The Start of Me and You - Emery Lord

The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord
Published by Bloomsbury on March 31, 2015
Pages: 384
Genres: Coming of Age, Contemporary, Romance
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley

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Following her pitch-perfect debut Open Road Summer, Emery Lord pens another gorgeous story of best friends, new love, & second chances.

Brimming with heartfelt relationships and authentic high-school dynamics The Start of Me and You proves that it’s never too late for second chances.

It’s been a year since it happened—when Paige Hancock’s first boyfriend died in an accident. After shutting out the world for two years, Paige is finally ready for a second chance at high school . . . and she has a plan. First: Get her old crush, Ryan Chase, to date her—the perfect way to convince everyone she’s back to normal. Next: Join a club—simple, it’s high school after all. But when Ryan’s sweet, nerdy cousin, Max, moves to town and recruits Paige for the Quiz Bowl team (of all things!) her perfect plan is thrown for a serious loop. Will Paige be able to face her fears and finally open herself up to the life she was meant to live?

How do you talk about one of your favorite books? I just really don't know how to make justice to this book and I can't think of anything that will make you realize how good this is, but yeah "The Start of Me and You" is one of my favorite reads of 2015 and definitely a book that I will be wanting to pick up whenever a need a motivational read.

Paige is a girl that shut out the world two years ago when she lost her boyfriend on an accident, the books starts when Paige finally says enough for her solitude and elaborates a plan to get back on track and re-start enjoying her life. At first, I thought Paige wasn't suffering that much from grief because well, she didn't even thinked that much about her dead boyfriend on a sad/reminiscent way but them I discovered that they dated like 5 seconds when both were 14 and I was like "ooh, now it makes sense" - this is much more about how losing him and being defined by this fact than a sad grief sort of book.

My favorite part of this story was seeing how important was the friendship between Paige and her three best friends, the four of them have a really great dynamic and it felt so real, each one of them complement each other and they are so completely different from each other making all of them necessary and needed on the group - is like, each are irreplaceable and together they form a puzzle, ya know? I really liked the addition of the boys too! Seeing friendship between attractive people from different sexes without romantic feelings (for most of them) was a great addition, and their group dynamics also was great, between all of them.

And the romance, basically when I start to think about Max and Paige I go kind of like

Can't contain the giggles 

I absolutely freaking love them together and yeah, Paige does takes her sweet time to realize what is right behind her nose and I wanted more of them actually together and kissing and stuff 'cause why not but still, I loved every second of it. Max Watson is basically the best love interest that I've come across in a long time, he is nerdy and attractive and funny and smart and gentle and everything I ever wanted (please, mom give me a Watson for christmas).

 If it didn't become clear by this attempt of review I loved this book and you should ready it too because I'm still to know someone who doesn't fall in love with the writing and way of story telling of Emery Lord - but especially if you like contemporary romance, stories about figuring out what you want for your life and deep stuff, like coming of age.