige`s character and I connected with her pretty well. She has several things going on that makes her story have an emotional impact. She is recovering from the accidental drowning of her boyfriend. Its left a pretty big impact on her. She hasn't nightmares about drowning and she doesn't do anything near standing water now. There's also her parents who were divorced and she was actually kind of relieved because of their fighting... she just saw that they made each other miserable. But now they're dating again and she is afraid that it will happen again.

I like how friendship was a big theme in this book. however having three best friends was kind of overwhelming for me at times. The girls all have different personalities, different ways that they met Paige and different families difficulties of their own. So not really sure why I had such a hard time remembering which was which unless it's just the case of being handed too many characters all at once.

The romance was pretty sweet. I like that she had a crush on Ryan even before he was popular. I even like her reasoning behind it because she had seen him with his sister who had cancer and he was dancing shamelessly in the middle of the grocery store just to make her laugh. Ever since then she has harbored the crush on him. But in the process of trying out new things in order to help her have a better year and also wanting to get closer to Ryan she starts falling for his very nerdy but also very sweet cousin Max.

I love her friendship with Max and even though it started out as a reason just to get closer to Ryan, they developed a deeper bond and a trust that I really loved. It was the best kind of slow burning romance I adore and every time that there is nerdy love, of course, I have to be all over it. My husband's one of the more nerdy type so Max reminds me a lot of him. I love how he listens without judgement and how he made her feel so comfortable and that he opened up to her as well.

There's a pretty big fight between them and I was really anxious about if things will be able to be patched up between them and it was hard to see how much careless words can really damage another person. I think it made the story super realistic, especially when we find out why Max was having more distance between them after and Paige was trying to be grown up about it.

I really connected with Paige as she continued her closeness with her grandma. Her grandma has Alzheimer's and she also had a stroke and it sounds just so much like my grandma who I lost a few years ago that it just made my heart ache. I love how Paige trusted her and talked to her about everything and it just really makes me miss the days that I had with my grandma and the time that we had and how I felt that she understood me better than so many other people.

I really liked how much Paige's character grew throughout the story. She learned so much about herself and how to move on after the tragedies of life. She learned to let new people in and she also kept supporting the friends that she had had for years. She realized how much in friendship and with family you're supposed to depend on one another and share each others problem. With that, the punch card is never full because you bear their burdens as well. I think that the loss of her boyfriend Aaron will always shape some of the ways that she looks at life but I like how she realized that it didn't have to define her and that she could move on from her fears a little bit at a time. Also that she can keep his memory alive with others who also misses him.

I really like tells the story ended-- how things were wrapped up but also that we had room in our own imaginations to make more of a future and relationship with the characters that we had met. I definitely wouldn't mind another book about Paige and Max although I doubt that there will be one. But maybe they'll be a companion novel about one of her friends and will get a peek into what becomes of them after their summers and finally admitting things to themselves and each other.

Bottom Line: Emotional story that focuses on friendship, family, love and loss.