Welcome to my stop on the When We Collided blog tour hosted by Bloomsbury!

Today I am excited to share my review as well as Emery's music inspiration for the book!

When We Collided
   by: Emery Lord

Publication Date: Apr. 5, 2016
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Group: Young Adult
Source: Physical ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Page Count: 352 pages
Order Links: Amazon | B&N

Seventeen year-old Jonah Daniels has lived in Verona Cove, California, his whole life, and only one thing has ever changed: his father used to be alive, and now he is not. With a mother lost in a deep bout of depression, Jonah and his five siblings struggle to keep up their home and the restaurant their dad left behind. But at the start of summer, a second change rolls in: Vivi Alexander, the new girl in town. 

Vivi is in love with life. Charming and unfiltered, she refuses to be held down by the medicine she’s told should make her feel better. After meeting Jonah, she slides into the Daniels’ household seamlessly, winning over each sibling with her imagination and gameness. But it’s not long before Vivi’s zest for life begins to falter. Soon her adventurousness becomes all-out danger-seeking. 

Through each high and low, Vivi and Jonah’s love is put to the test . . . but what happens when love simply isn’t enough?

 

Where do I even begin? I am still reeling over the fact that I cried through the end of this one. I can count on both hands how many times a book has made me cry. When We Collided was THAT powerful and while I felt the ending was perfect for the book and that things had to happen the way they did, it was definitely bittersweet at the same time. I absolutely fell head over heels in love with Jonah Daniels and his family just like Vivi did.

 

Vivi was one heck of a main character. She was definitely a lot to take in, but I enjoyed her overall. Her vibrant, enthusiastic personality was contagious and I love how she made an impression on everyone she met. The Daniels family is desperately trying to hold themselves together after the loss of their father and my heart ached for every one of them. Vivi bursts into their lives, bringing color to their world of gray. However, like the blurb says, Vivi definitely has her highs and lows and she could act extremely immature and self centered at times. I understood it, but it still hurt my heart because it affects her relationship with Jonah. And that boy needs all the good in his life he can get. I do love that Vivi let Jonah be himself. She doesn't push or force him to talk everything out. There's a simplicity there that just works for them.

 

It's hard to discuss Jonah and Vivi's relationship without giving spoilers and I definitely don't want to do that because this is a book you have to experience for yourself. I will say that it was a crazy, beautiful love that brought healing, adventure and introspection. Jonah and Vivi learn a lot in this book and they grow because of these particular experiences. What I loved most of all was how realistic this book was. Lord does a brilliant job of capturing that youthful, whimsical feel and the emotion that bleeds from these pages is so potent that it literally took my breath away at times.

 

When We Collided is an emotional, beautiful book, but it is also messy and raw and REAL. These characters have to deal with issues such as mental illness and depression, as well as navigate the feelings of their own hearts and the reality in which they find themselves. Life isn't a fairy tale with a fairy tale ending. Life is uncertain. We have no way of predicting where it will take us or where we'll find ourselves years from now. But you only get one. So make it count.

 

"We are the reckless, we are the wild youth, chasing visions of our futures...." - from Youth's Daughter (one of Emery's playlist songs)

 

 

I am such a huge music lover and I know Emery is as well, so naturally I asked her to do a guest post featuring some tunes! Take it away Emery!

 

 

This is great because my music for Vivi and Jonah was SO important while writing! Here’s the most bare bones version of my playlist:

 

Pointless Beauty – Ben Lee

This is my Chapter 1 song. What’s the point of speculation? I want to feel it in my hands is the most Viv line ever.

 

Once There Was a Hushpuppy – Beasts of the Southern Wild soundtrack

This song sounds like the book feels to me. There’s longing in the string section, then this beautiful triumph in the brass line, the steady heartbeat thump of the percussion.

 

Dead Hearts – Stars

I find this track hauntingly beautiful. It has this simple, energetic guitar line punctuated with piano. It felt like a summer night to me. 

 

Moth’s Wings – Passion Pit

My husband knew exactly what I was working on if he could hear this song coming out of my headphones.

 

Blue Skies – Noah and the Whale

Blue skies are coming, but I know that it’s hard is basically the thesis of this book.

 

Youth – Daughter

This song makes me ache, and I listened to it a lot while writing Viv scenes.

 

Staralfur – Sigur Ros

I listened to a lot of joyous Sigur Ros songs while writing—Inni mer syngur vitleysingur, Vid spilum endalaust, Hoppipolla, but this one—from the Life Aquatic soundtrack—sounds like wonder to me.

 

Feels Like the End – Mikky Ekko

I must have listened to this 100 times while writing/editing Chapter 27.

 

Even the Darkness Has Arms – The Barr Brothers

I found this song before it was officially recorded for an album—a YouTube video of a live performance that I played on loop. The title line (Even the darkness has arms / but it ain’t got you. Baby, I have it, and I have you too) feels so much like the experience of both dealing with grief/depression AND loving someone.

 

Until We Get There – Lucius

This is the song that plays in my head in the last chapter. I heard it on New Girl, and I was like: Oh my God—that’s what the end sounds like, that’s IT.

