The Map From Here To There by Emery Lord
Published by Bloomsbury on January 2020Genres: Young Adult
Pages: 368
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
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It's senior year, and Paige Hancock is finally living her best life. She has a fun summer job, great friends, and a super charming boyfriend who totally gets her. But senior year also means big decisions. Weighing "the rest of her life," Paige feels her anxiety begin to pervade every decision she makes. Everything is exactly how she always wanted it to be--how can she leave it all behind next year? In her head, she knows there is so much more to experience after high school. But in her heart, is it so terrible to want everything to stay the same forever?
Emery Lord's award-winning storytelling shines with lovable characters and heartfelt exploration of life's most important questions.
I have mixed feelings about this book.
Max and Paige captured my heart in the first contemporary romance. I was excited to see where senior year would take them. But this one fell a little flat for me.
I liked revisit the characters a lot. It’s still very friendship based with Paige’s three girlfriends front and center like the first book. I like the tensions and give and take between their relationships. I still got two of the friends mixed up a bit and wish we had more time with them, but oh well. If anything, it’s a buddy story with just a touch of romance.
Or is it?
There wasn’t a lot of romance actually. For most of the book, Paige is waiting for the other shoe to drop. Max might want to go to college in the same city she goes to! Panic! Sorry, I can’t help but roll my eyes a bit. Honestly, the two cities in question are NYC and Los Angeles. Like two of the biggest cities in the world. Honestly, Paige, get a grip. If you don’t want to see him, you won’t.
Also all the wonderful charming things that I liked about the first book were sadly absent in the second. (Quiz bowl? Team building? New friends and taking on new challenges?)
And yes, while I remember trying to make these huge college decisions while jugging boyfriend and stay/breakup conversations, I think a lot of this was over the top. Sure, there is some anxiety and discussion but Paige was almost all consuming.
Overall, I think it was a good chapter in the Paige and Max saga and I still like them by the end of the book. But maybe this one just wasn’t for me.
Kimberly majored in Songwriting and currently works full time in the music industry. When she's not listening to music, knitting or writing, you can find her outside reading her favorite genres: Young Adult, Adult Fiction, Mystery, and Romance.
