The Map to You was a cute read! I loved the grump-to-confident flirt trope. I've never read this author before either but I heard it was sapphic and NA so I thought I would give it a try.

The Map to you follows best friends Kinsley Han and Sasha Deforest at NYU. Kinsley Han was fresh out of a breakup when they met and Sasha has always had a crush on Kinsley but being friends was always better than nothing. When trouble starts to rise both their personal lives, so does their attraction for each other but they have to figure out how to navigate both without messing everything up.

The first half of the book was cute and fluffy. It set up some good romantic tension and played up a lot of the friends-to-lovers stuff. What I didn't really understand was when there was a time jump I didn't really get a good feel for how close they were as best friends. Their main issues were miscommunication and shutting each other out but I also didn't feel like they ever communicated deeply in the first place? That type of connection was never established for me because they seemed so tense and awkward around each other.

What I did like was each person on their own had pretty decent depths as characters. They had their personal struggles that served as their foundation for why they are the way are and it was set up pretty well. I also liked the cute teasing/flirting that gave off the "am I actually flirting or am I just messing with you" vibe.

Overall, I did enjoy the book. It was cute, heartfelt, a bit angsty & fun! I just think it missed some points with me. 3.5/5

The Map to You follows Kinsey Han and Sasha Deforest, two college students in New York City, who met as roommates when Kinsey needed a new place to live following a brutal breakup. Kinsey is, generally, the grumpy one, reserved and cautious after being cheated on by her ex girlfriend and having lost herself in that relationship. Sasha, on the other hand, is warm and generally upbeat and desperate to keep her life before New York separate from the life she is making for her self. They have both been harboring secret crushes for nearly a year, playing it off as a joke or burying it as they can. But when Kinsey has a family emergency, Sasha drops everything to drive Kinsey 600 miles to be with her parents and things become harder to call platonic.

I love a friends to lovers trope, add on two sapphic main characters and some good old fashioned shared space pining and I will almost always have a great time. This book was sweet. I read the own thing in one setting as the pacing was just right for me to keep going oh I could do another chapter. The leads were charming and cared so much about their friendship. Both women wanted to be the best support they could for each other and we love to see it. I loved the ways this book allowed for and showed different love languages and how difficult it can be to accept them even when you desperately want to. Stockbridge creates a warm story that wraps the reader in the character's genuine care for each other, for their friends, and family. It is cute from cover to ending.

The Map to You deserves to win an award for cutest cover. I loved the complicated family dynamics and discussions about mental health. The plot wasn’t my favorite aspect. It felt meandering at times and some of the emotional decisions and reactions felt forced in order to move the plot along. 3 stars for me!

A pure friends to lovers romance!

If you're a fan of the friends to lovers trope, then you'll love this book! It had all of the elements to make a good friends to lovers book and it was very sweet and full of banter!

This is the first book of the series that I read so I didn't know the characters in advance, but I'm sure I would love then even more if I would've read them in the first book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Rachel Stockbridge for the earc in return for an honest review.

Ok I don’t know how professional I need to be but AHH! This was so cute! I’m a huge sucker for romance and an even bigger one for LGBTQ+ romance!
Kinsey and Sasha’s story from friendship to romance was such a great journey. It didn’t take long to read because I COULDN’T put it down!! Thank you for the read!

This was exactly as expected, which is nice! One thing that felt notable was that they didn't describe the characters physically except like twice so i didn't feel like i knew what anyone looked like--which i wouldn't have thought mattered to me, but feels like maybe why i didn't get as into it as i might have? The characters were good, everyone was pretty likeable, and it felt like it was hinting toward the prickly love interest but no one was really that prickly! Honestly, this might have worked better if i had read the first book in the series, because everything felt just not quite fleshed out enough and maybe knowing more about them from before (i assume Beatrice was the MC in that one) would have made me really relax into the world. But as is, it was pretty fun and i don't regret reading it!

