We’ve reached the point in history where we can now write Covid-19 stories (and I’m not talking about the erotica book about falling in love with the virus 😂). Bestselling authors, @chandlerbakerbooks and @wesleykingauthor, worked together to bring us a witty, thought-provoking YA love story during quarantine. Big thanks to @PenguinTeen for the copy! This book is available now!

Maxine and Jonah bump into each other in the canned goods aisle of the grocery store Max works at, just as California is entering into lockdown. The supermarket is about to turn into a hellish gauntlet and Jonah’s preexisting anxiety is about to hit overdrive. As Max and Jonah, as well as their friends, live together but apart through hijinks, humanity, and heartbreak, Hello (From Here) cuts across urgent matters much bigger than a teenage crush.

Differences in class, privilege, mental health, and sacrifice are thrown into stark relief by the profound and personal stresses of the Covid-19 pandemic.

relatable with all that has been happening with the pandemic. It's sad but then again it makes you think about what is going on. This book touches topics such as anxiety and depression. I liked the reality shown in the characters and the plot itself.

Okay..... So I wanted to enjoy this book but I just don't want to see books about COVID.... at all... EVER! It's a terrible time in our lives and some people are still experiencing lockdowns and this could be super depressing for them to be in lockdown to RELIVE IT and I just can't. I didn't finish this book because I tried to give it the benefit of the doubt but I'm tired of COVID and there shouldn't be anything to romanticize it or make light of it because it's not a light topic at all. It was a mistake and the way it was handled worldwide is stupid and I just, I can't.

Hello (From Here) tells the story of two teens during the pandemic.

I know some people are not ready for books about Covid-19, keep in mind it’s the main topic.

In this story we meet Max and Jonah who had the cutest meet cute moment.
We get to see just how awful the pandemic was for kids. I really loved seeing how different it was for everyone.

Max was a great character but I just didn’t love Jonah. He made it very difficult for me to enjoy the book. He felt like an entitled rich kid and I just didn’t enjoy that.

There was a lot of diversity which I thought was great. I just wish I had connected with the story more.

I also listened to the audiobook and I loved both narrators. Annie Q narrates Max’s chapters. Michael Crouch narrates Jonah’s chapters. The audiobook seemed quick even at 9 hours 35 mins long.

Thank you @prha for the complementary audiobook and @penguinteen for the eARC.

WHY DID I LISTEN TO HELLO (FROM HERE) BY CHANDLER BAKER AND WESLEY KING?
I know that some people are really resistant to reading contemporary books that include COVID. However, Hello (From Here) by Chandler Baker and Wesley King appealed to me specifically for that reason. Personally, reading about something I lived through helps me to process that thing. But, I know that everyone reads and processes and experiences things differently. So, if you are not about a book set during COVID, you may want to skip this one.

WHAT’S THE STORY HERE?
Hello (From Here) follows Max (Maxine) and Jonah who meet by chance at the grocery store on the cusp of the pandemic. Actually, they meet right at the time that toilet paper became a hot commodity. Max delivers groceries as she tries to save up money for community college classes after high school. Jonah’s dad is doing well financially as is his stepmom. Jonah has anxiety as well — which just gets worse because of the pandemic. However, the two keep connecting and we see them fall for each other – even in lockdown when they have to socially distance.

WHAT DID I THINK OF HELLO (FROM HERE) BY CHANDLER BAKER AND WESLEY KING?
I liked the character of Max a bit more than the character of Jonah. It turns out, I just felt her struggles a little bit more. Her mom is a single mother and it is so hard to get by. They don’t have a lot of money to spare and Max has to think about contributing the bills and then paying her own way. Jonah did eventually grow on me, however. He does make some not great choices, but he’s a teenager and so I don’t expect him to be perfect by any means.

One part that I found myself very invested in was Arlo and Chester. I won’t go into super details, but that part was just heart wrenching. It hit me very hard — but also kept me very invested in this book.

