The beginning had me in love with this book, just generally everything about it was perfect for the entire first half of the book and then I got confused which left me feeling disconnected from the story.

I think overall that if you are a musical person and you like contemporaries, you are likely to enjoy this book. If you aren't really into music. then maybe this is not for you, as this book centres a lot around music.

The cute meeting was actual perfection. I had heart eyes, it was so good!! I immediately saw the chemistry between the two before they even met, so that was extremely well done.

I loved the two perspective style of writing, the interchanging between the two of them was spot on!

And all of the music! I loved the music being incorporated into all different aspects of the story, and I was listening to the playlists while I was reading and I JUST LOVED THE MUSIC IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL!

And this book also deals with mental illness, which is definitely an important topic, so that was very well done.

The pacing!! I loved how they separated the book into the three movements and the pacing matched, that just made me so SO SO HAPPY and it was perfect!!

However, I did feel that the book was a bit unresolved, and I guess this was on purpose, but it kind of just left me feeling discontent rather than curious.

Overall though, an enjoyable read, and I loved the music incorporated into the storyline!

Not a fan, beautiful writing but kind of boring beginning. You can feel the characters as your friends and get lost with their story.

The writing style sings, and the voices of the Ben and Dominique got me hooked (at least, to a certain point). Following their discovery of self and passion around New York City was fun, and I enjoyed how music, family life and (eventually) mental illness played big roles in the story. However, I had an issue with Dominique's dishonesty (we don't want relationships based on lies, do we?) and how Ben's bipolar disorder felt like it wasn't thoroughly delved into.

Great book! I really enjoyed the stories espicially because I live around the area the book is set in!

This is a book told from dual perspectives - musician Ben and high school junior Dom. After Dom sees Ben performing at Carnegie Hall, she's determined to meet him. This book has a solid premise and some strong moments of connection between the characters, but an unreliable narrator makes for a book with some unresolved elements and some thematically difficult plot lines.

I wasn’t a fan of this. I found it problematic, between Ben’s not taking care of himself and obsessing over his music and Dominique’s basically stalking him.

I just couldn’t do it.

I didn't expect anything from this book, but it's the best love story I read in years! I still don't have any coherent thoughts on this because my mind is just blown and I'm a sobbing mess. This book was perfect in every aspect.
The characters are amazing, I loved all of them, even though they're really not perfect and especially Dom makes many mistakes (in my opinion). I could really connect to them and the portrait of Bens mental illness was also very relatable.
So a very thought provoking, sometimes painful but very beautiful book!
Thank you for accepting me for this arc!

Well, this was definitely not what I expected from Someday, Somewhere. Whoa.

This was the first book I've read *calmly* in what feels like lifetimes, and I'm happy to say that it went beyond my expectations. I really really really loved reading Lindsay Champion's debut novel.

First thing, can I just say that any book with even a remote emphasis on music automatically pulls me in? Add that to a fascinatingly executed mental illness component, and wow. Fast-paced and compelling, the whirlwind that this relatively short book put me through has left me dazed.

The basic backbone of the plot is simple enough: girl and guy and automatically taken with each other and problems happen, relationship-wise, family-wise, life-in-general-wise. I was expecting a calm and sweet plotline that would not hit me like a truck. What the author did with this simple backbone caught me so far off guard.

A little complaint, though, is that because the book was so short, I felt like not everything was completely covered in a way that left things "resolved" enough. It seems like there are tons of plotholes everywhere, but none that I can specifically look in the eye and acknowledge at this point in time. Sigh.

Beyond that, I'm not too big on the love and first sight wow you make me whole kind of thing. The female MC Dominique kind of just liked her love interest Ben for his looks and then surprise ! you guys both like similar music what a match made in heaven. Ben was a mess and his chaotic nature sometimes made me want to step back for a bit, but wow was his character well written.

Laughs I think I might be in love with the way the author closed the book. Highkey. I'm just going to go float away in this cloud of beautiful endingness.

Thousand times thanks to Netgalley and Kids Can Press for this wonderful ARC !

