Couldn't get into no matter how hard I tried. Just not my cup of tea, but I am sure someone else will enoy

Such a cute romcom! Just what I needed to get out of a slump! Definitely loved the dynamic of the characters and the plot for sure. Looking forward to reading more by this author!

I loved this book so much. I really enjoyed the premise of the book. It felt familiar but also unexpected. There were definitely some little pieces of the story that seemed like familiar tropes (I definitely got some slight Parent Trap vibes), but the story itself was modern, different, and oh, so lovely. I enjoyed the characters and the friendships. The cast was diverse in so many ways and in different facets of their identities. It's so wonderful to see a cast that's so diverse and those characteristics are just ingrained into the story. I appreciate nothing like a book that doesn't make a big deal out of the diversity in the story, but just allows it to be. And of course, coincidentally, here I am making it a huge deal, but whatever - it's an exciting, big deal.

Anyway, the short of it - I love this book so much. It was lovely and wonderful and heartfelt and warm.

I read Emma Lord’s Tweet Cute earlier this year, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it! There’s just this quality to Emma’s writing where she’s able to tell you these really heavy, complex stories while also being silly, and young, and funny. Like actually laugh-out-loud funny. And that was something that really made Tweet Cute for me. So when I went into You Have A Match, I kind of had high expectations.

Now, I wouldn’t say that I was disappointed, exactly, because, yeah the book was still very fun, and there’s nothing in here that actually felt, like, bad in any way, but I was also not impressed the way I was expecting to be? I was just sort of...meh about it all. And like. It’s not exactly a bad thing, but it’s not exactly a good thing either.

Enough of me fumfering vaguely, though. Let me talk about this like a reviewer now.

The thing is, You Have A Match has a really interesting set-up! The story starts off when Abby Day - main character, first person PoV provider of this entire story - receives the results of a random DNA test thing that she does for school which tells her that she has a full-blooded sister living one town over that she has never known or heard of in any capacity. When Abby meets Savannah, it’s kind of an insane moment for everyone involved. They don’t exactly hit it off, but they’re both curious about what the fuck is going on wiht their families, so they kind of mutually agree to not tell their parents and try and figure out what went down on their own. This is, I should say, a spectacularly stupid thing to do. If you ever find out you have a secret sister living a town over, GO ASK YOUR MOM ABOUT IT! (I mean you may never get a straight answer out of her, but it’s still the good and the smart thing to do, lads. Take notes, I have a Master’s Degree). But also, I kind of get it. It’s a book, also these girls are kind of Going Through It at the moment, in their own ways, so it makes sense. Anyway they decide to meet up at this camp over summer and hash it all out and play Nancy Drew and everything, and thus ensue shenanigans!

Okay, so full disclosure, I’ve never been to camp. I don’t think I’d enjoy the experience to be honest, and the whole concept of just running around the woods in summer is very bizarre to me. I am also, by virtue of my terminal city girl-ism, not the biggest fan of camp settings. Not because they can’t be fun or anything (because like they can. I can totally see how a place like a camp would be perfect for a good “campy” horror story (get it?? GET IT?? I’m so hilarious shut up)), but because I don’t *get* the whole vibe (horror genre excluded, ofc). So I feel like something very integral to the story that could be added because of the setting alone is kind of lost on me. I mean, like the whole transitional-world-where-anything-can-happen thing is just…..I don’t get it, and I feel like that’s definitely an aspect that would add more to this particular book.

The setting aside, everything else was just...fine? Like the characters and the banter and the dynamics and the silly little prank plotlines and all that stuff. It was cute and entertaining and also just...fine. Like I said, pretty neutral feeling-inducing, which wasn’t what I wanted out of this read, I guess. I will say one thing though- I really liked how Emma worked with Abby’s grief and her mental illness here. It was very realistic, and it kind of got to me in places, not gonna lie.

