Review: We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This, Rachel Lynn Solomon

We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This found a place on my favorites’ shelf. Like any other book by Rachel Lynn Solomon, I feel for the characters, the lovely romance and just, I loved this book. Read my review below!

We Can't Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Published by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers on June 8, 2021
Genres: romance, young adult
Format: ARC
Source: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Buy on Book Depository, Wordery, Barnes & Noble, Publisher, Bookshop, Blackwell's
Goodreads

A wedding harpist disillusioned with love and a hopeless romantic cater-waiter flirt and fight their way through a summer of weddings in this effervescent romantic comedy from the acclaimed author of Today Tonight Tomorrow.
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.

I received this book for free from Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

☂️ TRIGGER WARNINGS:

divorce, separation, anxiety, OCD, depression.

☂️ DIVERSITY:Jewish main character with OCD, Muslim & Egyptian-American main character with depression, Queer side characters.

There are no spoilers in this review.

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I ENJOYED…

☂️

• I fell for Rachel Lynn Solomon’s work years ago with Our Year of Maybe and haven’t stopped adding all of her books to my favorites’ list since then. We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This was no exception.
• This story is about Quinn, on her last summer before she leaves to college, helping out her parents, as always, with the wedding planning family business. She’s terrified of telling her parents she might not want to follow the already-paved-for-her path into the family business. Tarek, her unrequited crush’s return from his first year of university isn’t too welcome, either. Not especially after she poured her feelings into an email to him that was left unanswered.
• I always end up falling for Rachel Lynn Solomon’s characters and Quinn was no exception. She’s so passionate, she’s a little bit untrusty, she doesn’t quite believe in love anymore. I really loved following her journey as she slowly but surely learned to follow her heart, to open herself up to possibilities and more. She felt so realistic.
• Of course, this book has a big place for romance. I loved how wonderful it was. It’s a sort of friends to lovers romance, it slowly blooms and grows and it’s absolutely swoon worthy and sex positive and everything I wanted it to be. I loved how they completed each other and took care of each other overall. Plus, Tarek’s just such a kind sweetheart of a human being that bakes and I really liked him ahhh. He was so wonderful.

• I really appreciated the place mental health took in this story, something I didn’t expect. Quinn deals with OCD and it’s just a part of her life, she’s taking medication, she has a therapist. Tarek, on the other hand, struggles with depression. I appreciated the conversations they had around mental health and slowly learning to open up about it a little more, as well.
• That’s another great thing with this book: while having an adorable romance you’ll swoon for at its heart, it also deals with important, deeper topics. Mental health, as I mentioned before, but also parents’ expectations, the future, religion, parental separation and more. I loved that so much.

OVERALL

☂️

If you’re looking for a well-rounded young adult contemporary read, pick up We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This. Quinn’s journey as she figures out what she wants out of her future, the adorable romance… Rachel Lynn Solomon nails messy, complex but very real teenagers’ feels about everything and I always love her work. 200% recommending this book!

FINAL RATING : It’s a hurricane!

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📚 Books similar to We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This that I’d recommend:

• ALL of Rachel Lynn’s Solomon’s books: Our Year of Maybe, Today, Tonight, Tomorrow.
• For more reads about not quite meeting parents’ expectations, try When Dimple Met Rishi or American Panda.

Did you read We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This or do you want to? What’s the latest YA contemporary book you loved? Let me know in comments!

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