Name: Maria Schindler's review of We Can't Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Item: We Can't Keep Meeting Like This
Rating: 5
Author: Maria Schindler

Rachel Lynn Solomon

A wedding harpist disillusioned with love and a hopeless romantic cater-waiter flirt and fight their way through a summer of weddings in this effervescent romantic comedy from the acclaimed author of Today Tonight Tomorrow. Quinn Berkowitz and Tarek Mansour’s families have been in business together for years: Quinn’s parents are wedding planners, and Tarek’s own a catering company. At the end of last summer, Quinn confessed her crush on him in the form of a rambling email—and then he left for college without a response. Quinn has been dreading seeing him again almost as much as she dreads another summer playing the harp for her parents’ weddings. When he shows up at the first wedding of the summer, looking cuter than ever after a year apart, they clash immediately. Tarek’s always loved the grand gestures in weddings—the flashier, the better—while Quinn can’t see them as anything but fake. Even as they can’t seem to have one civil conversation, Quinn’s thrown together with Tarek wedding after wedding, from performing a daring cake rescue to filling in for a missing bridesmaid and groomsman. Quinn can’t deny her feelings for him are still there, especially after she learns the truth about his silence, opens up about her own fears, and begins learning the art of harp-making from an enigmatic teacher. Maybe love isn’t the enemy after all—and maybe allowing herself to fall is the most honest thing Quinn’s ever done.

We Can't Keep Meeting Like This

Keira 💫

madie anne 

Maria Schindler

It was a really cute book. I loved the moments they had and I especially loved how the author added mental health to it.

oh she's insufferable. and they give off breaking-up-6-months-after-the-epilogue vibes.

raia – inactive

a cute book! i loved the way quinn and tarek navigated the ups and downs of their relationship, my goodness was tarek patient

Victoria Oge-Evans

Emily Klo

Nora de Jong

Alice Myles

lemme get a few things out of the way - I LOVE Tarek, literally Rachel Lynn Solomon knows how to write a man, she also knows how to write sex scenes - none of them seemed cheesy they were all really well done and tasteful and I like that she doesn't shy away from including them in YA. I loved Today Tonight Tomorrow so so much ((view spoiler)[when rowan and neil showed up I SCREAMED (hide spoiler)]) I think this one just fell a little flat for me plot-wise, I was invested in the relationship between Quinn and Tarek but I didn't really care what happened too much. I will definitely continue to pick up her books though because I love how she writes. Tarek Mansour only man ever

Alyssa Huffman

i loved this so much. it was so incredibly cute, like i was awwwing OUT LOUD multiple times. the deep backstory stuff didn't feel forced and unnatural, it felt important to quinn's story which i appreciated. she had realistic and relatable struggles. i had high hopes for this because i loved today tonight tomorrow so much and it greatly exceeded my expectations <3

sydney

I don’t know what it was with this book, because it wasn’t bad neither did it annoy me with plot decisions, but I couldn’t for the love of me focus on anything. I’d read and skip paragraphs and whole scenes because it just didn’t grab my attention. I read it in a day, and the story is cute, the book delivers what it proposes, but overall it was a deeply confusing experience.

RACHEL LYNN SOLOMON HAS DONE IT AGAIN. BRO THIS BOOK OMG. Such a bittersweet story.

god I love tarek I wish I get the sweet soul someday. and Quinn, I felt so connected with her. Like I was sobbing throughout in the end next to my grandmother of all places cause that’s how I feel, just like how she does. 

i loved these two together such a good read. And Rachel didn’t let me down at all from T^3. The fact she even included Rowan and Neil bro my heart🫶😩

Shanthu

RACHEL LYNN SOLOMON HAS DONE IT AGAIN. BRO THIS BOOK OMG. Such a bittersweet story.

god I love tarek I wish I get the sweet soul someday. and Quinn, I felt so connected with her. Like I was sobbing throughout in the end next to my grandmother of all places cause that’s how I feel, just like how she does. 

i loved these two together such a good read. And Rachel didn’t let me down at all from T^3. The fact she even included Rowan and Neil bro my heart🫶😩

Jana Jenkinns 

Cute, quick read. I'm a sucker for a book involving the wedding planning business as I worked in it for years and it just brings back a lot of nostalgia. There were quite a few things that I liked about this book originally—the Jewish representation and how the main character had OCD being two of the main points that come to mind as I haven't read too many —but as the book went on, I started finding things that made me not enjoy the books as much which is there the docked stars come in. First off, the pacing was slightly off at some times, it made it so it was hard to push through some parts.

My biggest issue though was the questionable Muslim representation. (I preface this by saying I am NOT Muslim, therefore I can’t say what is and isn’t good representation, however I also know the author is not Muslim, which is why I will be critiquing this). While I enjoyed the sex-positive aspect of this book, it felt strange that the Muslim love interest is depicted as having sex, with two separate people as well. He engaged in a ‘friends with benefits’ arrangement with the main character. While I’m not Muslim myself, this stood out to me, and as I read some online reviews, I saw this as an issue for other readers as well.

All in all, I did end up enjoying the book, I just had a few, issues so to speak.

