Kim &
You Can Go Your Own Way by Eric Smith

I have been on a bit of a YA-binge and this cute title has cemented YA-romance as one of my top sub-genres. It's a classic "will they; won't they" romance between two supposed enemies that had once been as thick as thieves. Although it took me sometime to get into the narration—I listened to the audiobook—the high more than made up for my brief disinterest. Definitely recommend if you want a light YA, you like the rivals trope, you don't mind a ton of references to arcade games, or you like banter between two enemies. I have also read other books. I write about them here: Litdarlings!!

4.75/5 stars You Can Go Your Own Way is a book about pinball machines, long-term grief, family, friendship, and finding a way to move on from what you’ve always known. Told in dual-POV by Adam and Whitney, this book had me hooked from page one. Adam is trying to hold onto the arcade that was near and dear to his late father’s heart while starting to realize that it’s time to move on. Whitney is running social media for her dad’s arcade that is rivaling Adam’s. When a snowstorm hits Philadelphia, these childhood friends turned enemies turned kind of friends again have a chance to finally sort through the past few years and what caused their rift. I’ve realized over the past few months that I believe that any book with a romance plotline is instantly made better when multiple POVs are involved. Instant serotonin boat and this book was no different. It was truly a delight to get to see the progression of Adam and Whitney’s relationship throughout this book. I absolutely loved learning about all of the game, music, and movie/tv shows that were referenced throughout the book. When I was younger I loved going to the arcade and playing this space pinball game. This book had a strong sense of nostalgia and the author’s love for the old games really shined through in their writing. I especially appreciated the way that Eric Smith addressed grief and loss being a continual weight even years after losing a loved one. While change is inevitable, I think it’s natural for most people to resist it and cling onto what we’ve known. Adam is holding on so tightly to his dad’s old clothes and games that he doesn’t realize that what once provided comfort in the beginning of his grieving process is now holding him back. Whitney is also going through a growing pains process as she is relying on running socials for her dad as a way of staying connected with him. She’s also in the process of realizing that many of the people who she befriended after her fallout with Adam aren’t true friends who have her best interests at heart. Thank you NetGalley for giving me access to an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Adam and Whitney have my whole heart. They are both just trying to hold on to what they know, thinking this is the best way forward. Hold on to friends, family dynamics, a pinball arcade… and at the expense of themselves. (Though they don’t always see it that way.) I love their idiosyncrasies, their specific nerdiness. Like, I want to go hang out with them in Old City. Friends to lovers is honestly one of my favorite tropes. (I know, I know…) and I LOVED this variation of “ex-friends-to-internet-adversaries-to-TRUCE-to-wait-are-we-flirting?!?! Adam and Whitney’s past, full of care and joy, layered beneath all of their current tension was just perfect. It’s hard not to throw around the phrase, “This story has heart” when I talk about Eric’s books. Because… it’s the damn truth. You can just feel it beating in the small business community central to the book, in Chris’s (Adams BFF) “let’s talk about our feelings” Swedish fish, in the chapter epigraphs from The Art and Zen of Pinball Repair, to the little light-and-magnet contraptions that stick to the ceiling. Now, I have to talk about one of my FAVORITE MOMENTS! (which might strike some people as a strange favorite moment, but whatever.) Adam’s family runs a pinball arcade and he and Whitney get stuck inside during a snow storm. It’s been a while since Whitney has played pinball and so… we get the setup of the classic “Let-me-show-you-how-to-play” scenario. AND ADAM ASKS IF IT IS OKAY! And it is just as sweet, just as romantic. Y’all, consent can still set your heart fluttering. In addition to the characters and the sense of community underpinning the stories, one more thing sets Eric’s books apart for me, and it’s this: he ends on beginnings. The stories land in a cozy, resolved place, but you can just FEEL that wings are being raised, ready for one good pump to send them flying off again. It’s just an uplifting place to be in.

