Summary from Goodreads:
A new swoon-worthy
romance following a couple's love story on the same date over four years.
Every May 7, the students at Coffee County High School take a class trip. And every year, Lulu’s relationship with Alex Rouvelis gets a little more complicated. Freshman year, they went from sworn enemies to more than friends after a close encounter in an escape room. It’s been hard for Lulu to quit Alex ever since.
Through breakups, make ups, and dating other people, each year’s class trip brings the pair back together and forces them to confront their undeniable connection. From the science museum to an amusement park, from New York City to London, Lulu learns one thing is for sure: love is the biggest trip of all.
Every May 7, the students at Coffee County High School take a class trip. And every year, Lulu’s relationship with Alex Rouvelis gets a little more complicated. Freshman year, they went from sworn enemies to more than friends after a close encounter in an escape room. It’s been hard for Lulu to quit Alex ever since.
Through breakups, make ups, and dating other people, each year’s class trip brings the pair back together and forces them to confront their undeniable connection. From the science museum to an amusement park, from New York City to London, Lulu learns one thing is for sure: love is the biggest trip of all.
Review:
This wasn’t my favorite book by Miranda Kenneally. I was
super excited to see she had a new book out. I wanted something light and
fluffy to take my mind off of current events and this seemed perfect for the
job. I read it super quickly. The premise appealed to me, but it just didn’t
flow like her other books.
For starters, the timeline is a little wacky. The story goes
back and forth between the current day/field trip and little stories in the
past that build up to the current day’s field trip. Then, a lot of time is
skipped to the following year’s annual field trip. And time repeats back and
forth. This makes character development a bit hard. One second Alex is spitting
gum in Lulu’s hair. The next, she’s in love with him. One second, they are
fighting publicly for the class president position, and the next they are
kissing each others faces off. So, time is weird to say the least.
I’m a fan of the hate to love trope, so on some levels this
book appealed to me. But on other levels, I really did not like Alex. After the
goings on of the sophomore field trip, I was very upset with him. It was hard
for me to forgive certain things. But, also there’s just so much that is
skipped in the time jumps…Because of the skipped time I feel like I don’t
really get to know anyone. I don’t really feel like I know Lulu either. This
definitely diminished my overall love of the characters.
I liked that Kenneally incorporated a character who writes
graphic novels into her books! That’s something new. I like that all her
characters take what they do seriously, whether it be sports, music, art, or
books. And I do love how sizzling the romance tends to be too. I did still read
this book super fast, and it did work as the escape that I wanted it to be. It
just wasn’t as good as other books by this author. And again, I think that’s
mostly because of the weird time jumps/pacing of the whole thing. I give it a 7.5/10.