A college-aged sapphic romance that manages to be adorable even with nonstop character angst and emotional baggage. This is a very internal conflict based story, with Kinsey and Sasha’s personal baggages getting in the way of them JUST KISSING ALREADY! I like the portrayal of Sasha putting up barriers to keep people from judging her relationship with her addict mother, and Kinsey’s self-doubts about her own lovability made me want to give her a big hug.

The misunderstandings and emotional upheaval did feel a little overdone at times, as both girls just kept rehashing the same insecurities over and over. But they slowly progressed toward a healthier relationship with their own thoughts and with each other.

I also wish we had seen their initial friendship develop more. The prologue shows them meeting after Kinsey experiences a terrible breakup. Then bam! It’s almost a year later and they’re mutually pining besties.

Recommended for fans of hurt/comfort fics.

I was misled by the Cutesy cover and description / synopsis. THIS IS NOT A CUTESY BOOK. At all. It was good but I wasn't expecting to end up emotionally wrung out and anxious after reading it. I went in expecting a cute and fluffy f/f romance and what I got was.... not that.

The relationship was the smallest part of the book - it was mostly about the characters coming to terms with themselves and who they wanted to be and who they wanted in their life. Which is fine. I enjoy that. But I do not enjoy being blindsided with childhood abuse, and a drug addict mom who calls her college student kid across the country to bail her out of jail for armed robbery and assault after said kid refuses to send her more money for drugs, and a lifetime of emotional trauma.

Also both Kinsey and Sasha have quite a bit of anxiety to work through -- Sasha from her mom and childhood and past relationship and Kinsey from her past relationship. The constant gnawing anxiety and self-doubt were very familiar and put me in a bad space mentally.

Since I chose it because I wasn't feeling mentally up for a more challenging book and wanted a cute and fluffy romance... I feel rather deceived. The heavy topics ought to be mentioned in the description and the cover should also give a clue that this book is a lot darker than it first seems.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Rachel Stockbridge for providing an e-arc for review.

I am surely a sap for sapphic stories and new adult ones are always my favorites. Angsty best friends that secretly have feelings for each other? Sign me up!!

Sasha and Kinsey meet as roommates the year before the beginning of our story. Kinsey is reeling from a messy breakup with her cheating ex girlfriend/roommate. Sasha has had feelings for Kinsey from the moment she met her in class. The two seem like an unlikely pair of friends, let alone anything more. Sasha is an affectionate jock and Kinsey is a cynical art major. Needless to say, their relationship is off to a bumpy start. But it gives “grumpy/sunshine” vibes and I live for it.

Once our story starts, Kinsey and Sasha are no longer roommates but Sasha is still hopelessly in love with Kinsey. She practically follows Kinsey around like a lost puppy, flirting whenever she is given the chance. Nonetheless, Kinsey is unsure of whether or not Sasha’s feelings is genuine, or just overly friendly and joking.

Despite the secretiveness of Kinsey and Sasha’s feelings, this is NOT a coming out story. Both characters are out and confident in their sexuality. Their ONLY problem is what they both believe to be unrequited love.

When a family emergency strikes, Kinsey is once again a mess. Sasha, on the other hand, is ready to spring into action. She is willing to do whatever she needs to do to support Kinsey in her time of need. Will the forced proximity of a long road trip and a tiny hotel room make our characters finally open up and admit their feelings?

This story deals with family trauma, emotional intimacy issues, and a whole lot of pining. If you are looking for spice, this may not be the book for you. But if you want a sweet and quick sapphic read, you’ll enjoy The Map To You.

I received an arc from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The first thing that called out to me about this book was the super cute cover! This is supposed to be book 2 in a series but I did not realize this before starting it. You can definitely read this as a stand-alone book. This book was super fun and a quick read. This is a love story but also about friendship. I also loved that this was a sapphic love story as well. Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes to read.

I love this book! It was definitely one of the best I've read in a while. The characters are super realistic and their struggles feel real and make you worry about them.
Sasha's story is heartbreaking and it really proves that while all kids deserve parents, not all parents deserve children!
I'm very glad that Sasha and Kinsey found their happiness in each other and I 100% reccomend this book! You'll be in for a wild ride!

