Adam and Whitney are former childhood friends now at odds because of their respective family businesses. Once Whitney realizes that her so called new friends maybe are only friends with her for what her father can provide. After publicly feuding on a social media platform, the pair calls a shakey truce which allows them to heal some old hurts. Adam is still grieving the loss of his father while also concerned that the arcade his father owned will soon be bought out by Whitney's father. The pair spend an impromptu snow night together reminding each what their friendship used to mean. I really liked this book, and would recommend it to any reader who's a fan of YA.

You Can Go Your Own Way will move your heart. It's a story about second chance romance meets childhood crushes. That would be enough alone to enchant me. But Smith tells a story about grief and holding on to the past and people. On paper Whitney and Adam might seem like opposites - one wearing obscure band shirts in a retro arcade and the other the social media manager for an esports cafe - but they have history.

In You Can Go Your Own Way, Adam and Whitney have to wonder just exactly who they are. In the midst of a storm, they are forced not only to confront their past, but to also examine who they have become. To figure out who will choose us, who will have our back, and who we need to let go of to move on. The characters truly stand out in You Can Go Your Own Way.

You Can Go Your Own Way by Eric Smith is an original story about growth and second chances. Centred around a pinball arcade, this one contains social media battles and two narrators. While I had some issues with the story’s slow pacing, this is still a heartwarming read that would be perfect to cozy up with this winter.

Adam and Whitney used to be best friends, but after the death of Adam’s father and the success of Whitney’s father’s gaming café chain, the two have resorted to trading insults through their business’s social media. When Whitney’s father sets his sights on Adam’s family’s pinball arcade, Adam is determined to do everything he can to save the only piece of his father he has left. However, when Adam and Whitney find themselves trapped in the arcade during a blizzard, they are given the chance to rekindle their friendship, and maybe even turn it into something more.

❀ DUAL PERSPECTIVES

This book is told through dual perspectives, and both main characters are interesting. I enjoyed Adam’s character more than Whitney’s since the grief he experiences after the loss of his father is powerfully written, and it is easy to feel his pain as he must come to terms with the threat of letting a part of his father go. Whitney has her own struggles, especially with getting her father to recognize her hard work, but I would have like to see more development in her character. In terms of their relationship, I loved watching Adam and Whitney mend their friendship and grow together, but the romance fell flat for me. There isn’t enough chemistry to make the romance feel believable, and I found that the story would have been more effective if they had stayed as best friends.

❀ SLOW-PACED

While the concept of this book has a lot of potential, I had some issues with the pacing. This one has a slow start, and the actual snowstorm doesn’t happen until over 60% through the book. Based on the synopsis, I was expecting a lot more of the story to be about being trapped inside an arcade, so I was a little disappointed to see so little space dedicated to this. The book as a whole is still entertaining, but I would have loved to see more cozy snowstorm moments.

❀ A TOUCHING STORY

You Can Go Your Own Way by Eric Smith is a touching story about grief and rekindled friendship. I loved the uniqueness of the pinball arcade, and the main character’s emotional connection with the arcade is well described. I did have some issues with the slow pacing of the story but ultimately found this to be a heartfelt read perfect for fans of the enemies to lovers trope.

Thanks to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for an advanced copy of this to review! This is Eric Smith's second novel, but he's great at writing romances. The whole neighborhood Smith created is fully fleshed out, and you almost feel like you could be a part of their community in Philadelphia.

This book is basically friends to enemies to lovers, and the transition just works so well for Whitney and Adam. I loved the banter that they had going back and forth on social media. I wanted more of this! Expanding a bit on their history would have helped cement their relationship even futher. However, there is no denying that they definitely had chemistry.

Eric Smith excels at character building. Not only do you fall in love with Whitney and Adam, but all the small business owners around Old City. The social media exerpts throughout the book really added to the whole atmsophere and helped to build Whitney and Adam's relationship. This is a novel about community, about grief, about friendship, and about romance.

Overall, this may be a quick read, but I'm sure you won't forget these characters. There is so much to love about this book, and you should definitely check it out when it comes out in November!

Philadelphia is one of those places where the setting is just so distinct. The "Gritty" city is expertly captured by Eric Smith and wound into a story that takes on the enemies to friends trope without a hitch. Adam and Whitney were friends in middle school, but when they got to high school, it all fell apart. Adam's dad died, leaving him and his mom to run their pinball arcade in Old City. Whitney's parents got divorced when her dad found success in gaming cafes he's established around town. But now, when high school is ending and it is time to grow up, Whitney realizes her so-called friends are using her. Adam realizes he's clinging to the past and not thinking about his own path. When a snowstorm in forces the two together, they have a chance to clear the air and rekindle their friendship, with a chance to be something more. Lots of great "only in Philly" details that were just too good! Loved this book!