 

Thank you Emery! I obviously have some new music to check out myself!

 

 

 

Emery Lord is the author of Open Road Summer and The Start of Me and You. She lives in a pink row house in Cincinnati, with a husband, two rescue dogs, and a closet full of impractical shoes. Visit her online at www.emerylord.com and on Twitter at @emerylord.

 

The Start of Me and You
    by: Emery Lord

Publication Date: Mar. 31, 2015
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Genre: Contemporary
Age Group: Young Adult
Source: Physical ARC provided via the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Page Count: 384 pages
Order Links: Amazon | B&N
My Rating: 4.5/5 stars

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?

 

 

"With our arms around each other, I almost believed that strength could travel between us like the heat of our bodies. Nothing, not even sadness, could be greater than the sum of us."

 

I am hereby dubbing Emery Lord as the QUEEN of writing female friendships. No, really. She writes such strong friendships and I loved the friendship between our main character Paige and her three best friends, Tessa, Morgan, and Kayleigh. It was so well done and I felt these characters come to life and I was so engaged in their lives and the way they supported one another. However, they do have their ups and downs and their friendship isn't perfect. I am glad that Lord highlighted realistic issues that high school girls would be faced with: new boyfriends taking precedence, etc. This was just a great read for me and I enjoyed going on Paige's journey with her.

 

Paige has been dealt a rather difficult hand at this stage in her life. Having lost her first boyfriend, she hates being labeled as the girl whose boyfriend died and being given 'The Look' from sympathetic acquaintances. Junior year is upon her and she is determined to turn things around for herself. She makes a list that encourages her to be more social, date again, and conquer her fear of swimming. She is set on dating her old crush Ryan Chase, now that he's newly single. It's just her luck that he shares English class with her and she ends up sitting near him. However, even the most perfect of plans get waylaid and Paige ends up finding herself sitting near Ryan's slightly nerdy cousin, Max.

 

Max is captain of the Quiz Bowl team and Paige finds herself joining up, interested in doing something different. I love that she took that leap and immersed herself with a group she wouldn't normally hang out with. She ends up finding herself spending a lot of time with Max, since he and Ryan are best friends as well. I loved seeing the merging of the two groups- Ryan and Max with Tessa, Paige, Morgan, and Kayleigh. It's funny that Paige is so hung up on Ryan when it's obvious her and Max click so much better. All of her friends notice it, but don't bring it to attention. Ryan is a sweet guy, but things are rather awkward between them. The only time conversation flows easily is when they are talking about Max. Max is seriously adorable. I loved him. He was sweet and kind and come on. He's a Firefly aficionado. That earns him mega cool points in my book. The romance is a really slow burn and I do wish we would have seen more of them together afterwards. Still, the post card at the end made my heart sing and I was just overwhelmed by the cuteness.

 

I also really liked seeing Paige interact with her family. Again, too often that is overlooked in Young Adult, and it is such a focal point of these high schoolers' lives. Paige's parents are divorced and her and her sister Cameron, find out some things about their parents and their relationship that they must deal with. I appreciate that Lord didn't just gloss over the familial aspect of the book.

 

This is such a great adaptation of a teenager in high school, trying to navigate the waters after a tragedy and find herself again. She realizes that what she thinks she wants may not be what she needs, and she eventually realizes that sometimes you can't be afraid to make that leap into the unknown. The friendships developed are so well crafted and placed and I loved the pivotal role they played. Emery Lord is on my auto-buy list and I cannot wait to see what she does next!

 

"In friendship, we are all debtors. We all owe each for a thousand small kindnesses, for little moments of grace in the chaos."

 

Open Road Summer
    by: Emery Lord

Publication Date: April 15, 2014
Publisher: Walker Children's
Genre: Contemporary
Age Group: Young Adult
Source: e-ARC provided via NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Page Count: 342 pages
Order Links: Amazon | B&N
My Rating: 4.5/5 stars

After breaking up with her bad-news boyfriend, Reagan O’Neill is ready to leave her rebellious ways behind. . . and her best friend, country superstar Lilah Montgomery, is nursing a broken heart of her own. Fortunately, Lilah’s 24-city tour is about to kick off, offering a perfect opportunity for a girls-only summer of break-up ballads and healing hearts. But when Matt Finch joins the tour as its opening act, his boy-next-door charm proves difficult for Reagan to resist, despite her vow to live a drama-free existence. This summer, Reagan and Lilah will navigate the ups and downs of fame and friendship as they come to see that giving your heart to the right person is always a risk worth taking. A fresh new voice in contemporary romance, Emery Lord’s gorgeous writing hits all the right notes.

 

 

I was first drawn to this book by the gorgeous cover. I mean... look at it. It's GORGEOUS. I think this is one I'll need to add to my shelves so I can stare at it. But as we all know- we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, right? Not here. You can totally judge. What's inside this book is as beautiful as the outside. This is the ultimate summer read in my opinion. Road tripping with your bestie, cute boys, falling in love, heartache- it definitely makes for a summer read! Being a huge music lover myself, I loved that this took place on a musical tour and that we were able to see the impact music has on all of the characters.