My biggest gripe with this romance novel, however, was the romance. The whole romantic conflict in the book just felt very unnecessarily convoluted to me. There was no tension for me, as a reader, because it was evident from the first moment that Leo and Abby were both into each other, and the chemistry was there, so obviously there was some kind of miscommunication from a third party, and Abby hands you that third party story in like the first third of the book. So every fight or misunderstanding that happens in the rest of the book just felt very frustrating to me (like, in a BAD way). I feel like it could’ve just been like Leo and Abby being together the whole time, and them being all secretive about the sister stuff and the college stuff, or something else like that. It would’ve had no bearing on the actual interesting part of the story, anyway, while also doing a better job of keeping the reader on their toes about their whole situation. But that’s definitely just my opinion, because I know there’s a lot of readers out there who love angst of this variety. It’s just. It felt very no-stakes to me, and the wilful misreading of the dynamic by the characters due to their insecurities or whatever is just a trope that I’m kind of not vibing with anymore.

Also doesn’t help that the sisters plotline is just that much more fun! And interesting!! Like MORE OF THAT, PLEASE, MS EMMA LORD!!

No, but honestly, it really was all very nice to see. I loved watching how the relationship between Savvy and Abby blossomed, and how they grew into themselves with the help of each other, and how they had a small little family in camp and everything.

All this, until the parents popped up, of course. Then it was all a little overly cheesy, and I was like I see what you’re trying to do here, but I don’t enjoy it and I am very sorry about that. Like, it all became like that last musical number in Into The Woods, you know? Parents and kids and cycles and stories repeating themselves and all that jazz. Like that’s a great moral and all, but again, this is probably a very subjective thing, but I just didn’t vibe with it. I wasn’t exactly mad at it either. Once again, neutral feeling-inducing. Which I'm sure is not what the author was going for.

Overall, I did enjoy reading You’ve Had A Match, but I also think it wasn’t mind-blowing or anything like that. Basically, if you’ve got an evening to blow, and nothing else to do other than read a cozy little story, put this on the roster and pick it up if you draw the name, but don’t go around setting aside evenings and weekends for this, you know?

DNF at 13%. Heard this has an unsatisfying ending.

I received a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I was really surprised by Tweet Cute earlier this year, and was excited to jump into Emma Lord's next book, You Have a Match, but unfortunately this one just wasn't for me. Whereas Tweet Cute had me smiling fairly quickly on, I knew just as quickly that this one wouldn't hit quite the same way, but I wanted to push through just in case something changed.

While there are things I appreciated about this book, especially later on, it felt like overall there was too much going on. This led to certain subplots being abandoned for moments at a time, or side characters backstories not having enough time to be shared/worked through. It resulted in many of the endings for these subplots to feel hollow, especially romantically. A big difference between Tweet Cute and You Have a Match is how interconnected (or not) the family and romantic plot is. In the former, they seem to unravel side by side, meaning that both of these plots are being developed throughout the whole book, even if one becomes the focus for a small bit. This isn't the case in this book, as the relationship Abby has with Leo is entirely separate from the family drama going on. The family story is obviously much more important, and rightly has the focus of most of the book, but the romantic plot heavily suffers for it, to the extent that I believe this book would've been stronger without it. Instead, we get little scenes thrown in between the family development, trying to keep you hooked on the slowly blossoming relationship between Leo and Abby, but it gets dropped every single time for the family plot. While I was originally intrigued by the romance, and was excited to watch it unfold, I quickly lost all interest, and this made a large part of the final ending also feel hollow to me.

I also found the setting of the summer camp entirely unconvincing. This setting generally brings some forced structure to the looseness of teen summers, but it didn't do that at all here. It only served to create some tension and animosity between certain characters based on the uneven power hierarchy based on camper/counselor dynamics, but we never actually get to see any events or the academic classes Abby was supposedly attending. This is only worsened at the end, where Abby is constantly about to leave the camp for one reason or another. It really only served to force proximity between characters that otherwise would have just avoided each other the whole summer.

Overall, I just wasn't into this book, and would definitely recommend Tweet Cute first! This story could have easily been a good one had the subplots just been tightened a little bit, and unnecessary pieces removed. I get it's common for YA contemporaries to deal with romantic plots alongside familial ones, but if your familial plot is strong enough (which it was here!), it can work just fine!

Emma Lord is completely delightful. A story about camp, and romance, and finding family - this story was a wonderful and powerful read.

This was a really great book and I enjoyed it so much! I love Emma Lord and she really outdid herself with this one. I usually don't read YA but I'm definitely glad I did this time.

