Cover Image: Four Days of You and Me

Four Days of You and Me

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Cute story but definitely not for me. In my opinion this one is more aimed to the younglings.,..Special thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the free arc in exchange of my honest review!!

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Even though this book isn’t entirely about a sport, like every other story by the author it has his magic. To be honest, I had to force myself through the first couple of chapters to get into the book, but once it got me, there wasn’t any way I couldn’t put it down until I finish it.
‘Four Days of You and Me’ has all the whole package of an excellent Y/A story, friendship, romance, growing up and learnings, with a particular concept, that I think is the key for this story’s success, It’s told through entire high school experience. No one year, no one season, with this book, we have the opportunity of living the life of the characters and their adventures for four years.
I love the writing, it’s so powerful, I feel everything, anger, depression, sadness, euphoric and happiness. Lulu and her gang are fantastic, I laugh and cry with them. Alex, on the other hand, gets on my nerve more than once, but with every page, I start to understand him and kind of like him. Still, the author has created better male characters in the past.
Another thing it doesn’t convince me well, it’s the idea of the antagonist comforting the protagonist. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good example and great learning, but for a reader like me, that it needs to feel everything like it is real, this situation doesn’t work, maybe with some more explanation. And what about children deciding on their healthcare over teachers, the only thing I could think at the moment was liability. However, those are small details that anyone can overlook and just appreciate a well-done plot.
I really enjoyed the reading, especially when it helped me to bring those memories of my high school years, the feeling of having the best time of my life, the longing at the end and those friends that I might or might no seeing again, but that always were going to be important in my heart.
100% Recommended

Best phrases:
“When I was younger. I wondered if happily-ever-afters were realistic. Were they a myth? I still don’t know the truth. A friend could choose a different path. A lover could leave. Family can change their minds, there’s only one thing I know for sure. … No matter what we’ll find our way back.”
I received an ARC from Sourcebooks through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. And I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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I have been a huge fan of Miranda Kenneally’s writing since I picked up my first Hundred Oaks novel many years ago. I was beyond excited to be able to read this book as a standalone novel, eager to see what else Kenneally could create. I was not disappointed.
Four Days of You and Me follow the tumultuous love story of Lulu and Alex. The two characters meet their freshman year of high school and immediately have tension and a passion for each other. A majority of the story takes place on the same day throughout four different years: May 7th. This is the day each year that the different classes at Coffee County High School take a field trip. I don’t want to mention where they went throughout the years since that was part of the fun of reading this book, finding out where they were going each year. Lulu and Alex goes through many up’s and down’s throughout the 4 years they’re in high school but the field trips always lead them back to each other. Told in the present and the past, the reader is able to see the the breakups and makeups that happen as Lulu and Alex navigate their relationship. There is a great spark and tension between these two characters that is clear from the very beginning of the book which makes it an interesting and addicting read. All I wanted to do was keep reading to find out if Lulu and Alex get their happy ending.
As a whole, I really enjoyed the way Lulu and Alex were written. Alex is dedicated to his family and baseball while trying to figure out how to balance those things with his relationship with Lulu. LuLu is passionate and driven to become to a novelist as she works on a graphic novel throughout the story. Beyond these characters are the secondary characters that I adored, Ryan, Grace, and Max were stand outs for me. These 3 characters all had their own stories in this book as well since they were well fleshed out. This book was incredibly detailed which allowed me to give faces to characters and imagine all the different places these characters had visited on their field trips.
In this book, there were pranks, breakup’s, makeup’s, kisses and lots of drama and love. I would highly recommend this book to other readers and lovers of Miranda Kenneally’s other works.

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Miranda Kenneally has always been on of my favorite authors. When I started out as a book blogger so long ago, Miranda was one the authors that really caught my attention. I followed her writing through each and every Hundred Oaks book as they were released. Needless to say, I absolutely loved them all. With that being said, the bar was set really high for Four Days to You and Me, but let me just say, this exceed every expectation I had by far!



First off let’s talk about the writing style. The writing style for this one was really different than any of her previous novels. In this particular novel Miranda alternates between past and future in just about every chapter, but it really flows well and does not affect the overall plot of the story. Personally, I've never read a book that, for lack of better words, jumped around so much,but I think it was a really fresh and exciting approach. I actually really liked it because it kept me on the edge of seat and just flying through this book to get to see what happened. I will say I wish I got to see a little more of the non-essential moments in between all the big things that were going on, but four years is a lot to cram into just one novel, so it's not a huge disappointment.