 

Pacing: I loved the way the book came together and I was engaged from start to finish. Being on tour was a lot of fun, as I liked seeing everything play out in the different cities, as well as how Reagan and Dee handled obstacles that were thrown at them. I felt the pacing of the romance was perfect- it wasn't rushed by any means, and I felt that was really important to the development of the story. I was afraid of a love triangle at first, with two young girls and one sweet, good looking boy. That is not the case however, so I was really happy Lord didn't go in that direction.

 

Storyline: As I said, I love books about music, and I used to love reading fanfiction about a certain boyband and being on tour, so this was right up my alley. I like the idea of best friends going out on tour together for the summer. It must be extremely lonely being a teenager and being whisked to all of these places, doing what you love, but never setting down roots. Reagan and Lilah (Dee)'s friendship is such an integral part of this novel and I think Dee needed Reagan with her as much as Reagan needed to get away from the mess of her life at home. Dee is a growing country superstar and is still hurting over a breakup with her long term boyfriend. Her best friend Reagan joins her for her summer tour and together the girls are planning on spending quality time together and not letting their pasts haunt them. However, things don't go exactly as planned, and now Dee needs to handle some bad press to keep her good, sweet girl image untainted. The solution? Bring in a cute, boy next door type and let the press make their own assumptions about their relationship to get the heat off the bad stuff. Reagan is determined not to swoon and fall all over Matt Finch, but the more she gets to know him, the more she realizes her heart isn't as safe as she once thought. I love that this story has it all- a great solid friendship between two girls, a slow building romance full of teasing and fun, and watching them navigate the waters of fame, heartache, misunderstandings, and love.

 

Characters: I'm going to start off by talking about Matt. I absolutely adored him. Sure, he did some things that pissed me off a bit, but overall he is a GOOD guy. He joins the tour to help with Dee's negative press and the goal is to let fans see them hanging out, spending time together and take the heat off the picture that's surfaced of Dee and her ex-boyfriend, Jimmy. Matt and Dee knew each other previously, so the two are already friends, which really helps make the situation less awkward. I loved his and Reagan's interactions. He isn't deterred by the fact she has steel walls around her heart and befriends her anyway. Matt understands pain and loss and that is part of what gets Reagan to open up to him. He really likes her, but he doesn't push her into a relationship with him. I really felt it happened naturally and had it happened too fast, it probably would have just been a casual hookup. Matt isn't perfect, though. He gets himself into a pickle at the end and while I didn't believe what my eyes (or Reagan) were telling me, I was still shaking my head because he didn't see it coming. Guys really are clueless. As for making Reagan feel the way he did while interacting with another individual, I don't think it was intentional, but it still hurt her nonetheless.

 

For as tough as Reagan comes across, she is also very vulnerable underneath that hard exterior. She has been in trouble and making bad decisions for some time now, but it all came to a head and had to deal with some serious consequences. Reagan has not known stability in her life- her mom abandoned her and her father at a young age, her father drank too much, and now she has a stepmother who she really can't stand. Getting away from everything is the one thing Reagan desperately needs at this point. She needs to learn how to stand on her own and realize her own self-worth. Matt and Dee both play a large role in this, but ultimately it's Reagan who has to make her own choices. I was a little irritated with Reagan over what happened with the whole Matt thing towards the end. I thought she was being ridiculous and it was unfair of her to make that judgment call about him, when he'd never done anything to prove himself any different that the guy she knew. She has some self-confidence issues, which I get, but running away is not the answer.

 

Reagan is incredibly loyal, however. Her friendship with Dee is such a special one and she really would do anything for her best friend. Dee is one of those kind, sweet people who sees the good in everyone and doesn't let the evil and wrongness of the world taint her personality. She has always believed in Reagan, but she doesn't push her either. She needs her best friend with her, as she is still hurting over her breakup with her boyfriend Jimmy. You were all ready to hate Jimmy's guts for hurting such a sweet girl, but really he was letting her go to pursue her dreams and didn't want to be the one at home holding her back. Dee is definitely the more emotional one of the two, and she is very empathetic to others. She balances out Reagan's wild side with her calm one and together the two just have one of those friendships that will endure anything.

 

Final Thoughts: I really enjoyed this one. It made me long for the freedom of summer and made me miss my own best friend like crazy. The romance was incredibly well-done, and I loved the importance of Matt's lyrics and how significant they were. Emery did an excellent job of making the reader feel as if they were along for the ride and while it may not have always been smooth- it was worth the journey.

 

 

“If we could capture feelings like we capture pictures, none of us would ever leave our rooms. It would be so tempting to inhabit the good moments over and over again. But I don't want to be the kind of person who lives backwardly, who memorializes moments before she's finished living in them. So I plant my feet here on this hillside beside a boy who is undoing me, and I kiss him back like I mean it. And, God help me, with the sky wrapped around us in every direction, I do mean it.”