Emery Lord

Paige Hancock starts junior year with a list of ways to take back her life, rather than spending another year as "The Girl Whose Boyfriend Drowned," and finding out that Ryan Chase, her long-term crush, is available again might be the key.

The Start of Me and You

Denaiir

4.5 stars, almost a five at some point, then the sort of epilogue drove it back down to a 4.5 
This was one of the cutest young adult contemporaries I've read in SO long. Exactly what I was looking for for the summer.

I loved the friends group, they were all so interesting, their relationships were so positive, they were there for each other but were all very different, and I loved that it wasn't girl drama. They sometimes had issues with each other but communicated to work it out, it was so good!

All my best friends are guys so I really loved that the author created platonic relationships between some of the characters, it's not something I've seen often in YA contemporaries and it was precious. 

I loved the fact that Max was nerdy and sweet but well fleshed-out, and I liked how the relationship evolved, it was so cute and real. 

I also loved that family was a big part of the story and Paige's life, and that it showed that her parents also had their own things going on. And her relationship with her grandmother was the sweetest. 

Overall a great quality young adult contemporary, uplifting, hopeful, cute, and made me tear up once or twice. Emery Lord is definitely one of my favorite YA authors.

Acclaimed author Emery Lord pens another gorgeous story of best friends, new love, and second chances. * "Will inspire readers." --SLJ, starred review 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? Acclaim for The Start of Me and You A Huffington Post Top YA Books of 2015 One of PopSugar's Best YA Books of 2015

Helena

Victoria

Okay, that was a really good and fun read!

Great book! I had never heard of this book before but it really spoke to me. It was amazing and emotional. Apart from the great slowburn romance, I loved the discussion of serieus subjects like grief.

Emma Kamer

Emery Lord just made to my list of must-read authors. The Start of Me and You is a masterpiece.

The narrative is so realistic but beautiful. You get the feeling that she just doesn't try too hard to tug at the reader's heartstrings. Her characters and situations unfold so naturally, unlike other YA novel's I've come across that have situations which just seem so unlikely. 

This book is full of beautiful relationships: friendships, familial and romantic. Emery Lord weaves them together and it just clicks so well for me. 

Our main character Paige has these amazing friends who love her and support her all the time. They're one of my favorites among all the ones I've read before: there's just something so dynamic with each other, individually and as a group. There were four of them but they were each given emphasis, and I appreciated how they weren't shoved aside of kind of forgotten unlike some books I've encountered. They have their own different personalities which compliment each other so well. They're the kind of friends we all wish we had back in high school, unlike the immature toxic ones we usually had. At some point, a few guys even joined their group and made everything more fun! If positive and strong friendships are your thing, this is totally the book for you. 

(view spoiler)[And then we have Max Watson (cue swooning). I think I've just found my fictional soulmate! Nerdiness and intelligence and excessive TV addiction works for me. QuizBowls and Pride & Prejudice? YES WAY. I love how their love develops slowly (mostly for Paige), with her pining for a different guy half of the book. But seriously. I admire how Max wasnt pushy about his feelings for her, until the big reveal at the end.  (hide spoiler)]


  
     "I think I've loved you since that first day."
  

*swoons* Semi adorable, semi serious romance that just works so perfectly!

Please please please read this and discover the masterpiece that is this book is.

Super cute! I liked all of the literary references. :)

Tracie McMurray

Sven Test

*reaches the last page* *flips it and sees acknowledgements* WHAT?! But... No.. I want more. I want more Max and Paige. Is there a second book? I know there isn't but I desperately need one after the magic that this book was. The friendship of all four girls was brilliant! Max and Paige's friendship was FUN and just magical and I NEED MORE.

Nicole Dykeman

I loveeeeeeeeeeed Max. He was really just amazing. I enjoyed this one more than the Jenny Han books I read recently. I just thought the characters were easier to relate to and more likeable. Han's characters are all so perfect and untouchable. Emery Lord's characters are human beings, and that's what I like to see in a romance novel.

I loved this book! I flew through it and it was such a wonderful and cute contemporary read. Not only was the romance adorable and constantly had me gushing, I cherished the dynamic between Paige and her friends, which made the reading experience even more enjoyable. All of the characters within this book were so lovable, from her teacher, her friends, her family, Max, and I loved how they all played an important role in the story. It touches on a wide variety of things - including grief and divorce, but also the power of friendship and the importance of family. This novel made me experience a whirlwind of emotions and it is unlike any other YA contemporary I've read in the past.

