There are no spoilers in this review.
Every Other Weekend, Abigail Johnson
Publishing on January 7th, 2020 by Inkyard Press.
Buy Every Other Weekend on Amazon – Book Depository – Indiebound – Barnes & Noble .
Adam Moynihan’s life used to be awesome. Straight As, close friends and a home life so perfect that it could have been a TV show straight out of the 50s. Then his oldest brother died. Now his fun-loving mom cries constantly, he and his remaining brother can’t talk without fighting, and the father he always admired proved himself a coward by moving out when they needed him most.
Jolene Timber’s life is nothing like the movies she loves—not the happy ones anyway. As an aspiring director, she should know, because she’s been reimagining her life as a film ever since she was a kid. With her divorced parents at each other’s throats and using her as a pawn, no amount of mental reediting will give her the love she’s starving for.
Forced to spend every other weekend in the same apartment building, the boy who thinks forgiveness makes him weak and the girl who thinks love is for fools begin an unlikely friendship. The weekends he dreaded and she endured soon become the best part of their lives. But when one’s life begins to mend while the other’s spirals out of control, they realize that falling in love while surrounded by its demise means nothing is ever guaranteed..
☂️ TRIGGER WARNINGS: click here to see them.
grief, parental abuse, emotional abuse, sexual assault, toxic relationships.
☂️ DIVERSITY: unspecified.
I ENJOYED…
☂️
- Let me start this by saying: this was my first Abigail Johnson book and it won’t be the last.
- Every Other Weekend is one of these realistic, raw, real contemporaries that I adore. It had everything I want in a book: complex, three dimensional, a little messed-up but still amazing and so real main characters, family relationships, a slow-burning, realistic and incredible teenagers’ romance and emotions. It’s such an incredible read, really.
- That being said, I urge you to read the trigger warnings (above in my review) before heading into this, because it deals with a couple of tough topics, too.
- Told in two POV, we get to hear both Adam and Jolene’s sides of the story and I loved both characters, even if I had a slight preference for Adam.
- Adam lost his brother a couple of years ago and, on top of dealing with his grief, he’s dealing with his broken family. I loved how wonderful Adam was. He’s sweet and tender despite the anger that consumes him, at times, and I just grew fond of him so quickly.
- Jolene’s family has been broken for a long time, between a toxic environment with her mother and an absentee father. I appreciated Jolene’s passion for movies and her drive to reach out for her dreams, even if, at times, I didn’t love her as much as Adam.
- I rooted for the relationship so, so very much. Adam and Jolene start off as friends and I love how their relationship, their feelings build up slowly. The dialogue is one of the best dialogues I’ve ever read in any YA contemporary book. The banter, the way they bounce off each other and react to every event is so realistic, I felt like I was reading a slice of life really happening.
- The growth of each character during this quite heavy, both in themes and in number of pages, contemporary, is stunning. I loved seeing both Adam and Jolene change through the course of the story.
I HAD A HARD TIME WITH…
☂️
- The only, small reason I’m not finding this to be a 5-star read is how much time it took me to warm up to Jolene and how conflicted my feelings for her were, overall, through the course of the book. If I can appreciate and understand her character, I wasn’t as fond of her as I was for Adam, which is completely a personal opinion though!
OVERALL
☂️
If you’re looking for an emotional, realistic, incredible YA contemporary about grief, healing, finding your place in the world and your person, too, I’d recommend Every Other Weekend. It was such a wonderful contemporary, I will most certainly scream about this book for many, many years to come.
Final rating: 4,5 drops!
Did you read Every Other Weekend? Do you want to?
Do you have any recommendations of hard-hitting contemporary reads? Let me know in comments!
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I’ve really been wanting to read this book this year! (I just haven’t been able to find it yet oops). I enjoyed your thoughts so much <3
Ahh hope you can get to it soon, it’s a lovely read! 🙂 thank you! <3
You’ve written a great review, this book sounds amazing <3
Thank you so much! 🙂
Great review! I hadn’t heard of this, but sounds like my usual read, going to add to my TBR!
YAY! I hope you’ll enjoy it 🙂
This really sounds very promising, Marie! I trust your opinion with contemporaries basically blindly, but this also sounds like something I could connect with easily <3 thanks for another great review!
Oh thank you Kat, this means so much! <3 I hope you'll pick it up sometime, it's really, really good <3
I’ve been waiting for someone to review this. Despite you’re having a harder time with Jolene, I’m still really interested in reading this one. It sounds like a really valuable book.
YES it really was amazing, I have a feeling you could enjoy it 🙂 thank you! 🙂
Nice review! Jolene was definitely a tough character to root for — and she made many poor choices! But I believe her background was also largely responsible. Abigail Johnson’s novels always help me cultivate empathy for people who’ve had difficult lives. I loved this book.
Afoma @ afomaumesi.com/blog
Thank you so much! I agree with you on that one for sure 🙂 it was such a good read, I can’t wait to read more from the author 🙂
I think Adam was easier to like from the beginning of the book, but the more I learned about Jolene, the more I understood her. The star of this story, for me, was the friendship between Adam and Jolene. I love stories, where characters find their “person”.
I so agree with you! I loved how they found each other and loved seeing their relationship grow, too <3
I just love your reviews, even if I don’t read much of the genre! xxxx
ahhh thank you my sweechie, you’re too sweet <3 <3 <3
Wonderful review. I haven’t heard of this book before, but I just added it to my wishlist, so thank you.
I hope you will like your next read equally much <3
Oh thank you, this makes me so, so happy <3 <3
Love your article! I’m also very passionate about books and literature – you can check out my blog if you like 🙂
Thank you so much! 🙂
i’m so happy you enjoyed this because i’ve been wanting to read it for a while! the cover is beautiful, and it’s lovely to hear about the friends-to-lovers romance, character growth and realistic banter. while a lot of contemporaries are written as fluffy, light books, i also love reading the heavy ones. 😀 i loved this review, Marie! <3
Ahhh thank you so much! I can’t wait for you to read this one, I hope you will love it <3
Ahh, this sounds SO good! I immediately added it to my TBR, because 1. it sounds like something I would like, and 2. I trust your opinion 🙂
Thank you for sharing. Great review!!
Ahhh thank you, this means so much <3 <3
You seem to always find the best books with the most pretty covers! Glad you enjoyed this one too <3
Awww thank you! I hope you’ll give it a try sometime! 🙂
Ahh I loved this book too!! It’s so underrated! I rated it 5 stars but I can see where you’re coming from regarding Jolene 🙂 I absolutely adored the romance though ? Wonderful post as usual!! I usually don’t comment but I just wanted to say that I love reading your posts so much!
Ahh I’m glad you enjoyed it so much, I agree, it’s such a underrated gem. I loveed the characters so much <3
And thank you, that's so, so sweet of you!! ?
No problem! I actually look to your posts for post inspiration haha- they’re always so creative! ? I should probably comment more lol.
Ahh thank you, this means so much!! <3 <3 <3