Author: Natalie Blitt
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary Romance
Source: Epic Reads Impulse via Edelweiss
Goodreads
This full-length novel by debut author Natalie Blitt is a pitch-perfect blend of Stephanie Perkins and Miranda Kenneally that proves the age-old adage: opposites attract.Review by Nara
Seventeen-year-old Abby has only one goal for her summer: to make sure she is fluent in French—well, that, and to get as far away from baseball and her Cubs-obsessed family as possible. A summer of culture and language, with no sports in sight.
That turns out to be impossible, though, because her French partner is the exact kind of boy she was hoping to avoid. Eight weeks. 120 hours of class. 80 hours of conversation practice with someone who seems to wear baseball caps and jerseys every day.
But Zeke in French is a different person than Zeke in English. And Abby can’t help but fall for him, hard. As Abby begins to suspect that Zeke is hiding something, she has to decide if bridging the gap between who she is and who he is is worth the risk.
Epic Reads Impulse is a digital imprint with new releases each month.
Not going to lie, this book was fluffy romance central. Not that this was a bad thing. In fact, it was exactly what I was in the mood for.
The main character Abby is actually initially quite annoying in how much she hates everything about baseball. I feel like it was a bit much to create her as a character who dislikes others just because they like the sport- it just made her really difficult to connect with and stopped me from shipping her with the love interest at times. At the start of the book, at least, it really felt like Abby and Zeke just wouldn't be suitable for each other considering her rabid hate of baseball.
As the book goes on though, you can see that there's great chemistry between Abby and Zeke, and despite her hate, I did find myself hoping that they'd end up together. Zeke was often a bit difficult to understand, but that was only because he was hiding certain secrets, which you find out later in the book.
While the book is mostly centred around the romance, it also does touch on other issues such as anxiety. Abby's roommate Alice struggles with quite severe anxiety, and Abby often tries to help her to deal with it. The development of the two's friendship is quite fantastic, and I sometimes found myself liking this subplot more than the romance.
Overall, I'd recommended this book to fans of fluffy contemporaries that touch on some more serious issues.
Really liked it
RatingsOverall: 7/10
Plot: 3.5/5
Romance: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Cover: 2/5
