I actually picked this one up because of how much I loved Emma Lord's debut, Tweet Cute, and I'm glad I did!

I think that Emma Lord does a really great job at incorporating more meaningful familial relationships into this book. The new, developing sisterly relationship between Abby and Savvy along with the history-filled, healing relationship between their families all help contribute to a "realer" story. I actually thought that this was going to be a more romance-focused book going into it, but it definitely took a back-seat to the rest of the story.

I do wish we got more of the side characters though. They don't have too much of an importance in the story, and I really wish we got to see more of Finn, especially. I thought that there was so much potential in his character, and it never got explored to the extent that I would have hoped. In fact, I felt like his character arc ended too abruptly for my tastes, and I didn't get enough closure with him.

Overall, I think that it is a cute, meaningful read. It's not perfect, but I do think that it is a very worthwhile book.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed You Have a Match!! This young adult romance was filled with so many things I love about reading, especially the friends to more than friends trope. Emma Lord knows her audience well, and that shows in the twisty plot, the great dialogue, and the teen situations. I loved the characters and the fierce dedication they have to their causes and each other. This book will be hard to keep on the shelf in my media center!

"If you learn to capture a feeling' it'll always be ,louder than words."

'You Have a Match' by Emma Lord falls under the genre of YA contemporary. It is by all means quite a wholesome book. The concepts of love,loss,grief and conflict are at the core of this book. The book revolves around a girl coping with the loss of her grandfather,her changing dynamics with her friends and her trying to set future goals. She eventually falls in a whirlwind of events when she finds out about her sister after a DNA test match.
The book is heartfelt and is packed with funny and relatable anecdotes. The relationships are potrayed very realistically. I did go through a rollercoaster of emotions while reading this. The author, Emma Lord has a very descriptive style of writing which really worked for me and the setting was beautiful too. Also the characters were written so well, I wanted them to be my friends ,the author has done a commendable job in fleshing out each character.
P.S.: Emma Lord needs to release a cook book with all the delicious dishes metioned in this book and 'Tweet Cute'

Overall I loved this book. The only con is that I would have liked the writing to be little more flowy but otherwise all good. It's safe to say I am definitely a huge fan of Emma Lord.

Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday books for this ARC .

You Have a Match by Emma Lord is so much more than a Parent Trap retelling. This book explores first love, found family, family secrets, self discovery, and forgiveness all in the setting of summer camp.

When I started You Have a Match, I had no idea what I was getting into. I expected a typical cute summer camp story about two sisters who have been separated for 16 years finally finding each other again. And that's what I got and so much more. After completing a DNA test, Abby is contacted by Savannah, her full-blooded sister she never knew she had. With some conspiring and sneaking around behind their parents' backs, Savanah and Abby agree to meet up at Camp Reynolds for the summer so they can get to know each other and figure out why they never knew about each other before. However, Savannah "Savvy" turns out to be completely different than Abby expects which makes her summer camp experience far different than she expected. Add on an awkward crush on her childhood friend, constantly breaking camp rules, and a parental feud, Abby's summer is so much bigger than she could have ever imagined.

I will admit, I had a hard time getting into this book, but once Abby went to summer camp, I could not put this book down. I am a sucker for any summer camp type books, and this was no exception. What I also loved was that Abby was not your typical shy, quiet, rule-following main character, but she also wasn't the typical badass, no feelings, no vulnerabilities, tough chick either. I love those character tropes, but it was so refreshing to have a middle ground. Abby was bold and unfearing about many things, but she also held back to avoid any kind of confrontation. So being able to see her character growth from this to being able to handle herself in any situation, bring up issues that bothered her, and confront her demons was so incredible to watch. The transition was natural and challenging just like it would have been in real life.

The other characters in the book were also standout. Each person from Savvy to Leo to Mickey and even the other girls in Abby's cabin were distinct. I could tell each person was their own person and knew who was speaking even with out the dialogue tags. I also really enjoyed the female/female romances with some of the side characters, and that it wasn't made into a huge deal. There wasn't any hooplah about there being lesbians in the story, no grand coming out parties or announcements, just two women in a relationship together plain and simple.

