The Book:
We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Published June 8th 2021 by Simon & Schuster
Date read: June 10, 2021
The Characters:
Quinn, her sister Asher, and best friend Julia
Tarek
Buy it on Bookshop.org | Amazon
The Plot (from Goodreads):
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.
The Review:
A lot of my Bookstagram friends gush about how great Rachel Lynn Solomon is, and after listening to We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This I completely understand why. I’m so glad they introduced me to her!
Thank you to Simon Audio for this advanced listener’s copy.
I am the biggest sucker for stories about wedding planners and weddings in general, and there have been a lot of great ones in this genre lately. I love the idea of a family-run wedding planning business. While Quinn knew it wasn’t the career she wanted, I was completely jealous that she and Asher had that in!
I loved how candidly Rachel as the author and Quinn as the character talk about mental illness and therapy. It feels especially important in YA books, to let young readers know that these things are okay to be open about and shouldn’t have a stigma. I enjoyed the Jewish and Muslim representation, and appreciated that both MC’s wanted to get closer to their respective cultures.
Quinn’s growth throughout the book was great–exactly what I look for when I read YA. She is certainly more mature than a lot of teens her age, but still isn’t sure what she wants her future to look like. Instead of going with what she’s told she should do, she takes the time to figure out what she actually wants to do with her life.
The rom com references and the mouthwatering dessert descriptions were just the icing on the cake.
QOTD: Are you a hopeless romantic like Tarek, or cynical about love like Quinn?
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