Well here are my thoughts.

-didn’t care for the characters one bit. Except for the babysitter who has two lines.
-didn’t care for the writing style and all the details about pinball machines
-kinda confused on key elements of the plot/character decisions
-I thought there was supposed to be romance in this book?
-I didn't like the pop culture references. It already dates the book and it hasn't even been published yet
-meh meh meh skim skim skim

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc!

Adam still can't move on from his father's death. And because of that he resists allowing his mother to sell the pinball arcade that was his father's dream. Even as the machines start to break, he'll do anything to fix everything and make it so the father of his ex-best friend Whitney can't buy the place. It gets to a point Whitney and he starts a war online, even though none them really mean what they are saying.

3.5 rounding up to 4.

This is your usual romantic comedy of former friends turned enemies turned lovers, and it will be the comfort you need.

The narration is shared between the two, but my favorite parts were Whitney's. It was cute how much Adam knew about pinball and it even made me resurrect that old game that used to come with Windows (though real pinball is very different), but his ramblings tired me out pretty fast. It wasn't only pinball, as I had a similar impression from Whitney's parts, but this book is very wordy. It was still a quick read, but there were lots of sentences and even paragraphs there I would have cut if I were the editor.

Still, I like how the romance developed. They start from a point you're not even considering they're supposed to become a couple eventually (according to the holy laws of YA), but it's easy to believe when they do get together. They're a cute couple. I do think we could have had more cute moments, I can't remember one that really got me swooning. And yet, their shared scenes were heartwarming (pun intended, since the low temperature is a key plot point).

I've read a book by Eric Smith before, and I know he be more intense. However, this was a nice read I can recommend to any fan of contemporary YA. Also, if you've also read Don't Read the Comments, there's an Easter egg there for you. I probably won't remember You Can Go Your Own Way as much, but at times like these, it was a lovely escape (also a great way to learn about Philly), and that's what I mostly look for in YA books.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by the publisher for the blog tour through Netgalley. Many thanks for this opportunity.

I’m a part of the blog tour for You Can Go Your Own Way. So, thank you to Inkyard Press and NetGalley for this advanced copy to read and review honestly.
This was a fun story full of love and nods to the city of Philadelphia. I’m from New England and I’ve never been to Philly, but Smith’s love for the city definitely shone through. I could, however, absolutely related to the weather problems that the characters had to deal with in the story. Adam and Whitney get ‘trapped’ in Adam’s family arcade during a blizzard. The thing with the weather though is that they had warning, they all knew the snow was coming. I’m not sure what the snow is usually like in PA, but in New England, if there’s a risk of a blizzard, everything is shut down. From what it sounded like, they don’t do a super great job clearing and salting the roads. So, one would assume that they would close everything down as well (which eventually happened, but way too late to be realistic in my experience).
Depsite my personal issues with the weather, I liked both Adam and Whitney as individuals. They both have things that they’re dealing with and needing to work through. For Adam, he’s still grieving his father but he also really needs to learn to move on and let things go. He’s letting himself get stuck in the past and unable to look toward the future. Whitney is a people pleaser, specifically her father. She craves his attention and the only way she thinks she can get it is by working for his business (a rival to Adam’s family arcade.) But running the social media and worrying about her father’s business is negatively affecting the rest of her life. Her friends are really not great. Her boyfriend breaks up with her. Adam and Whitney are connected by their past. They’re childhood friends that drifted when they got to high school.
The synopsis was a little misleading since I thought the whole book was going to be the day/night they were trapped in the arcade, but there’s so much more to the story than that. I really enjoyed the book. I think Whitney and Adam were interesting and well-developed characters. I liked them as individuals and how they came back together to be friends again and then more than that. I loved the setting. I especially liked the bits we got to see of the business’s social media interactions with one another. They were really funny at times. I definitely think this will be a hit for fans of YA contemporary books.

Eric Smith's newest is in the same contemporary world as his last release, Don't Read the Comments. There is brief mention of the MCs from DRTC, but it can definitely be read as a standalone. It's a completely unrelated story following Whitney and Adam, ex-best friends fighting a social media war on behalf of their parents. Tropes included enemies to lovers and forced proximity.