“So much about pinball is about letting go. Pulling the plunger and taking the journey.” I loved this so much 🥺 You Can Go Your Own Way is YA, first love (and frenemies to lovers) romance, and a story about forgiveness, letting go and embracing life’s journey and all the change that comes with it. Set in what feels like a quaint, small town in Philly with all the best kinds of mom + pop shops including a plant boutique and pinball arcade. There's also a winter festival, a winter storm, all the social media interactions, fun banter, and ALL. THE. FEELS. I think I need a Swedish Fish right about now 🥺 • READ THIS FOR • — arcades x e-cafes 🎮 — plants x pinball — high school romance x drama — social media x tech — plant boutiques x soda fountain shops — grief x healing — feelings x Swedish Fish (IYKYK) 🐠 — dual POVs — words of wisdom from a pinball repair book — winter festivals — all the vintage song and band references — snowed in with one blanket Thank you to Inkyard Press for sending me a copy of the book!

4.5 rounded up to 5 tw: grief, death of a parent, strained family relationships.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own. Book: You Can Go Your Own Way Author: Eric Smith Book Series: Standalone Rating: 1/5 Recommended For...: young adult books, contemporary, romance Publication Date: November 2, 2021 Genre: YA Contemporary Romance Recommended Age: 14+ (Language, Vandalism, Sexual content, Dead parent, Grief, Sexism, Bullying, Underage consumption of alcohol) Explanation of CWs: There are a few curse words said in this book. There is a vandalism scene in the beginning of the book. There are some sexual content and jokes told. Adam has a deceased father and it’s brought up a lot in the book, as well as his and Whitney’s grief. There is some sexism discussed. There is some underaged drinking. There is also a lot of bullying scenes. Publisher: Inkyard Press Pages: 336 Synopsis: Adam Stillwater is in over his head. At least, that’s what his best friend would say. And his mom. And the guy who runs the hardware store down the street. But this pinball arcade is the only piece of his dad that Adam has left, and he’s determined to protect it from Philadelphia’s newest tech mogul, who wants to turn it into another one of his cold, lifeless gaming cafés. Whitney Mitchell doesn’t know how she got here. Her parents split up. She lost all her friends. Her boyfriend dumped her. And now she’s spending her senior year running social media for her dad’s chain of super successful gaming cafés—which mostly consists of trading insults with that decrepit old pinball arcade across town. But when a huge snowstorm hits, Adam and Whitney suddenly find themselves trapped inside the arcade. Cut off from their families, their worlds, and their responsibilities, the tension between them seems to melt away, leaving something else in its place. But what happens when the storm stops? Review: This was an ok book. The book had good character development for the most part and I liked the world building. I also liked the main plot of the story and I thought it was a good plot. But, oh my, this book probably made me question myself as a reader. I’ve heard a lot of good about this book and I went in with high expectations and this book faltered on everything I thought. The beginning of the book is a complete mess and nothing was explained for awhile. The parents in this book do not talk like parents. They two main characters are horrible and I felt nothing for either of them. There’s not a descriptor for any character in this book, which left me confused as to how to paint these characters in my mind. There is a lot of elitist and sexism video game talk, Adam is a bit of a purist in his pinball talk and Whitney, who is an avid gamer supposedly even though she hardly does it throughout the book and is more micromanger, talks down about people who play games like Animal Crossing rather than Mass Effect. The Twitter conversations that the kids have between each other are NOT how kids or companies talk to each other on Twitter. The whole of the book focuses on one thing, but at the end you figure out it was all for nothing and it’s “fixed” with possibly the stupidest thing I’ve ever read. The ending of the book fixed nothing and a lot of plot holes are just left out. The whole of the book just made me extremely angry and I feel like I wasted a lot of time reading it, and while I understand that this is an arc and it was unfinished by the time I got it I do not feel any inclination to pick up a physical copy of this one. Verdict: Not for me, but you can try it out.