Moving onto the characters! I'm going to throw everything out on the table when it comes to the characters. I read a comment about this book that said it was unrelatable, unrealistic and that Lulu's and Alex's relationship was toxic. Let me just say that I 100% disagree!Alex and Lulu could not be more different from each other and that's why things are difficult for them. Does That make them unrelatable/unrealistic? No, far from it, I think that's what makes this book REAL! I believe that this story shows true character development and takes you on a the journey from start to finish. Lulu really develops her own self worth throughout this book and Alex essentially grows up. I think both have very relatable character development. We are talking about two high schoolers finding their way over the course of 4 years, it's not an instant love story! You as a reader have to remember that in this story they are not only finding themselves, but trying to figure out what they want in life and that's not easy to do! I think that this novel captures the heat and accurate emotions of what love is and I absolutely love it!



The supporting characters in this novel play such an important role and it makes me truly grateful that I still have a group of friends just like them. Max is,Lulu's, best friend who honestly reminds me a lot of my guy best friend. Max is straight up truthful and while sometimes it can be painfully honest truth, sometimes it's just him picking on her.Their relationship really made me laugh so hard throughout this novel. Grace is a huge supporting character, but I didn't feel as strong of a connection between her as I did with Max. I feel like that was a little bit of a missed opportunity, but I do love what we see on surface level between her and Ryan. This novel did not lack swoon worthy love let me tell you!



Overall I think the plot of this story was great! I do think there was a moment towards the very end that was kind of thrown in there and didn't really flow with the story as a whole. It almost gave me a heart attack to say the least, but It was definitely out of place for me! I put this book down with a smile on my face and I really debated whether or not it was a 4 or 5 star read, but I decided it was a 4 in the end due to the simple fact that I did wish that there was a little more build up of the regular everyday relationship between Alex and Lulu. The readers really only got to see the big events. Also, that one incident towards the ending, really just threw me off.



In the end, I could probably go one all day about how much this novel made me laugh and cry. It's a painstakingly beautiful, and real portrayal of the ups and downs of falling in love. Miranda Kenneally has always left me wanting more with her Hundred Oaks Series and it’s safe to say this one is no different friends.




I highly recommend this book if you like:

💗Diverse characters

💗 A Cute and upbeat read

💗Contemporary YA

💗Swoony Worthy Romances

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This was a case where the plot and cover held a lot of promise, but the overall story and execution did not deliver. I was really excited for this story because I love a cute YA romance, but for me this was anything but that.

I had a lot of trouble with Lulu as the lead and hearing this story from her side. She was portrayed in such a poor light and had very little redeeming qualities that would classify her as a desirable lead. She comes off as selfish and demands a lot without compromising. Alex follows suit and acts the exact same way as Lulu. At times he is really selfish and at times he has no backbone and does whatever benefits Lulu. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that for a relationship to flourish, there has to be compromise, but this relationship seemed very one sided. Another problem I had was the communication. Maybe I expected better, but it seemed like they thrived on the drama. I was also disappointed about the lack of substance in their relationship. It seemed to focus more on the physical connection and not dive into anything past the surface. You know in high school those dysfunctional couples that loved the unnecessary drama and broke up and got back together every day. This was Lulu and Alex.

The writing wasn’t as great as I was hoping. I understand that the audience this was intended for was YA, but the sentences seemed to be formatted for someone in middle school . The writing was a lot of times dry, flat, and very monotoned. I had a hard time getting excited or captivated while reading this. I was hoping as the story progressed and the characters aged that the characters’ language or the writing of the story would progress with it, but as Lulu and Alex advanced, the writing continued to fall short.

This book had so much potential to be a wonderful book, but the characters were underdeveloped and the story was so poorly executed. There were a lot of problems I had with this story and I wished it was done in a different way. It started off with great chemistry and my initial excitement was high, but after the first chapter I could tell this book was not made for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebook Fire for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Miranda Kenneally is always an author I will respect and love, just because of who she is as a person. But something that will make her one of my favorite authors is her ability to take the cheesiest, most wholesome, sweetest, steamiest book and turn it into a classic YA romance that will be loved by teens all over the world. I wish I could have read this book in high school. It's the kind of romance you dream about in high school, that is easily attainable (sort of), but this would have made me smile and giddy if I read it as a lovesick teenager. It still did as a cynical adult.

I loved that Kenneally did something different in this book. I love the one POV. To me, it really put into perspective that you're not always the right one. Lulu and Alex had quite a bit of fights, but to me, the intriguing thing about it was Lulu's perspective that she was the right one. Of course, when you are hurt, you want to be the right one. You forget your partner's perspective to favor your own. It was really powerful, and I think a really great lesson.

I think that the reason this was a 4 star instead of a 5 star was that this was a book I could read from a lot of YA romance writers. Not to say that's a bad thing, but it's not a 5 star unique and life-changing book. I absolutely loved this book though. I can't wait to get it in the hands of teens and hopefully have Miranda at my book festival again!