This is a solid contemporary YA read with some highly entertaining social media banter, dual POVs (which is always my favorite), and a lot of character growth from beginning to end. I love how social media is taking a bigger role in books coming out as it's more realistic for the current world. I loved how close the community was and that the main setting was in a pinball arcade in Philly, very unique.

There were pieces I didn't love in this - Whitney's dad, somehow they were never in school even though it was winter?, and the lack of parental supervision. But, they were all fairly minor grievances - something else was lacking in the plot line specifically but it's hard to explain what.

A solid read, but not one likely to stick with me long term.

**Thank you to Inkyard Press and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review**

Thanks to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for providing me with an eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Adam and Whitney used to be friends, but now they exchange jabs online. Adam, working at his late father's Pinball Arcade and Whitney managing the social media for her father's gaming cafe. Each of them weighed down with the expectations of their fathers, Adam unable shake himself free from the things that his father loved and Whitney doing her best to garner some attention from hers.

It only takes one snowstorm, trapping them in the arcade to let go of the past that kept them so firmly at odds and find their futures, possibly together.

This is a friends to adversaries to lovers book, y'all. Just throwing that out there first of all. Second is that when you read a book by Eric Smith, you will learn something. I know way too much about pinball machines between Adam and the little quotes from "Zen and the Art of Pinball Repair" or something similar to that. Which, in fact, is not a real book. I checked. I didn't expect it, but was going to be pleasantly surprised if it was.

Eric mentions in his acknowledgements that this book became something entirely different than the story he set out to tell and it really comes across in the writing, not in a bad way. There is so much depth and personality oozing from the book, you know these characters are an amalgam of experiences, loves, friends and memories. There was so much here that I related to as a millennial, from myself going to the alternative concerts, which the characters went to the second time around. Many of the bands mentioned, I actually saw in the late 90's and early 00's in their prime. And, I just aged myself.

That said, the feeling behind the novel of growing up, letting go of your past and going your own way, transcends generations. The way that I felt growing up, there was another teenager in the 70's going through the same motions just as there is one here in 2021 that might pick up this book and be introduced to all the great pop culture references. (I need to listen to Fleetwood Mac now and I blame you, Eric.)

As the title states. You Can Go Your Own Way.

Masterful work, Mr. Smith. I can't wait to read your next book.

This book is such a good one for this time of year. There are a lot of cozy winter vibes. The romance between the 2 main character is cute. Overall a solid book.

This was a really cute story about two teenagers who once were friends, but grew apart.

Adam is trying to hold onto the most of his later father as he possible can, which means he puts literally all his time and effort into his father’s old pinball arcade. When a big tech company starts taking over with their chain of gaming cafes, Adam feels like it is his responsibility to keep his arcade running and relevant.

Whitney is running the social media for her father’s tech company and dealing with the emotional aftermath of a recent breakup and her parents’ divorce. She is stuck, and wondering how she got here, especially considering that she spends most of her time online arguing with Adam (their companies are rivals).

But they used to be friends. They used to bond over music and their all around quirks… but stuff gets in the way. When a snow storm hits and the two of them are stuck inside Adam’s arcade, all that time apart and their hang ups, their responsibilities fall away, making room for the two of them to get back to where they once were. But what happens after? Where will that leave them?

I really enjoyed this book and I loved all the gaming and music talk. It was fun a silly and just an all around good ya contemporary read.

Adam Stillwater and Whitney Mitchell used to be close friends. But then high school happened, and everything changed. Now it’s their senior year, but Whitney is too busy running the social media accounts for her dad’s chain of successful gaming cafés to do much of anything with her remaining friends and Adam is in over his head trying to keep his late father’s pinball arcade afloat and out of Whitney’s father’s hands. When a giant snowstorm hits and traps Whitney and Adam in the arcade and cut off from everyone else, they must face each other and find some common ground. But will their hearts melt as easily as the snow outside?

Eric Smith’s latest novel is an honest exploration of grief that’s simultaneously full of cute, wintery vibes. All the characters are so developed, and the setting sparkles with charming descriptions. Adam and Whitney are both excellent characters with very real flaws and insecurities, but who also bring out the best in each other. I loved watching their relationship grow and change over the course of the book. I also enjoyed visiting Philadelphia’s Old Town and meeting the eclectic cast of shop owners and employees. Readers can identify with so many fantastic themes in this novel: losing a loved one, growing apart from friends, accepting change, and more. You Can Go Your Own Way is the perfect read for fans of sweet, wintery romances and pinball arcades alike.

(Pine Reads Review would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing us with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change upon final publication.)