I DNFd at 23%, I couldn't get into this. I thought the plot was slow, the characters didn't develop enough and the plot was weird. Thank you for providing me with an eARC, I really appreciate it and enjoyed giving it a chance.

We featured this book on our podcast, the YA Cafe. You can find our whole review/conversation by listening to the episode, but here are some highlights from the transcript:

Amanda: 04:02 I thought that all the Ben stuff was done really well. I really liked her descriptions of music and especially his, like, constantly practicing, not only when he was holding the violin. That was super true to life for me, just how he would like, walk around the city and be like, practicing his fingerings.

Danielle: 05:01 I really loved, (I'm like the non-music person in this podcast episode right now,) but I really loved when Ben was talking about music and he says at one point, "'Yeah, I know it's all about balance' I say, even though it isn't, but sometimes I think that thing astounding musicians have, the ability to take a two dimensional page and make the notes bloom and roar, is something you can't teach". And I just loved when Lindsey Champion was, like, describing music through Ben, like that was the best part of the novel for me.

Amanda: 05:36 Yeah, I liked that. I also really liked that she colored Ben's character in this way where he, like, loved music and he, when he was practicing this duet, he could not fathom that he was the one bringing down the duet. He was like, "No, it must have been the other person, like I'm flawless if I didn't have to deal with this problem", and I was like, "Oh my God, I've been that person" *laughter*

Amanda: 18:13 Yeah, I thought it was, fine. I think that the biggest problem with the book was that it should've just been a book from Ben's perspective.

Danielle: 18:24 Yes, exactly! That's what I thought, I'm like, Lindsay Champion clearly favored Ben's perspective. He became the main character, Dom became completely unimportant to the novel. Like, her stuff didn't matter, it wasn't as interesting, so why not just write a single perspective and have it be Ben?

Leila: 18:38 Yeah. And like, clearly, because the author also went to Tisch and was a, dance major (not a music major), but like, clearly she understands, like, trying to succeed at the arts at a very high level. Like she could kind of get inside Ben's head, but I don't think she had any, like, relation to trying to get inside the head of like a, poor high school student from New Jersey, and so it was just, mmm, not great.

Danielle: 19:07 That's, that's exactly what I felt. I felt that Dom was just boring, and Lindsay Champions love of dance didn't even come through because it didn't seem like Dom loved dance, even though she used to do it. She didn't even, like, dance her way down the sidewalk, and all she really cared about with dance as far as the book was concerned was that when she put on her athletic wear to go see Ben, she's like, "ah ha ha! The last time I wore this I was dancing".
Amanda: 19:37 Yeah. I uh, I was really disappointed because in the beginning I thought that Dom was just going to be a much, like, more important part of the novel. But I felt like she really was just a bridge to Ben. And I felt like, Cass, in particular, his only role was to give Dom his birthday money, to go and like, stalk this random violin player she saw this one time and then be like, "Go to him", you know? Like, it was just depressing. And she didn't have any other friends, not a single friend was named for Dom, other than Cass. Like, not even just a random person passing her a pen in math or something.

Danielle: 20:14 Right. And she spent all this time on the train and I was like, "Girl, what are you doing? Like, get on with your life in your city. Like don't waste your life on the train to New York", which is like, not a thing that people do all the time.

Leila: 28:00 So, one thing that I did love about the novel was the ending of the love story, uh quote unquote "love story" between Dom and Ben. Um, I definitely was reading it and was like, "Ugh, this is nauseating. Like this is not what happens between real people". Um, and so like, #spoilers, I did really appreciate the fact that they didn't end up together.

So going into this novel, I knew only that it was about insta-love and music. I'm not someone who's completely against insta-love, especially if I think it's well done or when I'm willing to put aside any sort of believably just to fall into the story. And in this case, I think that it was a case of both.

Dominique is a girl who feels like her life is at a dead end. She loves jazz and old movies and her best friend Cass, but she's stuck working at her mom's dry cleaning business and with no way out.

Ben is a musical genius, accepted early into a prestigious music college for the violin. He knows he's going places, if only he can prove to everyone how good he is. And that requires focus.