This book also explores the idea of family secrets and family feuds and what can happen when left to fester for over 18 years. While I was able to predict much of what had happened, that didn't deter from my enjoyment from the book. The parental relationships played such a huge role in this story and was nice way to tie everything together.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants a summer book but one that isn't just sunshine and rainbows and fluffy romances. This book had interesting and developed characters, an fascinating storyline with complex issues, and a cute friends to lover romance.

Freaky Friday twist to this story... but instead of the parents separating and splitting the twins, it's a heartfelt story about a young couple giving up their first born to their friends due to unusual circumstances. Although the book doesn't reveal that in the beginning and does a good job keeping the real why towards the end.. this was a really cute story!

Abby and her friends opt to do a DNA test for one of their anthro classes and she finds out she has an older sister, Savvy who is her full blood biological sister. The two girls meet, end up at camp together for the summer and discover the real reason why Savvy was given up for adoption.

This book also shares side line stories of Leo, her best friend, who is also coping with his closed adoption and his interest of finding his roots. Budding relationships and romance are also embedded within the story which makes this book so cute. 4 stars!

You Have a Match is a fun read ability 16 year old Abby whose life is at the crossroads. One DNA test will show she has a sister and will unleash a family secret that has been hidden for too long. I liked Abby because I think readers can identify with her angst and struggling to make the right decisions. I thought the way the healing occurred was done very well and had a good ending. Although fiction, the story is e timely plausible with social media and ancestry searches revealing more secrets than ever before.

First, thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was very excited to read another book by Emma Lord, her last one tweet cute was very good and I was hoping this one was it too. But it did not deliver the same quality as the first one.

The book is very well written and the story is captivating in some points, but I felt that the mysteries the author try to do during the book, about Abby and Leo relationship, the restaurant, I think the bigger was why Abby's mother was mad with Saavy's mom but still then they felt very predictable.
The story also loses some power having only one POV, the savvy and Leo side would be interesting in some situations.

Overall was an enjoyable book but I think it lacks some aspects of Tweet cute which made the book for me better.

You Have a Match is Emma Lord's sophomore novel and while I didn't love it quite as much as her debut 'Tweet Cute', it was still a fantastic YA story.

Abby and her two best friends Leo and Connie all take a DNA test. Leo is adopted and wants to know more about his heritage. Abby gets quite the surprise when she finds out she has a full blooded older sister that lives near her. How is this even possible? Abby decides to keep it quiet for now and go to the summer camp her sister Savvy works at and spend more time with her. Maybe they can figure out why/how all this happened...

I felt this book was kind of like two different stories that kind of merged in a way. There is the story of Leo and Abby. Best friends. It's fairly obvious (at least to the reader) that Leo is the romantic interest early on and both have more than friendly feelings for one another.

The other part of the story is the familial aspect. Getting to know Abby's sister, Savvy, and also seeing the background story between her and her parents. I think the author did a good job balancing the two, but I also think the story maybe would have been better for me if the romance was stronger, or there was no romance at all. The relationship with Leo was like dangling a carrot in front of you... it never felt like enough. But that could just be me.

Overall, I had a lot of fun reading this book. It had humor, a lot of heart, and a great family/found family storyline. I'm looking forward to reading more of Emma Lord's books in the future. It's obvious she's a talented writer!

What I liked...
The strong friendships. I feel like reading about strong friendships are always so much fun, and they just serve as a reminder to be thankful for my own. The relationships in You Have A Match were to die for, and they just felt so authentic and genuine, something I feel isn’t present in so many YA novels!! I also loved how even though there was such an adorable romance, it didn’t take up the whole plot! It stayed at the side during the whole novel, while the sibling relationships and strong friendships mostly stayed as the main focus.

