Liz Czukas

Sixteen Candles meets Sliding Doors in this hilariously charming and irreverent YA debut. Fans of realistic teen fiction like Lauren Barnholdt's Two-Way Street and Sarah Mlynowski's Ten Things We Did (And Probably Shouldn't Have) will love Ask Again Later's pitch-perfect tale of prom night drama—with a twist. Heart LaCoeur has zero interest in a messy high-school romance, no matter what her name suggests. That's why she's decided to avoid prom angst by going with a group of single friends. And that's why, when two surprise prom invites derail her brilliant plan, Heart takes the only foolproof, drama-free solution: a coin flip—that somehow gives her the chance to live out both prom nights. Heads or tails, where they both end up might be the most surprising thing of all. . . .

Ask Again Later

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Ask Again Later was a fun and flirty young adult contemporary read. It might have been a little too young for me, but it was still mostly enjoyable. This might get a wee bit spoilery, so beware. 

What worked for me was the characters... for the most part. Heart was a bit over the top at times, but she's an actress. What do you expect? She had awkward moments a'plenty and that endeared her to me more. The jock, Troy, was a pretty flat character from my perspective. But, I don't think he was meant to be all that interesting. Ryan, the closeted theater geek, on the other hand, was pretty interesting. He didn't fit the stereotypical gay friend character and I appreciate that. Yes, some gay guys do actually like sports and don't enjoy dancing. Thank you, Liz, for making him stand out a bit from the pack. Chase, Heart's classmate and frenemy was fantastic. Their chemistry was fantastic and the banter between them was the other thing I really enjoyed about the book. 

I enjoyed Liz's writing, but I had a difficult time staying interested in the format. As you have probably guessed from the blurb above, Ask Again Later was broken into two separate storylines (heads and tails) that run concurrently. Nearly the entire book takes place on prom night. Each chapter is told from Heart's perspective as she lives both of the options (heads and tails) to see what type of night she'd have with each guy. What she doesn't take into account, is the third option for her night: going with her friends as she intended originally and the love connection that just might await there. The biggest problem for me was that the events of the two storylines weren't quite different enough and it came off as a bit of a muddled mess towards the end. There were definitely some cute moments and great banter, but overall I just felt very ambivalent about it. I already knew who Heart belonged with and hopefully who she'd end the night with, so the other options didn't really interest me. 

In all actuality, this is probably a 2.5 star read, but since I don't do half stars, I'm rounding it up to 3 stars. It was charming and a cute idea in theory, but the execution lacked a little for me. It wasn't a bad book. It was sweet and cute and if you're a fan of young adult contemporaries, you should probably check it out and form your own opinion. I would suggest waiting to get it from the library though. 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

Hayley 📖🌈💜🌸

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

I decided I was in the mood for something silly, cute and fun, so I glanced through my review pile to see if I had anything that would meet that criteria. Though Ask Again Later wasn’t next on the pile, it did sound awfully fun, so I decided to bump it up the list. Right off the bat I loved Czukas’ writing style and knew I had picked the right book.

Heart, aside from her “romantic” name, had absolutely no interest in finding love. The leaving of her mother when her and her brother were extremely young affected her in ways one can only imagine. She feared love and romance of any kind, vowing to never date or fall in love. Because of this rule she has, Heart and her friends decided to go to prom in a group. They even named this group, the “No Drama Prom-A”. (Hehe, I love it!) Little did she know she would receive two prom dates that would throw her idea of a nice, fun night into complete chaos.

This story is told through Heart’s alternating dates… Heads, with the jock, and tales, with the nerd. The parallel stories flowed flawlessly. I was overly impressed with how Czukas was able to overlap events between the two and it never seemed redundant or repetitive. The dual perspective was awesome. Obviously this story wouldn’t have been half as enjoyable if we’d only seen one prom option. To flip-flop between the two was perfect. Both dates were completely opposite (and equally drama-overloaded!) which meant loads of teenage fun!

I would definitely recommend this book for a relaxing night in. It’s a very quick read, full of fun and silly prom drama. I laughed out loud, gasped a few times, and even shed a sweet tear at the end. From torn dresses and spilled drinks to kidnapping and a drunken debockle, this book will have you entertained for sure!

(Thanks to Harper Teen and Edelweiss for the review copy!)

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Ask Again Later

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