Flavia Louise

I did enjoy this quite a bit, then again it's sadly my least favorite book by Emery Lord. :(

Alexa Auerbach 

Kaley Catron

Wow. This book was the absolute cutest. Paige, Tessa, Morgan and Kayleigh's friendship makes me jealous. Also MAX. Max is the cutest nerd ever. Like where is my Max? HAHA okay no but seriously read this book. Not only is the cover beautiful but so are the characters, the friendships, relationships and basically the entire story are as well. It's definitely going to be a reread for me!!

Kathryn 

THIS BOOK WAS WONDERFUL. It was so cute and heartwarming and exactly what I was looking for right now. I adore Emery Lord and her writing. Absolutely phenomenal everyone should read her books.

Sofie

There is truly nothing better than a love story.

My instinct is to call this a quick-read, a fluffy YA novel. In a way, it is. But it's also so much more.

Halfway through the book, I'd been pretty sure I was giving a 3-star rating. It was cute. It was sweet. But when the drama kicked in, I spent pretty much the rest of the book in tears. That earns it a 5-star rating.

Emery Lord encapsulates real people, real teenagers, in this novel. I felt ever single character was distinct and fleshed out, and the progression of everything felt really authentic. Not the quick two-weeks-and-we-are-in-love story. Paige figured it out: she needed to allow herself to move on and find herself again before she was ready for love. 

Usually I'm pretty specific in my reviews. I mention plot-points I liked, names, places. I could do that here. But the love I have for this book extends far beyond particular chapters or moments. I loved it because it reminded me of everything I've always wanted. I loved it because so many things that happened to Paige were real to me, things I'd experienced. I loved it because, obviously, I'm a sucker for romance. Paige says it best - this book felt like a fluffy blanket. It was messy, it was truthful, it was heartbreaking, and it was hopeful.

Basically, read it. You'll see what I mean.

Sahi K

Sometimes, you just know that you will enjoy reading a book. That’s what happened to me with this one – Love at first page. The story starts almost a year after Aaron’s death, Paige’s boyfriend of only two months and whose absence has left such an indelible mark on her. So, she decides to make a list of things she wants to accomplish in her junior year – simple things like going to a party or joining a school club or even trying to move on by dating her sixth grade crush Ryan.

This book has one of the best group of girlfriends I have ever read about. Paige, Tessa, Kayleigh and Morgan are loving, caring and always there for each other. Each of their characters is very uniquely written their own quirks and strengths and they are amazing together. They have their own lives too and personalities outside of the group dynamic which makes us get to know and love them both individually and together. I loved their conversations, their fights, their silences – everything that reminded me of my own girl gang.

Then, we come to Max, Ryan’s cousin whom Paige initially befriends in the hope of getting close to Ryan. But what follows is a great friendship. Max is not your school heartthrob kinda guy but the cute adorable dork who is awesome if you take the time to get to know him better. Max and Paige bond over their love for books, binge watching Firefly, discovering the love for Indiana Jones and many such little things. I absolutely fell in love with him during his first argument with Paige about the better qualities of Jane and Bingley over Elizabeth and Darcy. I mean…… how can you NOT love a guy who can quote Austen and finds the bookstore a perfect hangout place for the weekend 😍😍😍😍

Though Max and Paige fall for each other towards the latter half of the book, this is still more about their friendship than romance. This book is also about Paige finding herself through her grief, not feeling guilty about feeling happy after losing someone, making new friends and forging connections, understanding her parents and that they need to overcome problems too.. and ultimately, as her Grandma says, it’s about living your life and loving extra even if it hurts extra too.

I would recommend this book to everyone because it’s full of great characters and special moments and I assure you that you will find someone or something to relate to. It definitely made me miss my wonderful group of friends.

laura

I really loved this read! I was super invested in the characters and felt like this book was a nice blanch between tackling grief issues but also self discovery and friendship and breaking out of your comfort zone. I really loved how this book focused on friendship dynamics. I loved how this book had various romance issues and found the book to super compelling. I really am excited to dive into the sequel book soon!