HOW’S THE NARRATION?
The audiobook of Hello (From Here) contains dual narration. Annie Q narrates Max’s chapters. Michael Crouch narrates Jonah’s chapters. I liked Crouch’s narration the best — I guess because I am very familiar with his narration style. Meanwhile, Annie Q was great when doing the voice for Max, I just felt like the male voicing was not ideal. Overall though, this was an audiobook that I would recommend. It doesn’t feel like it drags. It is 9 hours 35 minutes long.

I unfortunately did not have time to read this before release date due to issues in my personal life, but i’ve heard amazing things!

Check the Trigger Warnings before reading it as it has a heavy corona virus theme in the book
I really like this book ! The coronavirus topics in the books were so relatable and emotional, the character development felt a little weak and there was cheating which I hated , overall 4 stars

“You need to find the good thing that makes the bad times worth it, and they don’t seem so bad.”
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Maxine (Max) and Jonah bump into each other in the grocery store, arguing over toilet, as the state of California prepares to go into a Covid-19 lockdown. Max is a personal grocery shopper and delivery person, working to save for community college and help her single mom make ends meet. Jonah, an anxiety-filled teen mourning the loss of his mom and adjusting to his new life has all the money and luxuries one would love to have during a lockdown.
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What happens next is an unexpected YA romance that tackles not only common teenage issues but focuses on class differences, mental health awareness, and family.
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I really wasn't sure how I would like a book that takes place in the first few months of the pandemic but I loved this book. The authors did a great job of expressing the raw emotions of the pandemic and the child/mother relationship. The descriptions in this book from the class differences to the panic attacks, to the silly teenage antics, were so spot on.

A hopeful and sweet story of what living in the times of covid is really like. At moments all to real, in the best way possible. Never before has the current time felt so normal and accepted as when you read it for the first time in a novel.

This is the first book I've read set during the pandemic, and I'm not sure I would have chosen to read it if I'd actually known what it was about. (I typically go into books blind.) I'm glad I did read this, though.

Jonah and Maxine are two high schoolers from different worlds. Jonah is from a wealthy family with the ability to mostly stay home for protection. Maxine lives with her single mom who is struggling to keep her dry cleaning business afloat during lockdown. Max is a personal grocery shopper, so she is out and about, in contact with all sorts of people. Jonah and Max meet in the aisles of a grocery store and a friendship and budding romance develops. But, how do two teenagers (one with high level anxiety and a sister who has high risk factors for Covid), develop a relationship at the beginning of a pandemic?

There are a lot of trigger warnings in this book, including death from Covid, death of a parent, and all that goes along with the early time period of the pandemic, so tread lightly. But, this book got me thinking a lot about the teenagers I am involved with and helped me see this new world we are living in through their eyes.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for a gifted copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The world has just shut down to the unimaginable: a virus.
COVID-19 is new and fresh, and the state of California is in lockdown as it tries to fight the disease.
Two of its residence, from very different sides of the city, bump into each-other at the grocery store and things change.
Now, they must figure out if it’s worth it, a relationship where you can never touch your loved one sounds hard enough- but also dealing with the chaos of the rest of the world just makes it tougher.

As many other reviews have stated: it’s so hard to read a book about COVID-19 while also still being in it. It’s like reading a history book, where you already know the ending and it effects how you think about the book as a whole.
It’s weird reading things that you went through, emotions that you dealt with, fears that you experienced and still do- the unknown of it all for the 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟 but the familiar of it all for the reader.
Is there a potential that this book will be used in a few years in English classes as a way to familiarize yourself with what people that lived during the COVID crisis went through? Absolutely.
That’s how realistic it is - how familiar it is and that’s hard.

All-in-all it’s a decent book. It deals with the struggles of a relationship admits a pandemic, the struggles of surviving the pandemic, mental health issues, death, and a lot of other difficult topics.
The characters were somewhat enjoyable but fell pretty flat. It almost feels as more of a plot based story than character driven, but without any real plot other than ‘remember how hard COVID is.’
But it’s still a good enough story that you’re just not uninterested enough to DNF it.