This book is charming and thoughtful and lovely. The protagonists and worldbuilding are well-developed; and the protagonists are so, so relatable even with such specific, unusual circumstances. Grief and mourning are handled beautifully and understandably. I think the pacing was spot on, It's a beautiful take on what could be a tired trope, and any critic of YA should read this book to understand how elevated the genre can be.

4.75/5 stars

You Can Go Your Own Way is a book about pinball machines, long-term grief, family, friendship, and finding a way to move on from what you’ve always known. Told in dual-POV by Adam and Whitney, this book had me hooked from page one. Adam is trying to hold onto the arcade that was near and dear to his late father’s heart while starting to realize that it’s time to move on. Whitney is running social media for her dad’s arcade that is rivaling Adam’s. When a snowstorm hits Philadelphia, these childhood friends turned enemies turned kind of friends again have a chance to finally sort through the past few years and what caused their rift.

I’ve realized over the past few months that I believe that any book with a romance plotline is instantly made better when multiple POVs are involved. Instant serotonin boat and this book was no different. It was truly a delight to get to see the progression of Adam and Whitney’s relationship throughout this book.

I absolutely loved learning about all of the game, music, and movie/tv shows that were referenced throughout the book. When I was younger I loved going to the arcade and playing this space pinball game. This book had a strong sense of nostalgia and the author’s love for the old games really shined through in their writing.

I especially appreciated the way that Eric Smith addressed grief and loss being a continual weight even years after losing a loved one. While change is inevitable, I think it’s natural for most people to resist it and cling onto what we’ve known. Adam is holding on so tightly to his dad’s old clothes and games that he doesn’t realize that what once provided comfort in the beginning of his grieving process is now holding him back.

Whitney is also going through a growing pains process as she is relying on running socials for her dad as a way of staying connected with him. She’s also in the process of realizing that many of the people who she befriended after her fallout with Adam aren’t true friends who have her best interests at heart.

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publishers over at Inkyard Press for allowing me a chance to read this one in exchange for an honest review. You Can Go Your Own Way is a YA contemporary novel about Adam and Whitney. They used to be best friends. Before her father got rich from his eSports Cafes. Now his mom’s arcade business twitter account and her dad’s cafe twitter account battle it out on a daily basis. But during a sudden blizzard they find themselves trapped in the arcade alone and without power. Can these two leave behind the jabs and the memes to find friendship once again? The novel comes out on November 2nd and is available for preorder now.

There was a lot to like in this novel. I found the characters pretty compelling and the settings of a top of the line, hip eSports cafe and a run down arcade were perfect for this story. I also really enjoyed the community of the Old City area. A lot of the side characters there were so vibrant that I’m pretty sure they’re based on people from the author’s real life. And that ending was pretty good. I didn’t expect the ending which is always great and I really like that there was a big display of affection without it turning into a declaration of love. (I mean, give it a little time. They’re just coming off hating each other for years.) I felt like these people and this setting could all be real which is great.

I did have a bit of trouble with the pacing for this one. There are 23 chapters in this novel and we don’t even get to chapter 12 until 66% of the way through the book. It does make for a pretty fast pace at the end of the novel. But the beginning and the middle of the novel were so much slower. It just felt like I was trudging to get through chapters at first. And I really think it’s just because of how long the chapters are and how much work the chapters have to do to set up this established friends to enemies that happened before the start of the novel. I do feel like once the snowstorm hit the adventure with the main characters gets a little meandering. It makes me wonder if the novel was going to head in a less PG rated direction and the editors or the author decided they shouldn’t go that route in a YA novel. I did appreciate their mini-rescue of Coco the senior aged dog, however.

Overall, I think this is a solid YA Rom-Com style novel with some enemies to friends to lovers going on. If this is your favorite genre or favorite trope then definitely pick this one up when it comes out in a few weeks.

As you grow older and life throws new challenges your way it can be difficult to navigate, but a life that fulfills you is possible, if you’re willing to accept the challenge of pursuing it, in Eric Smith’s You Can Go Your Own Way.

Adam is determined to keep his late father’s pinball arcade alive as a local Philadelphia tech mogul, and father of his erstwhile best friend Whitney, pressures Adam’s mother to sell it so it can become another of his successful gaming cafés. Whitney runs the social media account for her father’s West Philly gaming café but seems to be losing other meaningful things in her life – her parents’ marriage, her friends, and her boyfriend – but at least her father appreciates, and notices, her hard work, right? Adam and Whitney, whose paths diverged in high school when they both adopted new personality traits to cope with their respective life-altering events, are still in touch, if perhaps a little tense, as they banter through their businesses social media accounts, which blows up after Whitney’s brother damages one of Adam’s pinball machines. As they are thrown back into each others lives, digitally and in person, both reevaluate and confront why they grew apart and frustrated by one another, especially during the evening when they get trapped in the arcade during a snowstorm. Once the snow melts and they emerge, things are going to change, and hopefully for the better.