Can you plan happiness? It's been a year since Paige's first boyfriend died in a swimming accident and it's time she rejoined the real world. So she makes a plan: 1. Date a boy (long-standing crush Ryan Chase seems like the perfect choice) 2. Attend parties (with best friends by your side: doable) 3. Join a club (simple enough, right?) 4. Travel (might as well dream big) 5. Swim (terrifying. Impossible) But when she meets Ryan's sweet but so nerdy cousin, Max, he opens up her world and Paige's plans start to change. Is it too late for a second chance at life? Brimming with characters so real you feel you could pick up the phone and call them, The Start of Me and You will prove that it's never too late for second chances. Perfect for fans of Rainbow Rowell, Jennifer Niven and John Green. Chosen by bestselling author Amy Alward as part of the 2017 Zoella Book Club!

Sophie Elaina 

Well that was wonderful!! I loved every single second apart from the end, mainly because I didn't want it to be the end. I feel like I needed so much more. I really need a sequel, it would be absolute perfection. Often throughout this book the main character struggles to tackle PTSD and it is one of the most wonderfully, realistic accounts I have ever read in a book. I loved that things weren't just brushed over and they were thoroughly developed. It made the characters seem so real. I very much enjoyed the plot and overall feel of the book. 

At the beginning it took me a while to get used to the writing, which means I didn't really connect with the characters right off the bat. But I stuck with it and I am very happy that I did because I eventually became so attached to this group of characters and I couldn't stop reading even for a second. I wanted to slow down and pace myself but it was like the pages were turning themselves; I had no control. I also enjoyed the format of the emails toward the end but it did feel a little half hazard which I wouldn't have minded if we got a snippet of what came afterwards. However it ended so abruptly and felt rather anti-climatic in my opinion. Even though I did feel that way towards the end the rest of the book made it worth it and it is definitely worth the read.

Emily

** spoiler alert **
           I think I've loved you since that first day.

Where do I even begin? This truly exceeded every one of my expectations. I was expecting to like it, but in that more reluctant sort of way. The way in which you recognize how cheesey it is, but love it anyway. That is not what ended up happening. At. All. 

I truly loved everything that this book had to offer. Too many YA romances turn into a story about the love interest, rather than the main character. This was not the case in The Start of Me and You. I felt connected to Paige in so many ways, and the book truly delved deep into her life and not just the lives of her love interests. It focused on her dealing with school, grief, friends (an amazing friend group btw! Everyone needs friends that will abandon all plans to wallow over tubs of ice cream together :D ), and more. 

I really related to Paige and was thoroughly impressed by how well the author was able to write realistic situations and evoke feelings through that. The moment that really stood out to me is when she is trying to think of something to say to Ryan at the football game, and after finding out they both like mustard, she thinks saying "Hot dogs are so good" would be a totally normal thing to say as small talk. I felt the pure terror she felt after saying that. Like why would that even come out of your mouth? It's something I would say because I don't understand how small talk works and for some reason this really struck a chord and made me so internally embarrassed that I had to put the book down for a minute to process. 

Another aspect about this story that I loved in particular was that it chronicled the start of relationship between Paige and a normal boy. Not the most popular boy in school, not the neighbor she's known for years, not the teen idol. A regular boy who just so happens to be special in his own ways. 

Max Watson. So adorable. He's a nerd, but also socially competent. Sure, he gets made fun of occasionally, but once you get to know him, he's pretty great. I was rooting for him from the first page I met him, and I'm glad he turned out to be just as cool as I thought he would be :P

P.S. him in the scene from Chapter 17 killed me

I also was incredibly entertained by the 'two love interests' plotline. It wasn't a love triangle because she only liked one person at a time, but knowing that she would end up with who she didn't think all along was really fun. 

Additionally, some other fun things I liked about this book were QuizBowl and the amazing nerdy references made throughout. I love trivia so getting an occasional joke about literature or Bernoulli's equation was incredibly satisfying. 

Under all of this fun there was also a serious tone. The depiction of grief and relief for Paige and others in the book was very important and added an even greater depth to the significance of the story. 

I may still be stumbling through these steps, but at least I'm stumbling forward.

What I'm trying to say here is that this book was great. I'm currently reading the sequel which comes out on January 7th (thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury!!), and I'm even MORE excited about it because it's about senior year of high school, which I am currently experiencing. I'm a teensy bit apprehensive because I like romances about people forming their relationship, and tend not to like already established ones because they get too mushy and gross. Maybe I'm just soulless lol. Anywayyyy I can't wait to keep reading!