All the amazing tropes. There were SO. MANY. of my favourite tropes in this book!! There was found family (quite literally in this case) and HUGE parent trap vibes!! There were also sibling relationships, strong friendships and friends-to-lovers which I adored!! There was also SO 👏🏼 MUCH 👏🏼 BANTER 👏🏼 I know that so many other readers also love banter, and this book was full of it!! Some other things that were present in this book include pranks, as well as tons of family drama and sisterly love!!

The characters. All the characters were well developed, and all of them had distinct personalities and traits. I also felt that each of them felt authentic, and I think I mentioned this before, but all the relationships were so so genuine and didn’t make me cringe while reading through the book!! I feel like so many YA books aren’t able to portray teenagers realistically, and there’s always a lot of stereotyping, leading a ton of teen readers to cringe while reading the books. Each of the characters were extremely lovable and I found myself rooting for each and every one of them, and not just Abby, the main character.

What wasn’t my cup of tea...
The unrealistic events. I feel like a lot of events in You Have A Match were really unrealistic, and a bit too coincidental. What I mean by this is that a lot of these events would probably not have been able to happen in real life, and felt straight out of a Disney movie. Like Marie (Drizzle & Hurricane Books) also said in her review, a lot of events felt a bit over the top and exaggerated, and that was completely unnecessary!!

Overall!
I’ve given ‘You Have A Match’ a rating of 4.5 stars (as you can see above) because it’s a fun, light, fluffy, contemporary read full of diverse characters, and a super fun plot!! (we need more books like these)!! It was easy to go through, and the pacing was just right!! Honestly, I would go ahead and recommend this to anyone because I’ve seen very few negative reviews for it, and I know it was a delight to read!! However, these are just my opinions, and everyone is entitled to their own, so you may, or may not like it as much!! I do hope you get a chance to pick it up when it’s released!!

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

You Have a Match sees three best friends, Abby, Connie, and Leo decide to take a DNA test to find out more about themselves. It's mainly for Leo, who was adopted, to discover more about his Filipino heritage, but Abby is shocked when her result show she has an older, full sister, who lives only thirty minutes away. She's always thought of herself as the elder sister of three younger brothers, the eldest child of her lawyer parents, and to find out that she's been lied to for all her life is heartbreaking. Meeting up with her new sister, Savannah, or Savvy, they both realise they want to learn more about each other, and the situation they now find themselves in. So, Abby decides to ask her parents if she can attend the summer camp at Camp Reynolds that she had been against, but her parents had wanted her to go to, as Savvy is a camp counsellor, but pretty much as soon as she arrives, things start to go wrong. Savvy is a lot more strung up that Abby expected, the rules are over the top, and to make matters worse, Leo is also a counsellor, and Abby is still coping with her unrequited crush, and the aftermath of the B.E.I. (Big Embarrassing Incident) during Thanksgiving. Will Abby discover the truth about her family situation, and be able to overcome her feelings for Leo?

When I read Tweet Cute over a year and a half ago, I was just in awe at Emma's writing and how she made her book come to life, so I jumped at the chance to read an ARC of her latest book, You Have a Match. This time around, it was as good, if not better. Her characters are even more fleshed out and real, and I just adored every minute I was reading this book. Abby was such a relatable character, and I could completely understand her feelings throughout the book. In the last year she's lost her grandfather, who she was extremely close to, realised her feelings for her best friend and believes they are unrequited, is struggling with school, and then has a new, seemingly perfect sister thrown in on top. She just feels like a failure, and being told she needs to go to summer school is only exacerbating it all, so it's perfectly reasonable she has a few dips and out bursts as the story progresses. I really enjoyed her discovering Savvy, and just who she was, and how similar they both were. Savvy's parents are very well off, and she's a instagram influencer, who loves what she does and has so many followers, and is basically the antithesis of Abby. On the surface, they don't really have much in common, but it's what is beneath that's important, and it was perfect how this happened, in my opinion.