If you’re wanting to read something that you’re familiar with, the relates to the last year of chaos and hurt, then this is a great book to really detail that!

I normally don't read a synopsis before picking up a book. The cover of Hello (From Here) sold me, but it wasn't until I received the physical copy that I noticed the masks on the characters and realized that this a book set in the pandemic. I went in with zero expectations and I am so glad I decided to pick up this book.

The author does a wonderful job of providing content warning at the beginning of the book. I definitely feel this is something you need to see prior to deciding whether or not to read this book. Because the book takes place at the beginning of the shutdown in California, this story may be triggering for many, especially those hit hard by COVID or those who lost loved ones. However, I appreciate the care it took in depicting the early stages of the pandemic. It showed how hope can come out of despair.

I loved both main characters - Max and Jonah - and their meet cute in the supermarket while everyone around them was bustling around for toilet paper and Clorox wipes was so sweet. I felt like their insta-attraction is typical for teenage relationships and it worked for them. Their friendship (and then relationship) grew slowly as they navigated the fear of the pandemic, but also without normal intimacies of a new relationships, like holding hands. The plot kept me guessing and had many twists and turns in the end that kept me turning page after page.

The mental health rep in this book is done well. It accurately depicts not only living with anxiety and panic attacks in life, coupled with a blossoming pandemic, Hello (From Here) shows just how crippling life can sometimes seem. There were also themes of privilege and class discrepancy that brought to light just how differently people had to cope with life during the shutdown.

I absolutely adored the relationship between Max and her elderly customer. It was the sweetest ever and it gave me definite "The Holiday" vibes. I loved the added layer of his story and how it was interwoven into's Jonah's own personal tragedy.

Thanks to Penguin Teen for the advanced copy!

Quick Stats
Age Rating: 13+
Overall:
Characters: 3/5
Plot: 3/5
Setting: 3/5
Writing: 3/5

A special thanks to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an eARC of this book! All thoughts and opinions reflected in this review are my own.

It was… fine. I enjoyed the characters and the story. I just couldn’t get invested. I liked Jonah and Max, and I thought they made a cute couple, but a lot of the plot simply felt like things happening to them, and like they had no agency, and then the few times they actually seemed to have a say in the plot, they made the dumbest decisions. I actually cared more about Olivia and Imani than I did Jonah and Max at points.
Many of the characters and plots just felt like they needed fleshing out. Kate, and everything that happened with her, just felt like one huge cliche. She was just a walking stereotype and her existence didn’t play any important role. The book would have been exactly the same without her. Many f Max’s problems with her mom needed more fleshing out as well. They just happened, and Max got upset, and then the story moved on and she just got over it without really dealing.
The pacing, too, dragged at places. It took me quite a while to get through the book because I just didn’t care. If I hadn’t gotten an ARC, I likely would have DNFed the book.
There was nothing inherently bad about the book, per se, I was just bored and didn’t care. I could have set the book down halfway through and never wondered how it ended. It was forgettable.

I know many people will find it unusual that I constantly go into so many books blind, but in this case, I was thrilled to find that while many have been anxious to read about the pandemic WHILE living the pandemic (TOTALLY understandable) I was absolutely mesmerized by this relatable and real contemporary YA that didn't shy away from the tough topics.

There's so much to be said about reading and finding HOPE, and for me, this book gave me so much. While we have all lived through a horrible time, I can only hope that each of us has some light at the end of the tunnel, that when there's a chance at happiness especially now, that we would take it.

A meet-cute like this one was well thought out and endearing, and will absolutely get you in ALL the feels as Maxine and Jonah show you how to learn to live through the times just like we are. As a momma to a teen, I hope he, among other teens, pick this one up and feel seen, and have an enjoyable way to get out some of those thoughts and emotions while seeing these characters come to life in these pages.