Dom goes on a field trip to watch Ben play at Carnegie Hall and from the beginning she thinks he's beautiful, not just for his looks but for his musical talent as well. They meet up and begin a kind of whirlwind romance which is all at once lovely, heartbreaking and consuming.

Once I started reading this book I could not put it down. I was in love with the characters and wanted to know their whole story right away. It was so intriguing to watch it play out. However, having given myself some distance from this book, I can see the problems some other people had with it.

My original rating for this book was 4 stars, but I'm going to bump it down to 3. Someone pointed out that besides the main characters, the supporting characters were very flat and served no purpose other than to move the story along. And looking back, I can agree with that. Another problem I had was the ending, which I felt was abrupt and unsatisfying. We got some answers, and then it just... stopped. I kept thinking that maybe this wasn't the end after all, maybe my document had some problems or something but no.

However, if all you're looking for is a book about some love, with maybe a little bit of heaviness in there, I recommend this one. I will give a trigger warning for bipolar disorder and I don't know how well it's portrayed, not having it myself and not knowing anyone with bipolar disorder. So there is a bit to break up the light-heartedness of this book, but I still recommend it for a fast, cute read.

SOMEDAY, SOMEWHERE is a beguiling sonata of romance, deception, and creative passion. Dom and Ben are intimately drawn, three-dimensional characters who make big, heartbreaking mistakes in their endeavors to become the people they so desperately want to be. Bonus: debut author Lindsay Champion writes so gorgeously and evocatively about music, the notes spill right off the page!

This is such an interesting book! From the start I knew this was something special, but it wasn't until I finished that I realized just how good this story would be! With a lyrical/poetic quality, this is the story of Dominique and Ben is intense, and spell-binding.

Dealing with issues such as mental illness, and not taking care of oneself, this story can get heavy in parts. From the time Dominique and Ben meet, there is a tension in the air. Not really insta-love, more a strong attraction, but one that sets the pace for the rest of the book. The pacing was perfect, and I read this book in a few large chunks, I just had to know what happened next!

I really loved everything about this book. The story was amazing and different, the character and plot were well developed. I enjoyed this book from Chapter one until the end.

Such a brilliant book!! I really liked the cover (who am I kidding? I loved it!!) I am in love with Dom and Cass's friendship!! And oh my dear lord BEN! I loved Ben, than I hated him, than I cried for him, than I loved him all over again...
Its hard writing about this book unless I give out spoilers, which is not cool. So all I am saying is, read this book. Trust me! Your heart will be in pieces, but it will worth it.

Dominique Hall lives with her mother in Trenton, New Jersey. She has dreams of going to NYU and becoming a dancer, but the laundromat her mother owns and runs is barely helping them get by. Dominique's best friend Cass shares these dreams, but they both come from poor families. One day Dominique and Cass see an orchestra performance at Carnegie Hall, and Dom is instantly attracted to one of the lead violin players. She finds out his name is Ben and tracks him down at the Brighton Music Conservatory. Soon they begin a whirlwind romance, but both of them are keeping secrets, some of them serious. Will their relationship survive, or will their circumstances keep them apart?
I enjoyed this book, even though it is bittersweet and sad. More authors are attacking mental illness or physical health issues in their writing, and that is encouraging because those issues are so important to be aware of. The characters were very well written, and some parts of the book were difficult to read because I became interested in the characters and their struggles. I didn't care for the profanity - in my opinion f-bombs ruin a book and are unnecessary. I also thought there were quite a few loose ends left untied that I wanted to see be resolved. I did like Cass, and I thought he was extremely loyal to Dominique. I recommend this book (with caution) to those who aren't bothered by profanity.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. A positive review was not required, and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Did someone say music? I was in from the beginning. As a musician myself, I am always skeptical of books about musicians or music students but Someday, Somewhere did a great job portraying Ben's musical mind. Dom's dreams of getting into NYU were absolutely crazy and obsessive, but still adventurous at the same time and I was wrapped up in the whirlwind of the alternating points of view. I honestly felt a little robbed by the ending. I thought there could have been more there, especially on Ben's side. However, overall the book was an easy and brilliant read that had be captivated from beginning to end.