There was romance, which I loved too, for both Abby and Savvy. Abby and Leo had a moment during the thanksgiving break, and Abby thought it was unrequited, especially when other best friend, Connie, told her Leo wasn't interested in her that way. She's had months to try and get other the feelings, but it's a right struggle, and being at Camp Reynold's with Leo makes it worse. There's a little bit of a possible love triangle, with Abby growing close - but platonically - with Finn, which sort of pushes Leo forward a little, but all in all, I loved them together, and they were so right for each other. Savvy also has romance too. She's being dating a girl, long distance, for some time, but they're not right for each other, and it seems to be more hard work than it's worth. Savvy's best friend, Mickey, has a crush on her, and it's clear too that Savvy likes her back, and it's very much a will they, won't they sort of situation, but it turned out perfectly in the end. I can't wait to read what Emma writes next!

This was a very sweet YA novel. There is romance, but it takes a backseat to the other plot points for most of the story. Truthfully, I would have liked for the romance aspect to have been explored more, but I understand why it wasn’t the main focus. I was very intrigued by the premise that a DNA test could lead to unexpected places and people. In You Have a Match, these results reveal long buried secrets and upend both Abby and Savannah’s lives. I appreciated how the story showcased the importance of families (both by choice and blood) and also friendships. I liked that the sisterhood developed at its own pace and didn’t just magically come together for Abby and Savannah. There is some typical YA drama (miscommunications and assumptions galore) that made the pacing feel a little slow and repetitive, but overall this was an entertaining and heartfelt novel.

Audiobook Review
Overall 4 stars
Performance 4.5 stars
Story 3.5 stars

I enjoyed the narration by Eva Kaminsky and I thought she did a wonderful job voicing all of the characters uniquely. I didn’t have a problem differentiating between characters and her performance was fresh and also conveyed a lot of emotion.

*I voluntarily read and listened to an advance review copy of this book*

This book seems very relatable to the current times. Almost too on the nose with the trendy themes. But, as you continue to read you see the human condition. The layers of each of the characters. Emma Lord is good at bringing her characters to life. I enjoyed watching Abby and Savvy grow into themselves while learning to also grow as friends and sisters. Cute lite read but with a heavyish topic. My takeaway is: Life starts where you find yourself.

I was unable to review this book due to a downloading/ corrupted file error which is a shame because I was so looking forward to this read.

It was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021! I will be reviewing it once my physical copy arrives in the mail and have given it a read upon its publication date.

I hope to be considered for future arcs from this author, thank you for your time.

This was super sweet, and even though the storyline is completely different, it gave me Parent Trap vibes. I loved the family & friend dynamics, as well as the fact that the characters are diverse. This is my second book by EL, and I look forward to more!

This is excellent contemporary YA, a partway Parent Trap with a nice cast of characters, a very sweet romance, and writing which easily encompasses the challenges and emotions being portrayed. Abby felt particularly well-developed, including flaws and vulnerabilities and talent and wit all in balance. I also appreciated that there were multiple storylines which made the world feel more complete, and that each got appropriate time and resolution. The story stretched credulity in some places (the families live basically the next town over from each other and the girls apparently look similar - no one thought that they might run into each other? Then again, Leo has been around both for years and apparently never noticed the similarity) and the parents' side of things felt too deeply filled with hurt for things to heal as neatly as the plot portrays them doing, but overall a very nice read.

What an adorable YA story. I liked all of the characters story lines and thought it was a great read. I enjoyed the focus on family and that the main focus was two sisters rather than a love interest. Definitely recommend to any YA lovers.

Abby is a normal teen girl, secretly in love with her best friend, when she takes a DNA test and finds out she has a full sibling that her parents have told her nothing about. After getting in touch with the girl who is one year older than her, they plan to go to summer camp together to uncover their parents' secrets. This YA is a rom com but more about two girls than the romance. It had some farfetched moments and I didn't always love or believe the storyline, but it was fun, with some substance.
I did like this unconventional story that felt a little Parent Trap-like. It wasn't the perfect book for me, but I think many teens or lovers of YA will like this book. It's my second book to read by Emma Lord and I will keep enjoying her books. 3.75 stars

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy.