This book was fucking amazing. Every single thing about this book was just heavenly. 
The things they felt, I connected. Every single moment they felt something, I connected to it. And I couldn’t stop feeling relief knowing that someone feels that way. 
It honestly doesn’t matter whether it’s real or not. It meant everything to me. 
This book, as many of the others I’ve read, healed me in a way. 
Tarek and Quinn have my heart. 

Grace Sethi

This wasn’t the worst book I’ve ever read but I was disappointed because I LOVED Today Tonight Tomorrow :(

Lauren Sullivan

Content warnings: (view spoiler)[anxiety and OCD, severe depression (described), parental separation (in the past), grief and death of a grandparent (before book happens) (hide spoiler)]

This cover, y’all, I cannot deal with the cuteness. And it’s a perfect representation of the book inside, filled with honest conversations about mental health, hilarious characters, and a delightful friends-to-lovers, opposites-attract romance.

Quinn and Tarek were friends as children because of their parents’ businesses – Quinn’s family runs a wedding planning business while Tarek’s does catering. While they spent a lot of time together, they never hung out outside of those events, but Quinn still managed to develop a crush on Tarek, which culminates the summer before he goes off to college. After watching his “grand gestures” with his various past girlfriends, she finally confesses that she has a crush for him in an email…. and then he completely ghosts her. With him back for the summer and working many of the same events, it’s awkward, especially since Quinn thought she was finally over the crush (spoiler: she’s not). But in trying to resurrect their friendship, they end up opening up to each other, and maybe.. jut maybe, that unrequited crush isn’t so unrequited after all.

“I did like kissing him. But I’ve seen so many miserable brides, miserable grooms, miserable families putting on a show because they think they’re supposed to. I’ve seen the expressions my parents wear with their clients. None of it is real, and I already do enough pretending.
I learned from my parents like I learned how to bustle a wedding dress: love is a performance.”

The book is told solely from Quinn’s first person POV, and she was a character you could really root for. The thought of a teenage wedding harpist was, honestly, one of the things that really interested me in this book, and I was glad to see how much it played a part in her arc. With high school over, she’s looking forward to her first year of college… or at least she would be if her parents hadn’t hand-picked all of her courses in order to make her a better employee for the family business. Problem is, Quinn doesn’t want to join the family business. After watching her parents separate temporarily as a child (and then never talking about it again) she has a dim view of romance, especially her own chances for it. But her family’s life is tied so inextricably to the business – their “family brunches” are actually used to update everyone on work hurdles – that she doesn’t know how to fit into the family without being a part of the business, and it’s not really like she knows what she wants to do with her life anyway. So rather than spending her last summer before college hanging out with her friends, she’s unenthusiastically playing the harp or trying to live up to her parents’ high expectations at various cake tastings, bridal fittings, and weddings. But a chance encounter at a wedding opens a new door to her, something she’s actually passionate about, and telling her family she doesn’t want to work with them becomes more pressing.

Tarek’s the complete opposite of Quinn in many ways. He loves working with his family, especially doing the desserts, and his main concern is convincing them that he could handle more. His love of baking really shown through in the book and I loved his passion. Tarek’s parents got together due to a grand gesture, and for Tarek, love is supposed to be big and splashy. But he’s a great friend (he saves Quinn desserts! *swoon*), and he’s very invested into rescuing the friendship between him and Quinn. Unlike previously, though, their friendship goes deeper, and they start talking about their hopes and aspirations (or lack of them), and their new closeness leads to a romantic relationship. They have differing ideas about how romance “works” and, unlike other books, the hurdles they had to overcome felt evenly balanced.

“We’re all hurting, Quinn. In different ways, some that we can treat with medication and therapy and some only with time. And some in ways that might never heal. Sometimes the good outweighs the bad. Sometimes those great times are so fucking great that they make the bad times a little easier to handle.”

There’s quite a bit of rep in this book. From a mental health standpoint, Quinn has anxiety and OCD, which she treats with a combination of therapy and medication, and she talks about it a lot in the book. I thought her description of OCD was excellent and really helped me understand the thought process behind it. Tarek also had some mental health struggles, though they’re a bit spoilery, so all I’ll say is that I felt like it was handled well. Their discussions about their mental health are so honest and accepting and yes, please, more of this in YA, thanks. Quinn’s also Jewish, though her family isn’t particularly observant, but it’s something that’s woven into her family life, as is the fact that Tarek’s Muslim. Neither of their religions is a pain point, it’s just part of their identities, and I loved that.

Overall, I very much enjoyed how sweet and fun this book was, along with the stellar mental health rep. I’ll definitely be picking up this author’s backlist!

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Aundreya Rich

"We're all hurting Quinn. In different ways, some that we can treat with medication and therapy and some only with time. And some in ways that might never heal. Sometimes the good outweighs the bad. Sometimes those great time4s are so F****** great that they make the bad times a little easier to handle. " 

I don't know what it is about pastel book covers... but they always surprised me when I open them up and they are full of depth, especially YA genre.

This sweet book is full of raw emotion and information that made me go "wow I had no idea."

