I didn’t realize when I started the ARC that this was a sequel, though certain times I wondered. Beautifully written and I was able to enjoy it just as much anyway, which speaks to the way the author continued to develop the characters.

I did not/could not finish this. I didn't feel like there was a plot to this book, so to speak and similar to my other DNF books, the characters felt almost one dimensional and kind of flat.

Maybe one day I'll try rereading this and maybe then my review for it will be better, but as of now, it's not what I hoped it'd be.

When I first requested this novel I didn’t realize it was a sequel to another contemporary story, The Start of Me and You. I went into this without having read the predecessor and I still found I enjoyed this. It’s about our main character named Paige and how she and her friends all deal with senior year of high school and all the ups and downs that come with it. It was very emotional and impacting. I will definitely be on the look out for what Emery Lord puts out next.

I super duper loved The Start of Me and You and part of me longed for more to the story but I was also really liked how it ended. Then when I heard there was a sequel actually happening? Well....I had mixed feelings. So many mixed feelings. But everyone who read it seemed to love it so I walked into this one feeling hopeful. Sadly, I was super disappointed and ended up withisg I hadn't read it at it. It was long, too long, for the story that was being told. Not only that but every single character seemed to regress so much from where they all ended up at the end of Start of Me and You. Map isn't a bad book...it just wasn't a book for me.

How do you review a sequel to book you never read? Well you just jump right in and let the writing guide you. That being said I felt all of the characters seamlessly interacted with one another and a picture of their friendship was fully formed. Paige is excited to finally dive in to her relationship with Max after a summer apart. This is her chance to prove she has finally healed from the traumatic events regarding Aaron. Yet that's not how things turn out because trauma resurfaces and Paige's anxiety makes it difficult for her to see a future. Rather there's too many options for the future and she can't decide which one will be the Right one.

I found this book to be authentic and its portrayal of teenage anxiety. Never mind the circumstances that happened to Paige, there's a lot of pressure when you're expected to know what you want and yet the adults in your life don't trust you to make that decision either. The conflicts were absolutely grounded with financial decisions to the prospects of staying in touch with your friends influencing what you want in life.

I think this is a great book for not only young adults, but for adults remembering we still don't have our lives together. The central conflict also changes Max and Paige's relationship. With expectations within their friend group to be the OTP, it stands to reason that this may not be what they necessarily want forever. I related to Paige's crippling anxiety too. Lashing out due to your own frustration can happen. Exploring who you can be instead of who you should be is a reoccurring theme and there were times I was annoyed Max let his insecurity limit Paige. To say the least, these two doofuses are meant for each other for however long they have.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury YA for an advanced readers copy in exchange for a fair review!

COVER REVIEW:

I love illustration especially the personal touches on what I assume is Paige's desk. The colors compliment each other and I prefer this to the first book's cover with the generic sunset photography that doesn't say anything.

A sequel we didn't know we needed but Emery Lord delivered for fans of The Start of Me and You and its beloved characters. Emery knows how to write such real and flawed characters who navigates through life, school, friendships, anxiety and other things life throws at us especially at a young/coming of age.

I couldn't believe I got approved for this book! I'm pretty sure I shrieked when I found out. I read The Start of Me and You because I was going to meet Emery Lord at Yallfest. This book was soo dang good. I couldn’t put it down. When I found out that there was going to be a sequel I totally freaked out. I loved Max and Paige, even though they had been through so much in the first book I thought they were perfect together.

I was so excited to see what happened next to them. Because I read the book, I decided to listen to The Start of Me and You. The audiobook was great. The narrator really brought Paige and Maz to life. I totally forgot how much I loved these two together, which made me very scared going into it.
Paige and Max go through so much in this book. But every single thing is believable. It’s hard to keep a relationship going when you are about to graduate and go to different colleges. I haven’t actually experienced it first hand, but I can’t even imagine leaving the one I love. This book was still super cute and rom-comish, but it was so much more than that. We get to see the struggle of this relationship in so many ways. It is heartbreaking to read at times, but so dang worth it.

If you loved the first book, you will absolutely love this one! If you love contemporary YA I totally recommend this book to you. But of course, read The Start of Me and You first. Come back and tell me your thoughts.

I fell for most of these characters in The Start of Me and You, so I was so excited to jump back into the world of Paige and Max and all of their friends. I was also a little scared to see what would happen to them as a couple through their senior year. I was right to be a little scared, but I was definitely not disappointed in the end.

Paige has always been a little neurotic, which is part of her anxiety and to be expected, but I feel like she takes a step back from all of the progress she made in the first book. In many ways her fears take over and cause damage in her relationships. In other ways, she continues her growth and comes to understand her dreams a little more clearly.

I adore Max, and that has not changed since reading this book. He is in no way perfect and has a really hard time facing up to his own decisions, but he is still so sweet and genuine. He has his own issues when it comes to dealing with his insecurities and contributes his own fair share to the difficulties in his relationship with Paige.

