Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour

**Thank you Penguin for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review 


A wunderkind young set designer, Emi has already started to find her way in the competitive Hollywood film world.
 
Emi is a film buff and a true romantic, but her real-life relationships are a mess. She has desperately gone back to the same girl too many times to mention. But then a mysterious letter from a silver screen legend leads Emi to Ava. Ava is unlike anyone Emi has ever met. She has a tumultuous, not-so-glamorous past, and lives an unconventional life. She’s enigmatic…. She’s beautiful. And she is about to expand Emi’s understanding of family, acceptance, and true romance.



My Thoughts:

Let me say one word about this book that is the best description for it...BEAUTIFUL. From the writing to the scenes everything was beautiful. 

This is my first LaCour book and one of the main things that drew me in was that it had diversity in it. This is essentially a love story between two girls, Emi and Ava, and as I read also found that Emi is a mixed race. I find these tidbits refreshing and I hope to see a lot more diversity in YA like this.

Even though this book was overall about Emi and Ava the part I most enjoyed was Emi's job. I loved seeing these behind the scenes of filming and how Emi made a set come to life. It was all so intriguing and it actually helped me learn so much about Emi and really connect with her. She really loves what she does and her inner voice really shows that and it was just beautiful (told you this was the best word for everything). 

I really liked the dynamic between Emi and Charlotte, her best friend. Charlotte was such a good friend to Emi and was really there for her the entire way through the story. I wasn't a huge fan of Morgan but I think she made me learn more about Emi along the way. I really wish there had been more Jamal in the story and that I had even learned a little bit more background about him. I also enjoyed meeting Lenny (even though it was brief) and it made me wish there had been an epilogue to see what happens in the future with that story line. 

One main thing in this book was the mystery of Ava and her family, while I found that to be an interesting plot it wasn't my favorite. It was entertaining but kind of seemed quite pointless for the most part. Things were found out pretty easily, almost too easily at times, and then the one part that I really wanted to know I never got closure on, and that was things with Tracey. I feel like whatever her deal was I'm still in the dark about and I really wanted to know what the problem was. There was a lot of speculation on Ava's part but never any solid answers. But I guess it's just one of those things I will never know. If anyone read between the lines and figured that out please enlighten me because I want solid answers, not speculation.


Overall this is definitely one of the better YA Contemporaries I have read and you guys know I'm SUPER picky when it comes to this genre. I would definitely give her other books a try because I really do adore her writing. I would recommend this book to everyone and just to let you know majority of my blogger friends who LOVE contemporary gave this a 5 star, so it is very possible that the things that bothered me are just because I'm knit picky when it comes to this genre. 

Rating:
♥♥♥♥

4 comments:

  1. So glad to hear you loved this one! I had a few doubts about this one, but it being so diverse and a different kind of romance is giving it more points for me to actually get it!
    Great review, Crystal!!

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  2. Glad to hear this one is beautiful and really that word describes all of Nina LaCour's books that I've read. I'm sad that some things weren't tied up very well in this one though. I'm still going to read it but now I know to expect that.

    Great review!

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  3. I really want to read this one (so Penguin people, if you're seeing this ... chrm ...) and I'm not the biggest fan of contemporaries, either! Like you said, it sounds really refreshing that the main character is a lesbian, and that nevertheless, the book does not solely revolve around that topic, but also incorporates the movie stuff.

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  4. I really want to read this one (so Penguin people, if you're seeing this ... chrm ...) and I don't particularly like contemporaries, either! Like you said, it sounds very refreshing that the main character is a lesbian, and that nevertheless, the book doesn't solely revolve around that topic, but also incorporates the movie stuff.

    ReplyDelete

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