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks for this ARC!

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3.5*

“Did Alex really touch my hand? What does it mean? I need to check my horoscope ASAP.”

Four Days of You and Me was an enjoyable read. If you’re looking for a transformative YA novel where the characters are already established and have nothing to learn or grow from, (which sort of defeats the purpose of transformative, but whatever) then this one probably isn’t for you. Four Days of You and Me is a light-hearted YA romance read. The characters are flawed, they make mistakes, they make more mistakes, and when they learn from those mistakes, they still make a few more. Personally when I pick up a YA romance, I’m not looking for a personality guidebook. So Alex and Lulu’s on and off again dynamic works for me. Lulu is the schools “garden girl” aka hippie, and Alex is the popular baseball player who also works at his family’s restaurant all of the time. Lulu has dreams of writing/illustrating graphic novels, and Alex just wants more than the family business. They have cute tension from the start, and their story is told in LuLu’s POV over the course of their high school years. The story does time jump a bit, and it takes awhile for it to not feel so disjointed. But once I caught on to the yearly field trip, vs the months prior, it wasn’t so bad.

I loved Lulu and Alex’s sweet back and forth. I loved all of their friends. I loved that even though they had drama with other boyfriends/girlfriends along the way that they ended up eventually working those things out. I realize that many people don’t want to read the main characters with other people, but that aspect of this book made it feel relatable. The natural ebb and flow of love. Especially young love when you’re still figuring out you and not just you with someone else.

All in all this was a good read. It’s entertaining. It’s two young people growing into themselves and figuring it out how they can fit together better. If you’re looking for that, combined with a super cute rollercoaster of emotional teenage angst, then Four Days of You and Me is a winner.

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I've been a fan of Miranda Kenneally for years so I was thrilled to get an arc of this new story. Overall, I found this to be a super cute read and a really neat concept. The flashbacks were a great way to get to know the characters and thought this was a cute, romantic read with some heart. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion and I look forward to more from Kenneally!

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Four Days of You and Me was a fun book that was able to pull me in and keep my attention where other books couldn't in these crazy times. It had an upbeat feel and didn't go so deep in emotions that I wanted to shy away from it. (Sad, I know, but these times make me crave light and easy.)

What I liked about Four Days of You and Me:

*Like I said, it was pretty much upbeat the most of the time. Even when the characters had struggles, it had that sweet contemporary feel.
*Lulu was a great character. She was a bit of an outcast, but I liked that about her. I guess that part was a little cliche, but I didn't mind.
*While I wasn't 100% happy with the way Alex treated Lulu all the time, I did think he really liked her. I loved when he showed his kindness and love. He frustrated me a lot in his boyish ways, but he was a boy in high school so it was exactly how it should have been.
*It took me a while to get used to the format of a day of school field trips each year and then flashbacks in between. I liked the way it was set up for the most part.

What wasn't my favorite:

*The flashbacks were cool because I felt like that's when I got to see snippets of their day to day relationship, but it also made me crave more of those times. I wanted to see their relationship actually unfold, and I was robbed of that.
*I needed an epilogue that took place one year after.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Four Days of You and Me. It was a light YA romance that was almost everything I needed in these dark times.

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Interesting story, characters were your typical adolescents, and plot was based around field trips over the course of four years. I would have liked to read more about the time in between field trips; however, I think it was a unique idea to tell the story in that manner. Overall, a good read!

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This one was disappointing. The concept was interesting but barely pulled off here. The quality of the writing was the bigger problem though with clumsy descriptions and weak characterization.

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A great book for high school students--moves fast, a really neat idea to frame the story around four field trips and the ups and downs of one romance. A great blend of realism and the romance we all want.

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I really liked the sound of this book and was really looking forward to reading it as this was my first Miranda Kenneally. Whilst it was a light-hearted, quick read it unfortunately didn’t live up to my expectations. I found myself struggling to connect with Lulu and Alex and finding myself emotionally invested in this story.

I also did not like how the story ended. Throughout the last section I found myself skim reading and then it felt like the book ended so abruptly that some of the main questions and plot points were left unanswered. I feel like we could have had an epilogue at least to tie up loose ends.

Sadly, this book just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

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Four days of you and me is actually a book that is outside of the Hundred Oakes series. I actually really liked this book and I hope that we will possibly get more books about the characters like we did with the Hundred Oakes series.

The plotline was really unique. I liked how the plot took place during each major field trip each year. Alex and Lulu hated each other but they somehow always wound up causing trouble and being late for curfew during each trip no matter if they were together or not. The bantering was fun and I just liked the pacing.

