I received an ARC through NetGalley from Random House Children’s. Sometimes a YA contemporary romance is exactly what I need when the world is in a whirlwind of turmoil. This light beachy, summery post high school romp is cute and delivers exactly what I expected. The characters were all like-able, especially Rachel’s adorable Nonna. It was an easy and breezy read.

The book follows graduating senior and valedictorian, Rachel as she opens herself up to a summer of saying “Yes” instead of focusing on school, work and achievements. Rachel works for her parents pizzeria in a sunny Michigan beach town with a cool boardwalk and skeeball. Suddenly by saying yes, Rachel has opened herself up to parties, friendships, and budding relationships. As a girl who is always used to working hard and succeeding at whatever she does, what kind of new challenges will she open herself up to by putting herself out there? If you like John Hughes movies, you will like this.

This is a cute little YA romance that made me smile. It wasn't super complicated but it was a fun read and a perfect distraction for a bit of time. Rachel chooses to say YES the summer after her senior year. Saying YES is both good and bad for her as she navigates new and old relationships. A lovely little YA story that middle grade/early HS would enjoy! Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Hello adorable! This YA contemporary romance was just what I needed and I read it in one sitting. Not gonna lie—I have Felicity vibes throughout the whole book! (90’s girl reference sorry!) But it reminded me so much of that TV show with Rachel’s epic crush on the popular boy and all the cringey, embarrassing moments! I loved the entire book from start to finish!

Quirky, funny, delightful romantic comedy. I truly enjoyed meeting Rachel (& her family), Miles, Clayton, and Carrie. This novel is well- written and hard to put down.

Cute quick summer read! I really enjoyed this cute and light hearted coming of age story and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a fun read. Other than the few times I wanted to shake Rachel, the book was really well written. Rachel and Miles had great banter and Clayton was exceedingly charming and had more layers than the traditional jock in many teen stories. I really enjoyed it, but it’s probably not going to be a reread.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed how quick and light this book was. With that being said, I felt like the main character’s family extremely overreacted when they told her she hadn’t been herself. To me, Rachel’s decision to say yes was admirable. She didn’t say yes to absolutely everything that came her way and (at least I felt like) she had stayed true to who she was...she was just branching out more. She never did anything dangerous or awful. She just stepped a little out of her comfort zone which is extremely brave and admirable. With that being said, essentially dating two guys at once is a huge no but she never did anything outrageous and I felt like her family made it seem like she basically began to act completely differently and like....I don’t know....turned to drug dealing or something. Her actions didn’t seem to warrant the reactions she received from her parents.

Also, this might just be me because I have read way too many romance novels (YA or not) but I am just so sick of love triangles and the one in this book didn’t seem to make any kind of sense. The entire thing with Miles felt disingenuous and out of left field.

Otherwise, a solid 3.5/5 for a quick escape from reality and I definitely see myself recommending this cute story about trying to break out of your comfort zone and realizing that fear hinders your growth to customers at work.

So, yeah. It’s fluff. But it was goooooood fluff. Like, more substantial fluff than I was anticipating. I think that might be partly due to the cover, actually, which makes it appear dorky and silly. But I found it to be refreshingly real. I mean, there were elements of a John Hughes movie, but mostly so that Rachel could be surprised by them or something within them. And, better still, she’s kind of a screw up and has to deal with that.

I dug it. It was an especially nice escape from the current funk in which our country finds itself. 🤓💜📚