Cover Image: We Can't Keep Meeting Like This

We Can't Keep Meeting Like This

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Member Reviews

Quinn and Tarek have known each other for years- her parents own a wedding planning company and his parents are caterers. Last summer, Quinn sent an email to Tarek, telling him how she felt and he never responded. This summer, Quinn is grappling with a lot- she knows she'll see Tarek, her best friend is moving to New York for college, and, most of all, she has to tell her parents she doesn't want to be a part of the family business. Rachel Lynn Solomon is a master at capturing the emotional roller coaster teens find themselves on as they leave high school behind and move towards adulthood. Quinn is very relatable and I was rooting for her, even when I was shaking my head at some of her decisions. This was a great read for a rainy weekend.

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The adorable cover immediately drew me in.

I really enjoyed reading about Quinn and watching her come to life.

Throughout this novel, Rachel Lynn Solomon touches on some major components such as mental health, LGBTQ+ representation, and the Jewish religion., all within this short book. So powerful!

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"We Can't Keep Meeting Like This" is a beautifully written and emotionally resonant novel. Rachel Lynn Solomon has crafted a story that's not just about romance but also about finding one's true self amidst the complexities of family and expectations. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a heartwarming and thought-provoking read that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.

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I appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book at the time prior to release. Unfortunately as a mood reader, I was unable to read the book around the time of the book release. I had attempted to read this book and was only able to get a chapter or so into the story at the time when I attempted to read Rachel’s story. If I read and review the book in the future, I will add my review here. Thanks again for the opportunity.

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Thanks NetGalley for the preview!

Such a cute story! Love that the characters are so open about mental health. Also loved the sex positive stuff. Great depiction of how sec should be. My only negative was the circular conversation about them not being good together. It happens so so much that it became redundant.

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This one was so cute! I really appreciated the character development. The romance was really sweet & spicy.

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Such a fun contemporary/Hallmark-esque romance. I loved every minute of my time reading this book and will definitely be picking up more books by this author.

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Super sweet little romance that had me smiling all over the place. This was a nice break from the holidays and all its craziness. I look forward to reading her next book.

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This book was fine. Not my favorite Solomon book ever (Today, Tonight, Tomorrow still holds that spot), but it was fine.

I liked that this book was more than just a romance and rekindling an old friendship. It was also about Quinn, FMC, finding herself, her voice, and her future. She works through a lot emotions and thoughts throughout this book which Solomon explores really well.

There was some nice representation in this book. The FMC has OCD which is seen and which she briefly discusses a couple of times in the book. Also, she is Jewish as many of Solomon's characters are. The MMC has depression which, again, is briefly discussed and reflected on. And he is Muslim.

Overall, if I had to recommend any Solomon book, it wouldn't be this one. That being said, this wasn't the worst book in the world. And, like all of her other YA books, this contained upper YA material, just for your reference.

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Rachel Lynn Solomon is one of my auto-read authors but this story fell flat for me compared to her other novels.

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This was a really enjoyable YA book, that felt YA. I loved all of the different types of representation in this book - Jewish, anxiety, OCD, Muslim, depression, LGBT, etc. I thought all of the topics were introduced and handled really well.
Where I lost some of the story was around the relationship and Quinn’s insecurities. But taking into account Quinn’s age - they do make sense.

Overall a really enjoyable book!

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I didn't know much about this book going into it, but I loved The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon so I had a good feeling about this one too. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the main character is a Jewish girl with OCD! Although her OCD experience is different than mine, it was still so nice to read about someone like me. Young adult romance isn't my favorite genre but this was a super sweet story.

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The newest YA rom-com by Rachel Lynn Solomon, We Can't Keep Meeting Like This is a funny, sweet, and emotional look at love, friendship, family, romance, and trying to find your way.

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This was an enjoyable romance about characters that have a lot to learn. Own Voices reviewers are disappointed by the Muslim representation, and the need to make the character non-practicing to allow him to fit into the romance tropes. Representation matters. Outside of this concern, the story was fun.

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A really sweet rom-com. Not quite sure how I feel about the Muslim portrayal in this book, but the majority of the character's portals were fully fleshed and felt authentic.

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A delightful book full of adventure, action, and thrills. Fun to read, engrossing world building, and very descriptive imagery made it feel like it was cinematic. It's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. Would recommend.

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The audio of this book was excellent. I really love Rachel's writing and the representation of mental illness was just so good. This book was so good and Rachel is an autobuy author.

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I love a behind-the-scenes wedding chaos story. I love a family business story. WE CAN'T KEEP MEETING LIKE THIS delivers on both counts. Quinn is a harpist and part of her parents' wedding coordinator business (along with her older sister, Asher). But despite witnessing so many Happiest Days of couples' lives, Quinn is a cynic about love. Enter Tarek, hopeless romantic and cater-waiter at his own parents' catering company (and the guy Quinn may have professed her "like" for at the end of the previous summer), and we're in for a crazy summer.

I love when gender norms get flipped on their head, and RLS excels at it in this story. Quinn, our leading lady, is the one who does NOT want a relationship, preferring friends-with-benefits/little-to-no emotional investment in her hookups. Tarek is the romantic of the two, lover of grand gestures and the perfect love story.

I suspect a lot of readers will come down hard on Quinn for her fear of emotional investment. Tarek clearly adores her--and can't Quinn just get over the fact that her parents separated for six months years ago and never spoke about it again? You know I'm a 100% defender of girls dealing with their feelings in whatever ways they need to, so let me come to Quinn's defense. As someone with anxiety myself, Quinn's inability to think around/beyond her parents' separation rang true to me. I understand how she built that six month separation (and the years-long bracing for it to happen again after they reunited) up in her head SO MUCH that she can't get past it. Especially since her mother just moved back in one day and neither parent ever spoke to Quinn about what happened and why. A very young Quinn internalized that instability and confusion, and the anxiety that stems from it felt incredibly believable to me.

Anxiety comes with a lot of "I cannot do/be THIS because of THAT" fixations, at least in my experience. And something that seems so obvious to outsiders, the person in the middle of that thought spiral just can't see it sometimes. So while Quinn was frustrating and mean sometimes when we as readers so clearly see she wants to be with Tarek, I gave her grace. And Tarek has his own love hang-ups, showing off with grand gestures modeled after his own parents' origin story. Quinn finding some of those things off-putting rang true. She and Tarek were both very clear about what type of relationship they did (or did not) want, and whenever those lines began to blur, they took time to communicate and clarify (which often created conflict).

Though I did find some of the mental health discussions a touch info-dumpy at times, I was incredibly glad to see the representation. The OCD rep in particular is something that I think benefitted from the longer explanation/examples because it is so often misunderstood and used as shorthand for being clean or organized.

I loved that the book focused on not knowing exactly what you want to do in life, and that's okay. There's always more to learn, paths to take, changes to go through - and that's something everyone needs a reminder of from time to time.

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A very fun story with all the usual charm of a Rachel Lynn Solomon book. This was equal parts goofy banter and flirty talks, and I was rooting for them the whole time. Such a good read.

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We Can't Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon was interesting enough while I was reading but ultimately mostly forgettable and I skim read most of it. I do want to give this book another try when I'm not in a reading slump though.

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