A cutesy, relatable, and generally fun, referenced-filled read, this dual point of view narrated story explores how friendships require appropriate tending as well as how people work on managing their grief of life-changing experiences. The characters, their emotional journeys, and dynamics were well-portrayed and handled in a thoughtful manner; however, the rift between Adam and Whitney felt as if it could have been explored further with more direct discussion with one another for a greater sense of catharsis and to better flesh out the romance aspect. While I received an advance copy that may refine how it appears when published (or I may just be getting too old and out of touch with social media), the conversations presented that took place on Twitter and via DMs were difficult to differentiate between on the page and I had to pause to sort out if it was public or private. Throughout the story there’s an evident love in Smith’s writing for Philadelphia and the myriad of small businesses that provide a unique experience and sense of community in such a large city; as someone who lives in Philly and has spent plenty of time around some establishments referenced in the story, it was fun to envision these settings. For those who’ve read Don’t Read the Comments, there’s a quick and cute cameo in the gaming café that had me stop and say “HEY!” but it was cool that these stories are all in the same universe. Also, the title of this book got me immediately starting to sing “You Can Go Your Own Way” to myself each time I picked it up, putting a smile on my face.

Overall, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a good ya book, something I would definitely recommend to the students I work with. This really touched something inside of me and I wish it was something I was introduced to as I was reading. I ended up loving this a lot more then expected and of course. Again one of the easiest 5 out of 5 stars I’ve given!

You Can Go Your Own Way is a YA novel by Eric Smith whom I’ve previously read from before. Like, in Don’t Read the Comments this book is set in the world of gaming but focuses on pinball and e-sport games. World City Pinball (one of the main settings of the novel) sounds like the coziest arcade to visit and I love that its charm is that it’s filled with classic pinball games. The only downside is that the pinball games are expensive to replace and Adam’s family business is having a hard time financially. On the other hand, his ex-best friend Whitney’s family has an e-sport cafe that is booming. Since her dad has acquired the shop everything changed between them and she feels the only way to salvage their relationship is to work at the cafe.

I really enjoyed reading You Can Go Your Own Way. The banter between friends and family and the realistic characters make up a contemporary story that you can really get behind. I also enjoyed the references to gaming culture embedded in the novel. I think that this novel was very soothing and cozy. I appreciated that while touched on difficult topics it balances them with mini light-hearted and fun memorable moments. Is it a story about romance but it’s also a story about how painful friendship breakups can be and what happens when you lose a good friend and how to try to reconnect from the rift.

There’s a strong sense of community that in the Old City neighborhood in Philly where the story was set. Readers get to see how these businesses come together not only for the festival but in times of need. The main characters felt very real and even when they make some decisions that are frustrating because they’re meddling in affairs they still are characters you can root for. The way that Adam and Whitney go about repairing the relationship was really heartwarming and I like that the pacing of the relationship was not rushed as they go about repairing their rift.

'You Can Go Your Own Way' follows Adam, pinball lover and son of a pinball arcade owner, and Whitney, social media exoert for her father's gaming cafe business who is hell-bent on buying out Adam's family, on their path to preparing for the town's winter festival and navigating buried feelings they have for each other from when they used to be best friends.

This book pleasantly surprised me! I was expecting it to be just another teen/YA rom-com, but this novel had a lot of substance and really touched on some important subjects. Adam and his inner battle of being ready to let his father's pinball arcade go after his death was really touching. Same goes for Whitney and her relationships with her divorced parents, which is something I can really relate to personally. The close-proximity trope in this was kind of unexpected, but readily welcomed and it worked fantastically!

A lot of the conflict was sort of 'he said, she said' or general misunderstandings which is common in a lot of teen/YA novels, but can get a bit tiring at times. I also found the path to Adam and Whitney reconnecting to be a bit drawn out and then their time together cut a little bit short. If more focus had been put on them solving their differences and re-kindling their friendship then I think I would have enjoyed it just a tad more.

Definitely a nice, easy, short read for those who might be wanting a bit of a break from more serious stories. Also absolutely loved all the current bookish nods to popular books from around when this book would have been written, as well as some nods to current video game trends.

Thank you to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for the eARC in return for my thoughts on the book. All opinions are 100% my own!