The friend group is as awesome as ever. Tessa and Morgan have their own share of issues that they are dealing with in the story. Malcolm joins the friend group as well, along with his boyfriend, rounding the group out.

New friends are also made outside the friend group, for both Paige and Max. While I think Hunter is amazing {and wouldn't mind seeing a companion book that follows Hunter}, his presence does cause some issues. But I am so happy that he came into Paige's life.

Paige's family continues to play a huge role and that relationship between her parents continues to progress. Paige and Cameron experience growth in their relationship as well.

As I said, I absolutely loved this story... and I would love to follow the characters as they navigate through the next phases of their lives... but I may just have to do that in my imagination, and that's ok.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book through Net Galley and the publisher {Bloomsbury} in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Did not know this was book 2.. will not being doing feedback because I dont know when I will get to book 1.

THE MAP FROM HERE TO THERE by Emery Lord is a young adult, coming of age novel. Although this new title could function as a stand-alone read, it is actually a sequel to The Start of Me and You. Here, Paige Hancock is entering her senior year in high school and is struggling with college choices and her growing relationship with fellow senior, Max Watson. Lord does an excellent job of describing Paige’s vulnerability and of building empathy for her:

"But saying yes meant saying no to other things, didn't it? A yes to Mythos [local theater internship] had meant a no to QuizBowl. A yes to one college would mean a no to all the others. A yes to film school felt like a no to Max, my family, my friends nearby."

This is a sweet, gentle read which is likely to appeal to fans of Sarah Dessen and Morgan Matson; School Library Journal recommends THE MAP FROM HERE TO THERE for grades 7 and up. Lord has written several other young adult novels and is a contributor to Don't Call me Crazy, a collection of essays on mental health.

Thank you so much Bloomsberry YA for providing me with an eARC of this via Netgalley.
*I did decide to not finish this after reading around 55 percent of the book and skimming other parts near the end.

1.25 / 5 stars

This novel continues the life of Paige as she enters senior year with her friends. Paige has grown so much from the previous year and she is determined to make the most of this final year of high school as she prepares to take the next step forward in her life.

Overall, this continuation was so disappointing compared to the first book. I found that almost all of the character growth that Paige went through, reverses itself. I found all the characters to be quite different from the first book. I read these back-to-back and they did not seem similar at all. I thought that all the characters felt off throughout my reading experience. I did decide to not finish this book halfway through because of this and all the unnecessary drama and lack of communication. I just cannot be bothered to finish this and ultimately ruin everything I enjoyed from the first book.

I felt like everything was a giant step back from the ending of The Start of Me and You. This book was ultimately disappointing, slow, awkward, and uneventful. I did not like it. Unfortunately, my recommendation would be to read the first book as a standalone. I will include my review for it down below.

3.5 / 5 stars

I appreciate how this was a novel that discusses grief and anxiety. I feel like Emery Lord did a great job fleshing-out these characters. I loved how Paige's friend group grew. I feel like all of the characters were great at supporting and be there for each other. I liked the love interested in this novel as well. I like how both he and Paige were good friends first. I appreciated being able to experience so much growth between main and side characters. This was a good read.

I would like to mention that I thought the ending was kind of rushed. Things did feel a little messy towards the end. I think the bonus content helped take my mind off this a little bit though.

My copy of this book had some bonus content that I definitely recommend! I loved being able to see all the cute emails that were included.

Such a good follow up to “The Start of Me and You”. So many romance novels depict the easy part of a relationship with the kiss at the end. I really appreciated this view of how difficult relationships and life in general can be and the discussions and patience involved in making things change. These lessons are particularly important for young adults and this book was like a spoon full of sugar...fun to read with a good message.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA Children's Books for this digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Description
"Gut-bustingly funny and exquisitely tender." - Katie Cotugno, New York Times bestselling author of 99 Days

Acclaimed author Emery Lord crafts a gorgeous story of friendship and identity, daring to ask: What happens after happily ever after?

It's senior year, and Paige Hancock is finally living her best life. She has a fun summer job, great friends, and a super charming boyfriend who totally gets her. But senior year also means big decisions. Weighing "the rest of her life," Paige feels her anxiety begin to pervade every decision she makes. Everything is exactly how she always wanted it to be--how can she leave it all behind next year? In her head, she knows there is so much more to experience after high school. But in her heart, is it so terrible to want everything to stay the same forever?

Emery Lord's award-winning storytelling shines with lovable characters and heartfelt exploration of life's most important questions.

A little rocky here and there, but in the end, it all works out!!