This book just wasn't for me. It seems that the author is young herself, but writes her teen characters as 50 year olds. I work with teens and they simply don't speak this way. I have never heard a 16 yo say "Way to bury the lead".

The pacing was also quite slow. And I just cannot express how tired I am of books shaming "Social Media Influencers". It feels very of the moment to make everyone who makes money from Instagram a vapid, self obsessed, shallow, idiot.

It seems I just struggle to connect with this author's writing.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Much like Emma Lord's first novel, I couldn't get enough of this. I in no way meet the demographics for a 17 year old junior who finds a surprise sibling and goes off to summer camp. I still flew through this so fast.

I am always so impressed with the DNA match stories. The successful finds, the possible lawsuits, and the happily ever afters they can create for many families.

I loved that this story provided that, and much more. We were able to see how a family can grow immensely when true communication and honesty is presented.

This was simply wonderdul. Also, a little romance never hurt any story.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this story in exchange for my honest opinions.

One of the most talked about YA books of 2020 was Emma Lord’s Tweet Cute. I read it and enjoyed it, but it was a little too cheesy for me, pun intended. But when I saw that her next book was going to be a camp romance, I knew I needed to read it.

Take this review with a grain of salt because unfortunately, I just don’t think I vibe with Lord’s storytelling. It’s a me thing as a reader not the book or writer’s fault.

Synopsis: “When Abby signs up for a DNA service, it's mainly to give her friend and secret love interest, Leo, a nudge. After all, she knows who she is already: Avid photographer. Injury-prone tree climber. Best friend to Leo and Connie...although ever since the B.E.I. (Big Embarrassing Incident) with Leo, things have been awkward on that front. But she didn't know she's a younger sister. When the DNA service reveals Abby has a secret sister, shimmery-haired Instagram star Savannah Tully, it's hard to believe they're from the same planet, never mind the same parents ― especially considering Savannah, queen of green smoothies, is only a year and a half older than Abby herself. The logical course of action? Meet up at summer camp (obviously) and figure out why Abby's parents gave Savvy up for adoption. But there are complications: Savvy is a rigid rule-follower and total narc. Leo is the camp's co-chef, putting Abby's growing feelings for him on blast. And her parents have a secret that threatens to unravel everything. But part of life is showing up, leaning in, and learning to fit all your awkward pieces together. Because sometimes, the hardest things can also be the best ones.”

What I Liked:

The Setting—I chose to read this book because of the setting. I love camp stories and YA romance so I thought this would be a fun one to break up the dark winter.

The Intricate Family Web—While I didn’t love the plot of this book, I did think the family’s dynamic and relationship was fun to explore. It’s like a modern day parent trap.

The Idea of Finding “You”—Adoption plays a huge roll in this story as does following your passions. I loved that Abby had such a desire to be a photographer and slowly discovered that she didn’t need to be afraid of that desire. I also loved how Savannah was proud of the brand she created because a lot of people think being an ~ influencer ~ is easy.

What I Didn’t Like:

The Pacing—It just moved a bit too slow for me.

The Plot—I mentioned that it’s a modern day Parent Trap which was cool but I just wasn’t very invested.

The Influencer lingo/shaming—I am kind of exhausted of books that feature influencers and include characters shaming them. I’ve read way too many and I’m just tired of it.

TW/CW: adoption, strained familial relationships

Character Authenticity: 3/5 Steam Rating: 0/5 Overall Rating: 3/5

Overall, I know I wasn’t the target audience for this book. Some YA I think can be universal and others it definitely is meant to be read by teens. I loved that we had a main character who was a lesbian and not all the characters were white. I think the target demographic will greatly enjoy this book!

Thank you Wednesday Books for my copy of You Have a Match! All thoughts are my own.