WCKMLT was on my TBR because of these two teens finding a second chance romance but what I loved even more was the jewish and muslim culture references, the back stories and emphasis on what we "see" and reality of our families, understanding more about mental health, depression, and even OCD, and the power of friendships that often are the backbone to us all.

Read if you like:
- rom coms and a bit of pop culture references
-mental health topics and awareness
-young love and second chances
-a YA adults can enjoy too
-baklava
-wedding scenes and all the planning
-🏳️‍🌈❤️
-boys who believe in grand gestures

Rating:
Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Characters-⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Steam- "like a spicy margarita... a solid concoction with a bit of a KICK."

Song: Lego House by Ed Sheeran

Rania Singla

4.5 stars

A big thank you to Simon and Schuster for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinions in any way.

We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This is a fluffy, laugh-out-loud, feel good young adult contemporary that deals with heavy topics in the right way and shows tremendous character growth. 

Quinn comes from a family of wedding planners. She’s grown up looking at bridal gowns and extravagant cakes. But she doesn’t believe in true love. Dealing with anxiety and OCD, along with high expectations from her parents, she’s one of the most relatable characters I’ve ever seen and that just makes me root for her even more. She’s so caught up in her family business that playing the harp, the one thing she used to love, now no longer seems appealing to her. 

Then we have Tarek. He’s the son of the caterers Quinn’s parents work with and her best friend. That is, until he ghosts her for an entire year as he goes off to college after she sends him an email confessing her feelings for him. He’s dealing with depression and eczema (which I have to be honest, was a first for me in terms of representation). Unlike Quinn, he’s a big romantic and a sucker for grand gestures. 

They cross paths again and as expected, it leads to a lot of mutual pining and unexpected revelations. Both of them are working through their own hardships and seeing them come together and help each other was just so heartwarming. They talk about therapy and medication which I feel like are left out in so many novels even though they’re such a big part of dealing with anxiety and depression. 

Speaking of which, the representation was done splendidly and I loved how it played a huge part in Quinn’s self discovery. She’s feeling the pressure of going to college next year and the responsibility of handling her sister’s wedding and getting the idea of her experience with everything made the book so raw and enlightening.


  ”How do you convince yourself that it’s worth it?” I ask, voice shaking. “Even knowing it might end in disaster someday?” 
“You take a chance,” she says simply, like it really is that easy to close your eyes and leap. “And you hope the other person takes the same one.”


And for readers who’ve read Rachel Lynn Solomon’s other books, there’s an amazing cameo that I just can’t stop gushing over! I was literally squealing from delight when I realised that two of my favourite characters made an appearance in this book.

Overall, I’ve fallen in love with Rachel Lynn Solomon’s writing and this novel was everything I could have asked for in a light, fun contemporary!

Laura Yaneth Martinez

Ugh so cute! Adorable contemporary romance. I really enjoyed the characters in this book. The beginning was a little hard for me to get Into and there were some parts where the writing got a bit confusing but overall I really enjoyed reading this . Tarek was such an incredible human 😍🍰💝 I’m excited to read more from this author

dawn

[1.5 stars]

this felt like a cheap version of Normal People

ash (smokedshelves)

what a lovely read! i absolutely adored this story and it definitely reminded me how little i read stories about jewish MCs. it was fun and fluffy and had showcased some lovely jewish wedding traditions. i absolutely adored seeing the inclusion of queer jewish identities in such a casual manner. it's always wonderful to see yourself represented in books. and seeing the growth of quinn and tarek's relationship and their ability to communicate openly with each other was lovely. i definitely need to check out more of solomon's works!

Taylor

The standout aspect of this book was definitely the mental health rep. It was handled so well and felt very authentic, one of the best representations of anxiety I've read so far. 


TWs: death of a grandparent, underage drinking, discussions of mental health (OCD, anxiety, depression), medication for mental health, separation

cossette

We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This is many things; it’s funny, it’s charming, it’s a love letter to rom coms and wedding season and Seattle, but what truly makes it shine — and what has cemented it on my favorites list — is its exploration of breaking away from predetermined paths, standing up for yourself, and its honest mental health representation. 

full review  here

Esther

The wedding industry is insane and making decisions outside of set expectations is hard.

  "Sometimes the world is terrible, and love stories... they make it feel less heavy."

laura

I really enjoyed this read. I overall like it. I think i still preferred the structure and characters of Today, Tonight Tommrow. I also sometimes struggled to be in quinn head. I thought this representation of anxiety and depression for both quinn and her lead were super compelling. I also really loved the wedding business being the center of this read!. I also loved how this book featured a flash from the past romance. Like her previous book, this novel is also very sex positive. Lack of communication is major factor in this read both with her parents and her future carrer path and sometimes it frustrated me a tad. I also really liked the presence of creative careers at the heart of the read and also the focus on sisters realtionships. A super fun read for the summer

Sarah Vorobets

This was one of my most anticipated reads... And to say that it's a two star was really hard for me. The mc just got on my nerves a bit (just acted too much like a horny teen 😤). But I did really like how Rachel Lynn Solomon had the main characters with OCD and depression and talks about it in a great way. Just overall this book was not for me 😭

madie anne &
We Can't Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon

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