I'll admit, I wasn't the biggest fan of The Start of Me and You. It was OK, but I felt like there was something I wasn't getting from the story that everyone else was. However, the hype around The Map From Here to There was so tangible that I felt like I had to give it a shot, especially since contemporary YA stories that wrap up so neatly usually aren't revisited by the author. I was pleasantly surprised to find that The Map From Here to There not only surpassed my expectations but provided one of the most sincere and earnest depictions of anxiety rep in any YA book that I've come across.

The Map From Here to There picks up pretty quickly after the end of The Start of Me and You, following Paige the summer after her and Max get together and throughout her senior year. Though things ended on a positive note at the end of the previous novel, the story shows how though things might seem OK on the surface doesn't mean that anxiety, worries, and stress can't and won't creep into one's perfectly pieced together life. Paige struggles with typical senior year worries- college applications, anticipation of moving away from her friends, the status of her relationship with Max, etc. However, her anxiety slowly and insidiously creeps in throughout the year due to various factors (which I won't specify as to avoid spoilers). I haven't pulled quotes for this review since I read and ARC, however the honesty and rawness with which Lord writes regarding Paige's anxiety took my breath away. Though anxiety and stress manifests differently for everyone, I had never seen an author delve so deeply into the daily, constant struggles of overwhelming worry that can manifest even while doing the most mundane of tasks. I felt for Paige and her relatively normal life more than I've felt for most characters in other books who have gone through much harder situations because I truly felt as though I was experiencing her panic and worry with her. Yet Lord doesn't shame or stigmatize her character from suffering in this way- Paige's mental health is treated as a priority by both her friends and family and her journey to managing her responses is also explored in a gradual and healthy manner which is so important- her struggles aren't sensationalized for plot convenience or drama yet there's also not a miraculous cure or recovery narrative either. Lord's tackling of the topic is incredibly well balanced and nuanced.

I also really liked all of the characters in this story, which I feel like is rare for any book. Yet each felt like they each had their own motivations, quirks, things that made them bad and good friends and people from time to time, even if their page time was minimal. Lord's writing took me right back to what it was to be on the cusp of adulthood, with "freedom" visible in the distance yet the comfort of your teenage friend group an insular, nostalgic world that you can't fathom leaving. Though everyone's high school story is different, I think many will see kernels of their experience in the story of Paige and her friends, from quiet moments on rooftops to your first real road trip sans chaperones.

One element of The Start of Me and You that I had forgotten about but that I appreciated in this sequel was the exploration of Paige's family, especially the relationship between her parents. Paige's parents didn't receive too much page time but their relationship, hopes, fears and dreams clearly colored who she was as a person, and you could see how her family molded her into the person she became (for better and for worse). I do love novels that factor in environmental elements when shaping a protagonist's personality and characters growth.

Other Thoughts on The Map From Here to There:

-There isn't necessarily the clearest resolution at the ending, but it felt right for the tone of the story and for Paige's situation.

-Hunter Chen, Paige's coworker at the movie theater, was a real treat. I'd love to read more about him!

-Paige's interest in screenwriting felt like a unique touch but didn't overwhelm the plot.

-I particularly enjoyed Morgan's arc.

Overall: The Map From Here to There in many ways is a quiet novel, a slice of life story focusing on Paige's senior year in high school. In other ways it's louder than anything I've ever read in its portrayal and awareness of anxiety. I think this story is an important look at what comes after the HEA and that life can be "good" but not necessarily without its struggles. While the book didn't have a "wow" moment for me that made it an all-time favorite (such as The Names They Gave Us by Lord is) it's a book that made me pause and reflect several times, and one that I know I'll appreciate forever.

A great sequel to Lord’s first book about Paige, this time taking place in that crucial senior year time where Paige is battling anxiety, college choices, a serious relationship, and changing friendships. The characters are realistically written, the story changes from fun to serious, and my only issue was that the book ends abruptly with not a lot of closure. Hopefully this means Lord is thinking of a third book to finish the series. If not, can we at least find out where Paige ends up?

An emotionally rich story that digs into the pressures of senior year. Sequel to The Start of Me and You. From the author of the AMAZING The Names They Gave Us. The author is great at making readers feel seen and understood. This book does a great job of showing characters responding to the pressures of making decisions about college and about high school relationships. This also digs into mental health and anxiety which I thought was great. (Language, drinking)

After a junior year of change and finding her place after a tragedy, Paige Hancock is now starting senior year. Her summer was happy and satisfying; she had the opportunity to attend a screenwriting program she had dreamed of and she got to talk and message long distance with the guy who became her boyfriend right at the end of junior year.

Now she is getting used to Max being her boyfriend rather than just a friend, and she’s trying to figure out where she wants to attend college. She’d love to go to NYU or USC or UCLA for film school, but those are far away and dream schools, and expensive to boot. Could she even get in? How will she afford them? How would she actually feel being so far from her family, her best friends … and Max? There’s a lot of BIG, important stuff on her plate, and she’s not sure if she can make the right decisions. As time goes on, Paige starts feeling her anxiety creep in, starting to cripple her, and that and her concerns about making “the right” decisions for her future start hurting her relationships with Max and even her best friends.