Triana Jordan

I really want a sequel to this book. I loved how the MC, Paige, progressed throughout the book. Her friendship with her friends is inspiring. I LOOOOOOVE MAX, which is why I would like to see a sequel to this book to read more about him and Paige. This book is so so good I might consider buying it (read from the library)

Tiffany Engler

The Start Of Me And You is a story about a girl named Paige who’s boyfriend died in a swimming accident. It’s mostly about her trying to move on with her life. She’s tired of all the pity stares she gets and all the empty apologies. She makes a list of things she wants to accomplish. Things she wouldn’t have done while she was mourning. Things like: dating, swimming, being more social and attending events. We follow Paige as she scratches items off her list.

I really enjoyed my time reading this book. I honestly wasn’t expecting to like it… I picked it up about two or three days ago and almost automatically put it back down. This book has been sitting on my shelves since about 2016. I thought it was going to be super cheesy. I thought it was going to be boring. Well, I was absolutely wrong.

This book really centers around friendship. That’s what I really love most about this book. You don’t get a lot of YA contemporaries that focus on friendship. Paige’s friends are just so freaking amazing. Not one of them is self absorbed. They all equally care about each other’s problems as if it were their own. I love books that show strong friendships.

Throughout this book, Paige is trying to get noticed by Ryan Chase. Ryan has been her crush for a long time. While trying to get him to notice her, she befriends his amazingly nerdy cousin, Max. Max is the type of person you’ll root for during the entire book. And surely, I did. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Ryan. A lot. I just didn’t think he was perfect for Paige. He’s a great friend to her and that’s all I really care about.

Max was by far my favorite character in this book. He is so genuine and even flawed. He’s not perfect and I love that. I love that he’s not the “hotty” that everyone fawns over. I love that he’s himself and doesn’t care if people thinks he’s a nerd. I love that he brings out Paige’s inner nerd and makes her feel more comfortable about herself.

The Start Of Me And You is a cute read. It hurt my heart at times and it healed it. I’m really glad I read this book and didn’t put it down. I definitely recommend this book to those who have lost a loved one. Whether it be a spouse or a family member. This book deals with both kind of losses. This book is amazing in so many ways. Can’t wait to read more by Emery!

Find this review and more at 
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Last year I fell in love with Emery Lord's writing and characters in Open Road Summer. I had high expectations for The Start of Me and You and it exceeded every one of them. 

Paige was a great protagonist. I sympathized with her over the death of her boyfriend and I understood her need to move on. She was tired of getting The Look. She was tired of being known as the Girl Whose Boyfriend Drowned. That might make her sound callous, but she wasn't. She missed him, but she was also in a strange position because they hadn't been dating that long when he died. Yet, their relationship and his death was what most people knew about her. She felt strange moving on, but she felt even weirder taking the sympathy reserved to those people closest to Aaron. Because it was beautifully-written, I felt all of this. I love when I can connect with a character and get inside their head at the beginning of a story. That was definitely the case here. 

There's no denying part of this book is romance, but it's so much more than that. It was definitely more about Paige finding herself and taking risks to become the person she wanted to be than it was about her finding love. From dealing with Aaron's death and how it's affected her to her taking a big step towards her desire to go to film school, it really was all about Paige and her growth. I'm a sucker for romance, but I enjoy character growth just as much. I had the best of both worlds here. 

Paige's crush on Ryan was cute, but it was pretty obvious from the start that he wasn't going to be the guy for her. Don't get me wrong – he was a nice kid. I was glad they became friends, but something about the idea of them together never really worked for me. Ryan's geeky cousin Max, on the other hand? I loved him and his Firefly shirt right from the very start. I loved how he took time to get to know Paige. There was a spark between them. I loved their banter. They were cute together. I was shipping them hard from the very beginning, before Paige even realized she might have more than just simply friendly feelings for him. 

In a book world full of friends behaving badly, Emery Lord rises above it and gives amazing friendships. I loved Paige's circle. Her friendships with Morgan, Kayleigh and Tessa were something special. No, it wasn't always perfect between them, but what friendship is? What matters most is that they were they for each other when needed. So much of it reminded me of my circle of friends from high school. These friendships rang so true. Forget the books with the competition between friends and the snarky backstabbing. I'd rather read about true friendships any day of the week. 

One of the other things that makes The Start of Me and You stand out from the pack in young adult lit is the parents in the book. So often parents are absent or removed. Paige's parents are divorced, but dating each other again, so there's some strain, but they're still around. It's obvious they both have her best interests (and those of her sister) at heart. It's nice to read about parents that are involved. I also loved Paige's relationship with her grandma. She definitely pushed her to follow her dreams and when it felt like her own mom didn't understand her, grandma was there. They had a special relationship. 