I wish we had gotten Alex’s point of view, but this was still a good book. I’d definitely recommend this book to anybody who is a fan of young adult contemporary books.

This book was provided to me from Netgalley. It has no impact on my thoughts, my thoughts and opinions are my own. This was a four star rating. Thank you Netgalley and publisher for allowing me the chance to read this.

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This was my first ever Miranada Kenneally book and it was not just a great read but it was an experience for me. Reading a good book is always a pleasure. Once you start reading , you can't stop and time flies by. That's exactly what happened to me while I reading this one. I started it at midnight and finished it in one go. My only thought after was that I am sleep deprived but at the same time I was so happy that it was totally worth it. I never read Miranda Kenneally's books before so it was a new experience for me and was totally worth my time. ⠀

So a huge thank you to Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS fire for a chance to read and review this book early.⠀

This story is centered around two school kids - Alex and Lulu and ofcourse their group of friends. This book is divided into four stages of their adolescence life - Freshman , Sophomore, Junior and Senior year of high school. They met when both of them were competing for the post of president of their class. They shared a moment backstage but unfortunately nothing came out of that until their trip. Their relationship follows through their four years at school and in each year we get to see Alex and Lulu (and their friends) at different stages of their life and relationship. Break ups, love triangles, coming out of the closet moments, friendships - you name it, this book has it all. The best thing is that Kenneally's characters and their narrations changed as time passed. It was beautiful to see them mature and getting a better understanding of themselves. It was amazing. It was a clever portray of teenage years and first love told in Lulu's point of view. Though it had it's fair share of dramatic moments but it was written with great love and care.This book made me nostalgic for my teen years. This one is totally for the fans of Jenny Han and Sarah Dessen. This book was on my mind long after I finished it and I highly recommend it. I am definitely need to check out her other books. It comes out on May 5 and hope you like it as much as I did.⠀

Happy reading!

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This was the first book of Miranda Kenneally I have ever read, and unfortunately it did not work for me. I was initially excited about the concept of a certain day (that happens to be my birthday) playing out across all four years of high school, but unfortunately found the plot to be pretty childish. However, it wasn't "bad" -- just not a book for me.

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I've been a big fan of Miranda Kenneally's for some time now, so I might have squeed a little when NetGalley approved me for this ARC. Kenneally writes great girl characters who take charge of their own lives and destinies, even when they are doing something unexpected or unusual.

Or at least, that's what I expect from a Kenneally novel.

This one is different.

Set over four years and four class trips, the book follows Lulu and Alex as their relationship changes through the years. Initially enemies thanks to something that happened back in grade school, Lulu and Alex find themselves drawn to one another after getting locked into an escape room together while on a field trip to a museum.

Lulu is a good girl, shy and bookish. She spends a lot of time in her room working on a graphic novel she's been writing for years. Alex is a baseball player and spends most of his spare time working at his family's pizza restaurant. He runs with the popular crowd at school and has the sense of entitlement to match.

Yet somehow, Lulu and Alex work. Until they don't. But even then, they can't stop looking at one another. Even when each of them is dating someone else.

This is a fairly straightforward romance novel with all the usual falling in and out of love, yearning and angst. Because we only saw the characters for brief moments in each of the four years, we only saw the key moments in their relationship rather than the fullness of it.

I think I would have liked this more if the characters had felt more authentic. Alex was both a douche and too good to be true at the same time, while Lulu was more insipid than I would have expected from a Miranda Keneally girl. Quirks the characters were given felt like identifying markers rather than organic parts of real people. A boy with a troubled home. A vegan. A gay athlete unwilling to come out.

But despite these things, I did enjoy reading the book. The jumping around in time was a fun way to see how the relationship grew and changed over time. And the different places they went on their school trips was interesting too. I was almost embarrassed for them in London when they acted so much like typical American tourists...

So while this is not my favorite book by this author, I don't regret reading it.

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Another great book and loved the enemies to lover's book. I liked seeing the growth of both of them over the past 4 years. I liked that this took place on different field trip from a science museum to amusement park and NYC and even Paris. I loved her friends.

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This didn't leave much of an impression on me. Maybe it's just bit my style, but I felt the characters were a little generic.

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Four Days of You and Me is a young adult novel about falling in love, friendships and following your dreams. The story is set over three years and jumps between three school trips. I did enjoy this book, it was a nice simple read. I loved the travel element to the book and found it fun visiting amazing places! However, I didn’t love the characters and found the book a bit too sexual. Some of the characters reactions to situations were very unrealistic and I couldn’t connect with them. The storyline unfortunately didn’t grab me. Saying this, I did overall enjoy the book. I would have liked a bit more focus on the friendships rather than the romantic relationships. This book was what I needed! I had had an extremely busy week so it was nice to read something simple and easy.

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