Meant to Be

I have so much love for this book. When I started the book I was surprised at how much like me Julia is. She is definitely not a rule breaker (nor am I) and honestly she needs to just chill out (so do I). So, I had a lot in common with Julia from the get go. Plus she loves the Beatles (so do I!) and is on her way to London. I adored her character from the beginning and was anxious to see where the story would go. So, the setting is in my favorite city, London, the main character is very similar to me and add a little romance? I'm so in.

I just adored this book and honestly I cannot wait until I have time to read it again. It was a very fun read. Nothing too heavy or too gut wrenching, which is nice. The pace was great, I never got bored and at the end I wanted the story to go on.

I really enjoyed the relationship between Julia and Jason. I think you'll be able to tell a few things throughout the book that Julia is just completely clueless on, which makes the story much more fun to read. I don't want to give away any spoilers, so I won't go into more detail about that.

I totally related to this story. I could picture myself in Julia's shoes. I often have this grand picture in my head of what I think should happen, when the perfect thing is right in front of my face. I highly recommend this book and it's definitely one of the most fun, easy to read contemporaries I've read in awhile.

OMG, you guys, pardon me while I flail freaking everywhere over how incredibly hilarious and wonderful and perfect for me this book is! Ahhhhh! There are certain authors who are just like made of magic for me, you know? Their every written word speaks to me. They're funny and clever, and say express the things that I think and feel all of the time, and, were I the kind of person to mark up my books, their books would be a mess of notes. Well, Lauren Morrill has just joined that esteemed crew with her debut novel Meant to Be.

I could tell straight off that this novel would be a fantabulous read for me. The book opens with, "There are certain things in life that just suck. Pouring a big bowl of Lucky Charms before realizing the milk is expired, the word 'moist,' falling face-first into the salad bar in front of the entire lacrosse team . . ." It you can make me laugh with the first two sentences, things are looking up. I proceeded to highlight a bunch of quotes that spoke to me and made me laugh. If you go on GR, right now and look up quotes by Lauren Morrill, I added all of them, because I'm a nutter and obsessed.

My very favorite aspect of Meant to Be is how well-drawn Julia is. She totally rocks, but which I mean she's kind of awkward and judgmental and anal-retentive. Julia might have more in common with me than any heroine I've ever encountered, with our main differences being her skill as a swimmer and her dedication to homework. Julia, like me, is not a rule-breaker, pretty much as a rule, and, when she does break them, it's this sort of painful mix of fun and fear. She loves reading more than just about anything else and has only one close friend, Phoebe. On top of that, she's introverted and has curly, frizzy hair she cannot figure out what to do with. My advice to her on that last one is confidence; if you pretend it looks awesome, a lot of people will be fooled.

What was most familiar to me about Julia was her perspective. Julia's mental dialog is pretty much exactly what it's like to live in my head, especially my less self-aware high school brain. Despite being incredibly intelligent and witty, Julia, when in a social situation, generally fails to prove herself verbose and lacks witty retorts. Yet, in her head, she has this constant judgmental, snarky commentary running at all times, which, of course, deserts her at times of need. She also has a temper and doesn't realize how harsh or superior she comes off to other people. To me, Julia is one hundred percent realistic, believable and hilarious.

I will say that the only other strongly-developed character is Jason, and even he takes a definite back seat. This is no surprise given how caught up Julia is in her own world and impressions of things and people. Since it's just like my mind, I can tell you right now that she's not the most reliable narrator. Meant to Be is definitely driven by Julia, so I suspect that if you don't like her the book won't be much fun for you.

The romance does not go anywhere surprising, but it's totally one of my favorite formulas. I've always been so weak to the boy and girl who don't like each other at first plotline, because of my love of Pride and Prejudice, which Morrill is obviously a total fangirl about too, based on the numerous references. Shakespeare comes up a lot too, of course, but, if this is actually a retelling of anything (I thought it was a Shakespeare retelling, though I suspect I made that up), it's of P&P.

In Meant to Be, Julia has to deal with a lot of personal issues surrounding her own expectations. She has love built up into this epic construct in her mind, and it's totally messing her up. Again, I relate to this to an insane degree. Her realizations are important ones and I think this sends a great message to teens compared to all of the obnoxious teen love lasts forever stuff. While Jason and Julia do, I think, have amazing chemistry, I also don't know what I see them making a great couple for all time, and I like that.

The last thing I must mention is the setting. Meant to Be takes place during a class trip to London. Julia has signed up with out her best friend and is stuck with a whole bunch of other teens she mostly doesn't like while trying to enjoy herself in a foreign country. Girl, I have been there and it is unfortunate, especially since I didn't have a Jason. Meant to Be is one of those books that makes you feel like you're traveling. I already wanted to go to London so, so much, and now I want to just pack up and go right now, though I'm far too plan-oriented for that, as Julia would understand.

Though I had a couple of small issues with Meant to Be (mostly to do with the cell phones the school provided for them during the trip, which I so do not see happening), I completely adored the whole book and will be devouring everything else Morrill writes as soon as I possibly can.

First....a book that takes place in London? Count me in! On Julia's trip to London with her fellow students, she gets the opportunity to see the biggest and best sites the city has to offer. And thanks to Jason, the one person she did not want to be partnered with, she gets to see some places off the beaten path as well.

Julia is the type of character that I love but can also annoy me at the same time. Until the trip, she is completely by the book. She has good grades and always follows the rules. When she gets to London she is paired with Jason, and Julia's world is turned upside down. Throughout this trip, she is constantly arguing with herself about what she should or shouldn't do. She is very stubborn and set in her ways and because of that I think she misses a lot of opportunities along the way.

There were some unexpected twists in this story for me and Julia learns an important lesson from her mom from all the way across the pond. This along with clever writing, some klutzy moments, a few almost kisses, and one sweet kiss in the rain are just some of the reasons why I liked this book so much.

What I Loved: I was really excited to read this because not only does it have a colorful cover and a great summary, but everyone I've talked to loved it. This is a cute story and the characters are entertaining but it didn't go exactly how I thought it would, which is really ironic given the main characters views on love. I also loved the backdrop of London and having been there myself, I could picture many of the places mentioned. Julia and Jason both learn to redefine what love means to them and there are some very funny moments.

What Left Me Wanting: The first half of this book flowed easily but then the pace seemed to stall, followed by a speedy last quarter and an ending that felt rushed. Julia is uptight and doesn't deal well with people who don't fit into her "big picture" and I get that, but neither she nor Jason deal with their issues which essentially influence the way they behave. For example, I'm not a fan of crying either but doing a hundred crunches just to avoid feeling the emotion seems a bit extreme and odd to me.

Jason's immaturity was cringeworthy and his constant teasing, name calling and need for attention was annoying. I'm all for redemption but by the time he gets his chance the story ends. There were a few questions left unanswered too, like what happened for the remaining trip? How about after they got home?

Final Verdict: Light-hearted, cute love story that doesn't go too deep.