Oh my, I don't often experience the feeling of "why didn't I read this author before!?!?" - but that is exactly how I felt after I finished this book. I chose to read this book right after reading an epic fantasy novel, and I just wanted a light sweet read. What I got instead was an incredibly intelligent and well written contemporary YA, full of characters I fell in love with, experiences that felt true and emotional, but also exciting. This was indeed an incredibly sweet and fun novel, but it also dealt with hard and trying situations for a kid to deal with, and it handled them truthfully. I was mighty impressed. Also, this book made me simultaneously want to go camping immediately (because everything sounded so lush and exciting and fresh), and also never go camping in my life, because, well, bears. And snakes. And creepy cave tunnel shadows. All in all, Jenn has a new fan in me - this book was impossibly romantic, swoon worthy and fun, well written, full of adventure and hilarity, well developed, strong (and interesting!) characters, and just, IT WAS SO GOOD. MORE please and thank you.

“You can plot a course that will get you to your destination, but you can’t predict what you’ll find along the way.”

After reading the blurb, I was immediately drawn to this book. I liked the idea of warring families and survival in the wilderness. Plus I’m a huge fan of coming-of-age young adult fiction.

I had never heard of the author before coming across this book, so I can’t to compare it to her other work, but I really liked the writing style and the flow. It was engaging and quite atmospheric with regards to the bush land and the astronomy aspects. And it had well written characters, even though some were horrible and loathesome people.

I do have some negatives: first being that there was a lot going on. Each main character and supporting characters had their own conflict and issues (internal or external) and it created a little too much drama, a little too much angst, that detracted from my overall enjoyment of the main story.
The last few chapters also annoyed me. After the build up and suspense of the main story and all the connecting story lines, it just feels like the last bit ran out of steam and petered out.

I would definitely consider looking into some of the author’s other books as this one was quite enjoyable.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Australia and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Oh wow, this book was absolutely delightful. I picked it up because I had previously enjoyed Alex, Approximately, and I think I even liked this just a little bit more than that one.

Just like Alex, this was teen romance between two kids who proport to dislike each other at the very start of the novel. Except, in this one, Zorie and Lennon have known each other and been close before the book started.

One thing I think this book did incredibly well was showing us what Zorie thought had happened to stop them being as close, and then only afterwards drop in the hints of what Lennon thought about the same incident. It wasn't a situation where one or the other one was unreasonable so much as a situation where wires were seriously crossed and each of them had every reason to think what they did until things were worked out.

I think my extra enjoyment of this book was because I love this particular trope when it's really well done. There was also the hint of an almost Romeo and Juliet alluding to, especially early in the book, but then it became clear that that was, at best, only from the side of Zorie's father.

And, oh my god, let me also say that I loved all of the narratives relating to both of Lennon and Zorie's family's that didn't strictly have anything to do with the romance plot but contributed so much to the characters and their stories.

Definitely need to get off my butt and read more from this author.