The Start of Me and You was a fantastic read. It had it all. I appreciated the focus on friendship and family. I loved all the characters. I loved Paige's journey during the story. The romance was swoony. There were plenty of feels, but none of them were overwhelming. I laughed and got a bit teary eyed. I'd love to catch up with these characters a few months or a year down the road and see how life is treating them, but I also liked that it was all left fairly open-ended. They're high schoolers. They have a lot of life left to live. 

This is exactly what I want in a young adult book. I couldn't have asked for anything more. 

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

Kaele Perkins 

** spoiler alert **
           This review kinda has spoilers. But I’m just gonna talk about whatever I liked and see what happens. This was the first physical copy of a book I’ve read since reading Me Before You by Jojo Meyes. That book tore me to pieces and I swear I thought I’d never be able to read again. But after I few days of watching the movie and Will+Clark videos on YouTube and randomly crying, and then reading a Wattpad story to ease myself back into reading, I was able to start this book and I’m so glad I did. This book was amazing. I was expecting no less. It’s Emery Lord after all. I always hear good things about her. I’ve read When We Collided and that book was amazing and raw and real ( I hated that ending tho) I haven’t read her first book yet but I’m sure I’ll enjoy that one as well.

Paige is a very relatable character. I think she was to everyone but she and I shared a lot of interests and traits. I liked how this book didn’t focus on grief and dealing with it to the extent of it being the whole book but more on how something like this can start to define you. It dealt with difficult topics such as the effect of someone’s death even if you weren’t super close to them. How being connected to a person in life can still hold after they are gone. And how you can’t let that define you or let others define you that way. Paige learned that to face your fears you have to be your own person. She was a good character from beginning to end but she had great character development.

Whenever I see “crush” and then a mention of someone else in the synopsis, I can pretty much be guaranteed a love triangle. I was pleasantly surprised when that didn’t happen. She liked one person and though friendships with both of them realized that they didn’t really have much in common and she did with someone else. 

I loved the portrayal of Ryan. He was an all around nice guy who was dealing with some problems but cared about his friends. They didn’t make him pine over her, he didn’t turn mean before the end, they became good friends. 

MAX. Where do I start? Ahmmm.... reading someone else’s book that he’s already read instead of talking to people at a party. Me. Pride and Prejudice debate. Me. Hates hot tea and loves airplanes. Me. Cares about his family. Obsessed with certain shows and movies. His read Little Women for crying out loud. He loves Girl Scout cookies. I’m sure I’ll think of more if you give me a minute. Omg the spin the bottle game was freaking hilarious 😂 they are both dorks and I love it. 

Her friends are amazing. I love their different personalities, that they all have their problems to work on but they are doing better as the book goes on. I love that Tessa is always there for Paige when she starts to go downhill before Paige can even tell her what’s wrong. 

The pool scene made me sad. Then when she realizes what happened when he dropped off the cookies my heart hurt. I wanted them to fix it right then. 
I love the comment she made to Max about being “two Introverts avoiding confrontation.” That was great. 

I loved the last day school project. I loved that the teacher basically broke the rules to tell her where Max’s was. I was low key kinda bugged that he ruined a Pride and Prejudice book to do it, but it was so sweet that I wasn’t upset. The hallway scene was adorable, I loved that Max wasn’t surprised that she’d jumped into the pool. The ending was sweet. I WANTED AN EPILOGUE. But I see that a sequel comes out in January so I guess I’ll just wait for that.... This book was a definite buy and read again for me. Totally recommend. Ughhh I love this book. 
❤️❤️❤️
 
Infp and intp I think.

Chelsea White

A sweet coming of age story with a twist. Paige has a certain notoriety as the girl whose boyfriend died, making this coming of age tale incredibly unique and poignant. It’s been a year since her boyfriend died in an accidental drowning, and Paige is starting to come out of her grief. She urges herself on the path to healing by making a list of things she wants to accomplish, including swim again, which she hasn’t been able to do since Aaron, her boyfriend, died.

I sincerely liked how much care was given to Paige and her feelings surrounding Aaron’s death. Having lost my dad, I know that grieving and healing are weird, winding paths with triggers lurking along the way. I really appreciated that Lord didn’t try to show Paige completely healed and fine, but instead showed the process of her becoming okay again.

Above all else, I love that the romance was not the main focus of this book. It was obvious it was going to happen, but it wasn’t the end all be all for Paige’s journey, it was one of the steps.

The Start of Me and You

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