This was a really nice read! Ben and Dominique were great characters, and although the romance didn't work for me, I really cared about them. I liked how important music was for Ben, and I think his discovering of his mental health issues was handled well. I wish there were some dance sequences in Dominique's chapters, but overall Someday Somewhere is a good debut with a strong ending.

4.5 STARS

Here I am, at a cafe after driving mindlessly for an hour after finishing this book. I was angry and sad and happy and wholesome, I couldn't find the words to describe how I feel reading this book.
For someone who's not emotional, for someone who never cries while reading a book, this book ripped my heart out of my chest and shattered it. lmao yo I didn't even know I have a heart. When I requested this book, I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I am now. And tbh it's the best surprise in the world

What makes this book so emotional for me is the fact that it has a bipolar rep. Never have I ever read a character I can connect and relate to so much. Most mental illness that ya books have are either Anxiety or Depression. Finding one with my illness is honestly very hard to find.
But this book? I felt like as if I was reading about myself. There are so many times where I had to stop reading and stare at the wall because I feel so represented. By the first page of Ben's narration I knew he have what I have. I knew he has bipolar even before the reveal in the later pages. I think that the author did an excellent job on the rep, I can tell she has done massive research for this. (I even thought that the author also have this illness since the rep is so accurate)

Some clear giveaways of his illness and explanations for them:

✨Ben forgets to eat or sleep, when I'm in my manic episode I'd be the same. I'm never tired, never hungry. It's like I have too much energy and too many things to do to sleep or eat. I keep thinking about things which makes me unable to go to sleep and I get obsessive over something that I completely forgot to take care of myself. There are times where I'm so high on my manic episode that I just write for the whole day and only drink coffee and smoke cigarettes as "food" and go on 48 hours of no sleep without feeling tired.

✨Ben feels like he's the best violinist in school and that his classmates are talentless. For some people this might seem as arrogance or cockiness. it's not. When I'm on manic episode, i feel like i'm the best person on earth. I can go on telling people how I'm the smartest person in the world and how dumb other people are. I'm not a cocky asshole. It's just that with mania, it feels that way. We get delusional.

✨Some people think that this book has insta-love but this is not the case. And I get why they would because Ben is suddenly all obsessed with Dom. It's NOT Insta love. It's Mania when we find someone we can connect with and whom we find attractive, we get obsessed. We get so caught up on how great this other person is and we seem infatuated with them. But when the mania goes away so our feelings for them. It comes as easy as it goes.

✨Ben's irritation. Being rude to his parents and his little brother. Belittling his peers and looking down on them. Again we are not assholes.

✨Ben's obsession with being the best in school. No he doesnt have OCD. For us bipolar people, when we like one thing we don't just like it. We became obsessed with it.

✨Ben's depression
Nearing the end of the book Ben shuts off and abandon all social life by being bed for days. When people come down from mania, they feel the hunger and the lack of sleep that they didn't when they're on mania. He feels worthless and felt like he has nothing to fight for anymore


Overall
This book crushed my soul and ripped my heart in two. I know some people don't like the ending but I liked it. It hurt me in the best way possible.

"In New York City you can be absolutely anyone you want to be. You don't need a lot of money or status to be glamorous and captivating and magical."

When I requested this, it was the wee hours of the morning and I was requesting anything with buzz words I like. “New York” and “music” are some of those. I had no idea that this would be one of those mental health books I would shove into the hands of anyone who asked.

Not gonna lie, there was some insta-love in here and that made me nervous. Especially in the beginning. But once the plot hit, and trust me, the plot of this hits like a freight train, I was all in with no chance of taking meal or bathroom breaks.

It's so hard to write a spoiler free review for this book because everything starts happening past 30%. Up until then, it's a cutesy insta-love romance about a protege violinist and a dancer who has given up dance. After that, it's a story about two people and the way life deals us cards that we can't always handle alone.