Thank you to Penguin Teen + NetGalley for the advance reader's copy to read and review!

2.5 or 3/5 stars rounded up, this felt a little too soon and some parts were just, a lot for no reason

<i> Thank you Penguin Teen for the arc through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review! </i>

I have to admit, I started reading this book a while before I marked it on Goodreads. I am too lazy to go back and try to find the time, especially because it felt like such a chore to read through. There was so much going on, obviously because it's about covid, but also so much extra drama that felt unnecessary. It didn't leave me with a good taste in my mouth, but that was also probably it was a bit too soon for reading considering we are still going through the pandemic. With that being said, I feel that in the future if someone reads this outside the pandemic, they will find more interest in it. There were a lot of smaller and diverse details that I really enjoyed, but it didn't make up for the bad of it.

The plot followed two high school kids, "falling in love" over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, via text messages and zoom calls. There was some cool rep such as; Max lives in a low-income household and she works for herself and her mom. Jonah lives in a well-off household but he has a generalized anxiety disorder (which seemed pretty accurate from my friend's comments) and his mother has died. His sister Olivia has GI issues and is chronically ill, as well as either bi or lesbian, I don't believe it is ever explicitly stated. Max delivers to an old man who becomes a side character who is also LGBTQ and he was really fun.

Because of the amazing diversity of the characters, I think someone who is reading it outside of COVID will have a better time. I recommend checking the trigger warnings at the bottom of my review because there were absolutely tons. The COVID pandemic hasn't been very hard on me in terms of losing people I know, but there was still so much stress, and as my favorite teacher put it "I'm sure as teenagers you have a lot of unnoticed trauma from this ongoing pandemic that will be discovered." I agree, and reading about this was no happy story. I didn't leave with any feeling of hope or joy, maybe because we are still in the pandemic, or maybe the story. I am not completely sure.

Max was a character that I liked right from the start, I connected and related to her a lot in terms of the family situation and etc. She was really hard working and did her best to support herself and her mom. She took COVID very seriously and understood when she couldn't do something. In terms of some of the stuff that happens in her story, I am completely on her side in the matter. I preferred her over Jonah and I think I will stand by that.

Jonah was a character it took a while for me to love, he was annoying to me in the first part of the book and ended up being in the ending too. He obviously is going through a lot, he has a general anxiety disorder, and living through a pandemic is hard. But he was so ignorant of Max's financial situation, her feelings on some matters, and honestly anything she had going on. He thought she was always able to do things, that she always felt available, and that he was the most important thing in life. He did take steps to try to be a better person in that regard, but it always fell through. <spoiler>THEN at the end there was the CHEAtING TROPE and he did it? it was so unbelievable (but also not really bc he had complicated behaviors through the whole book) and I think it would have been more impactful had the story not derailed with this as a side plot </spoiler>

Overall, this wasn't the worst and I did have joy at the diversity of the characters. But reading it during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, or rather writing it during that time too, was not the move. Jonah's character was really complicated and I didn't enjoy him to be completely honest. As well, I didn't feel a lot of romantic tension between the two characters and was left with a bad taste in my mouth. I hope someone reading it when the COVID pandemic will be over hopefully soon will find more joy in this story.

Maxine and Jonah meet in a grocery story right as California is going into lock down. They immediately hit it off but the timing couldn’t be worse. They continue to talk and

I wasn’t sure how I felt when I picked up this COVID YA romance, but I ended up really enoying it. Since we aren’t actually out of the woods yet, reading this definitely brought up some feelings and if you struggled with the first few months of quarantine, this one might be tough for you.

This one showed how the pandemic and quarantining was a different experience for different people. Although Jonah had his own struggles between an immunocompromised sister and an anxiety disorder, he also seemed a bit more carefree going out with friends and ordering groceries so Max would deliver them and he could see her. On the other hand, Max was clearly struggling to make it, and you could see the stress the pandemic put on her and her family. It definitely was more than just a teen romance and touched on some tougher topics. It definitely had me going through all the emotions.