After reading Tweet Cute I couldn’t wait to read more by Emma Lord. In You Have a Match Abby Day doesn’t expect to find much from the DNA test she does with her friends. Instead she finds out that she has a secret sister. When she and her sister meet, they devise a plan to discover more about their parents’ history.

I loved the characters in this. The story has very “Parent Trap” vibe to it, and I loved every second of it. It’s a sweet story about family.

You Have a Match by Emma Lord was the perfect YA summer read!

In this family-centric story, Abby discovers that she has a secret sister (two years older) and the two connect after social media and summer camp. They get up to some perfectly fun pranks and and address issues that are pertinent to teens now - such as social media use and high parental expectations.

I absolutely love everything that Emma Lord has written and this was no exception. I look forward to her books in the future and the wonderful characters that she creates.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

4/5 - ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book! The title and this beautiful cover drew me in and i was excited to read another book by Emma Lord. I love her writing, and cant wait to read more.

I'm always so excited to read a new book from Emma Lord! I was drawn in by the Parent Trap angle to the story and appreciated how it went beyond that and became something completely original.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is well written and the characters are described well. The pacing of this book is good. It has good LGBTQIA representation in the book. I enjoyed Leo, Savannah, Abby and Connie's characters. It is in stores for $18.99 (USD). This author has a great writing style.

I really wanted to read this book since I loved Tweet Cute. And I'm glad I did! There is some romance in it because, well, YA. But the real crux of the book is about an extra credit assignment to swab the cheek and find out your DNA. And wham- the main character finds out she has a sister (full blooded sister) two years older than she is. The two get together without the parents' knowledge and scheme to go to camp together. There are some of the Parent Trap hijinks, but the real story lies behind the pranks. There are fantastic points about an addiction to social media, the pressures of good grades, and what makes a good friend (and recently discovered sister).

I love Emma Lord's debut and was very eager for You Have A Match. While this book was a lot more family-centric and less romance-centric, I still enjoyed every word of it. The book beautifully explores the meaning of family, friendship, and love. It helped that the wide cast of characters is compelling and manages to shine through, both primary and secondary. Of course, as a sucker for romance, I was also all over the adorable friends-to-lovers romance here. Emma Lord is at the top of my favorite YA authors and I look forward to reading her future works.

This book was so much fun. It packed a lot into it! It starts when Abby agrees to do a DNA test with her friend but finds out surprising news about herself. The author packs in family, friends, love story and camping and it makes for a enjoyable YA novel. I loved Tweet Cute and this novel was just as good.

This was a good YA novel that I would definitely recommend trying!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

I absolutely loved this book. Abby and Savvy's story was fun, sweet and made me nostalgic for The Parent Trap. Emma Lord is a really fantastic author--she draws you into the story, makes you feel for the characters as if they close friends. I loved the camp setting, especially since it reminded me of my favorite memories at Sleep Away Camp, with the adventures I had and the friends I made.

I was not the biggest fan of this, but I think it is because I am definitely growing out of the young adult genre. I am more of a romance reader now.

BLOG POST : https://shelbycreads.wordpress.com/2021/09/02/you-have-a-match-book-review/'

ARC provided via the publisher and NetGalley for review purposes. All opinions are my own and the review reflects my honest experience and opinions of the book.

Rating: ✩✩.5
Audience: Young Adult
Length: 320 Pages
Author: Emma Lord
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: January 12, 2021
If you like this try: Meet Cute by Emma Lord

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.

Things I liked: I really enjoyed the family dynamics that existed within this. Two biological sisters who grew up separate from one another, that are seemingly so different over time learning more about one another and how they are similar. I also really enjoyed the camp setting, reminding me of the Parent Trap inspired side of this story. The Parent Trap bits were rather fun.

Things I disliked: I can't claim this was a YA romance, which is what it appears to be. This book has a brief mention of romance but the story was incredibly casual. It didn't ever feel super complex or compelling in terms of its plot. The "love triangle" that wasn't really a love triangle was a bit unnecessary.

My Review: I think this book was fine. I almost rated it a 3 star but didn't feel compelled. This book wasn't bad by any means but it didn't entertain me enough or compel me to rate it higher than the 2.5 star. I think there's some people out there who may love this and really connect with the characters and plot line, I'm just not one of those.

Would I Recommend It?: Conditionally. (See above)