The Map from Here to There is a bit heavier than The Start of Me and You, which in itself had more heft than just a fun teen romance. Paige is facing anxiety and trying to figure out her future and is making more than one bad decision, and those are compounding her other difficulties, so readers get more angst and unhappiness than the first book and less of the fun and cute interactions between Paige and Max, Paige and her best friends, and the group that has evolved as a whole. It’s painful to watch her spiral but it’s real. She is lucky, though, to have support and is able to find her way through.

Not every teen has anxiety, but all teens at this age are facing many of the same issues, with senior year full of reminders that adulthood and all the big stuff are right around the corner. I enjoyed this book and being with the characters again and seeing them figure out a bit at a time what they wanted as the next steps toward their futures.

I loved every second of this beautiful book, and I have never read something so perfectly truthful about senior year. I will be purchasing multiple copies of this, as my students are guaranteed to fight over who gets to read it first.

I admit I was nervous when I learned there was going to be a sequel to The Start of Me and You. I was so happy with how things ended with Paige and Max I was terrified where it would go. But I am also an Emery Lord fangirl so there was no way I wouldn’t read it. That being said it is safe to say that The Map from Here to There demolished my feelings and added a whole new level to Paige and Max’s relationship that just deepened my love for them.

The Map from Here to There was a tough read for me. Paige was driving me a crazy for a lot of the book because she refused to talk to people. But the more I read the more I understood where she was coming from and what she was feeling. Being 17/18 is hard. Things are going to change no matter what and you have to come to terms with that. You have to make a decision that could effect the rest of your life and that is no easy task. So as much as she was bugging me, I also related to her. And then there was Max. The poor boy didn’t know which end was up. He was confused by everything going on with him and Paige, about picking a college, of building a relationship he thought he had let go of.

Everything about these two was emotional and messy and honestly I think the beauty of Paige and Max was how messy things got and how wonderful they both were. I basically cried the last 25% of the book because of how messy and wonderful Emery Lord made these two characters. What started out as a tough read (admittedly out of my own fear) because this gorgeous story of two young people just trying to find their way under all kinds of pressure from everything around them.

If you haven’t picked up an Emery Lord book yet you are missing out on her masterful story telling. Will you need tissues reading this one? Absolutely. Is it worth the ugly crying? 1000% yes. Just do yourself a favor and read The Start of Me and You and The Map from Here to There. You won’t be disappointed.

The Map From Here to There is the follow up to Emery Lord’s wildly popular The Start of Me and You. Fans were clamoring when they found out they were going to get more of Paige and Max, and with good reason. It was a long road of self discovery and learning to be vulnerable to find their way together. This, in all likelihood, should be a shoo-in of a good read for me. Yeah...not so much. Fair warning - there was little I found to like about this book, so this will be a rant review. There will be people, I’m sure, who will say that I’m not the ‘target’ audience for this book. I would argue that as a huge fan of the first story, I’m an excellent candidate to read this book. Whether I had a positive experience reading it or not.

So you know that nice relationship glow that lasts for a little while right after you get together? Yeah. There was none of that here. And quite frankly, this book almost felt insulting. It was like the author was afraid I’d think Paige and Max were going to live happily ever after, so there was a desperate need to show me otherwise. Even if she had to pull Paige and Max out of character to take me there. Not at all reminiscent of the heroine I came to know and love in the first book, Paige just came of as judgey and jealous. All of the growth in first book was killed in this one; I read another review that said all of the progress made in the first book was undone, and I couldn’t agree more.

So I’m not going to go over every aspect of this book, but I will touch on the reasons it was such a miss for me. For one, there was the appearance of a character named Hunter that felt like a half-assed attempt at a love triangle, and it felt so contrived. Max spent most of this book confused, and who could blame him? It was so weird and all on Paige, until the end where something had to be pinned on him, so another contrived situation rears its ugly head.

Though it covered some serious topics, the first book had a hopefulness and lightness to it that I thoroughly enjoyed, and I expected that here. If you’re also looking for that in this installment, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. It was just misery, not very good angst, and you guessed it - all things contrived. This book basically felt like a young woman who didn’t have enough drama in her life and felt the need to create some. EVERYTHING was blown out of proportion, and while I can give a teenager a break and say that can be indicative of their age or inexperience, it didn’t feel inline with Paige’s character from The Start of Me and You.

I will say that at around 75% of this book, things did start happening that felt monumental and authentic, but was so over Paige that I couldn’t even give the plot line the benefit of the doubt.

In the end, The Map From Here to There felt disjointed and unplanned, and aside from Max, there was nothing to enjoy. I’m sure you’ll see this book crop up again - in my most disappointing reads of 2020.