Thanks to Penguin Teen for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

HELLO (FROM HERE) was a really entertaining love story set in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. I won’t lie, I was a little nervous to read this one just because we’re still in the midst of the pandemic and I wasn’t sure I wanted to be back in that initial unsure-of-the-future stage, but I was very pleased with this book as a whole. We follow Max and Jonah who meet in the grocery story at the beginning of lockdown and end up having a virtual relationship. I really enjoyed both characters and their perspectives, they were realistic teenagers and had very realistic lives for the beginning of 2020. The story itself was a light-hearted love story but there were deeper themes throughout, including Jonah’s anxiety and his panic attacks, the fear that came with the pandemic, and how to make ends meet when your family’s source of income had to shut down. There was also some death in the story both COVID-related and not. The banter and dialogue throughout between all the characters was lots of fun and further lightened the story. There was also an understated theme revolving around older Hollywood stars that was tons of fun! I also loved our bow-tie wearing dog, he was just amazing:) Overall I would highly recommend this one!

When I first read the premise of “Hello (From Here), I was intrigued. I mean…a YA book about two teens who fall for each other at the beginning of the current COVID pandemic…I was interested! However, as I read this book, I quickly realised that it wasn’t really grabbing my attention. I didn’t seem to connect to either one of the main characters like I have with other YA romances. I will admit that I did experience a few flashbacks, since this book takes place at the beginning of the pandemic, and I could relate to it due to some of my own experiences. I remembered the fear and the shelves at the grocery stores all being cleared out…and there was the endless waiting game regarding COVID test results. These flashbacks for me were unnerving, especially since we are still in the midst of a pandemic. This was not a bad book, but I just didn’t connect with this read.

Thank you Penguin Teen for sending me this ARC e-book in exchange for my honest review!

Rating: 3/5

From New York Times Bestselling authors Chandler Baker and Wesley King comes a young adult romance set during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Poignant and relevant, Hello (from here) shows how in an uncertain world, it's the unlikely connections that keep us together.

I thought it would be weird reading a love story set during COVID times, especially since COVID-19 isn’t completely eradicated yet, but I was so enraptured with this YA story and found it to be quite adorable.
This story reminded me that even though times were (and still are) different and frustrating and scary, it’s sometimes the little things or single people that make it just a bit more bearable.

I think the authors did a great job of highlighting the realities of the pandemic without being too carefree or doom-and-gloom about it. Additionally, the highlighting of different issues like mental health, privilege, and social disparities made this book more than just another young adult romcom.

This book made me laugh and cry while also making me grateful for the loved ones that helped me get through this pandemic. I think this book was such a great read and any fan of YA romances like Five Feet Apart and The Fault in Our Stars will enjoy this book, too.

*I received an ARC from Penguin Teen in exchange for my honest opinion.

Hello (From Here) was an intriguing premise, but if the lockdowns in 2020 or the COVID-19 pandemic were hard for you this book might be challenging to get through.

CW: generalized anxiety disorder, panic attacks, AIDS, COVID-19 (theme), death of a parent

I wanted to love this book but I just couldn't. I'll start with some of the things I liked first. I appreciated how the authors touched on what the pandemic was like for those struggling with mental illness. I also liked that it showed how different your life was depending on your socioeconomic status. I liked Max, but I didn't even feel like she liked Jonah enough to date him.

Now to my problems with this book. Jonah felt a little stalkerish to me. First, he basically falls in love after one conversation. Then he enlists the help of his sister to order groceries so that Max has to shop and deliver them? He just felt very out of touch with reality and also came across as entitled. From not knowing what data overages are to going to a party with his friends despite having an immunocompromised sister at home. This book just wasn't for me. Also was the step-mom supposed to be an anti-masker? I just felt like this was somewhat dismissive of the severity of the on-going pandemic.