Trigger warnings:
-Mentions of death
-Parental abuse
-Neglect
-Alcoholism and drug addiction
-Cheating
-Injuries
-Guilt-tricking

Thank you NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exhange for an honest review!

I definitely had an emotional rollercoaster that i was not expecting while reading this book.
Sometimes a cover alone can really give off an impression of what a story could be like, in which case i imagined a fluffy and cute sapphic story, however that was not the case with this book.
It was definitely light hearted at most, but there was also a lot of angsty moments as well which at times made me shed a few tears.
I found myself relating to both main characters. Sasha, who is an athletic, sarcastic and cheerful persona, thoughtful of others and very caring, and Kinsey, who is definitely a bookworm (ayyy me too, me too) and more serious, as well as more timid and grumpy.

Their dynamic is honestly super cute as i found myself giggling at their playful banters, as well as face-palming at their awkwardness and lack of communication when it came to expressing emotions.

The book does touch some sensitive topics in regards to drug addiction, abuse and mental health which is what threw me off guard as i did not anticipate it, but i do think that the author delt decently with the topics. However, in case this might be a triggering to some readers, i want to put the information out there.

I will admit that Rachel's writing style wasn't my favourite, though it didn't detter my experience from the story as i did enjoy the characterization and plot. I think that the author did a superb job writing each character, especially Sasha and Kinsey who felt truly relatable as people and realistic in behaviour and dialogue, making them three-dimensional.

Overall i do think that this is a nice sapphic romance story and urge others to check it out and form their opinions on it!

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great story!

I wanna call it a romcom, but the 'com' part is more having to do with character's sense of humour more than any circumstances of the story. Also, I'm not sure I'd classify it as a pure romance strictly based on the fact that it's not nearly as spicy as I've grown accustomed NA sapphic romances being, so I'd probably classify it more as a slice-of-life story than anything else, in spite of the cutesy cover image. All of which is mainly nitpicky stuff, mostly just me codifying things for myself.

So, I am in love with Sasha and Kinsey, they were amazing, and super cute together <i>when they were allowed to be</i>. This story deals with some heavy subject matters on the parts of the lead characters, particularly Sasha, which isn't a diss on Kinsey's issues, at all, but that mother...wow. And their issues take up a great deal of the running time of the book, allowing a lot less for the cutesy times. When the book gets into the characters heads, it's often very effective. A standout example of this is when Sasha decides getting drunk is the way to deal with her problems...at the time, she's starting to spiral and I was right tf there with her, I felt anxious and like the walls were closing in and there were too many people about and everything was just <b>too loud</b>, even though I was reading the book at my relatively quiet desk at work. Very, very effective writing at that point.

If I have any issues at all with the book it's that, because of the structure chosen for the book (3rd person limited POV), it sometimes felt we were told how characters were feeling twice, once by the narration, and then again at a later point when the protagonists talked out their problems, either with their respective sounding boards (Beatrice for Kinsey and Trevor for Sasha). Also, maybe it's me but Beatrice was a touch idealized as far as best friends go...perfect advice, perfect boyfriend, etc, especially compared to say Nova, whose intentions were equally as good, but she was also a bit more flawed and multidimensional. I dunno, could have been because she spent more time with Sasha and Kinsey but I couldn't help but wonder if it was because Beatrice was the main character of Rachel's previous book and it was an author's love of her previous lead coming out.

Those minor points aside, I gained a lot of enjoyment out of this book and it's characters. It's a tight story, very character focused, and I would definitely read more sapphic slice-of-life tales from Rachel.

This book was an emotional roller coaster, to say the least. If you want to read a book that handles trauma well, then this is the book you should go for. I really liked that the trauma Sasha went through isn't watered down; it was very real and heartbreaking. My favorite part of reading the book was seeing how Sasha came to terms with her trauma, instead of running from it. I thought it was very inspiring, seeing a character come back after going through all that.
I wish the romance was more slow burn though. I would've liked to see the characters solve their problems as friends first, rather than lovers. There was a lot of tension with them being lovers when Sasha still didn't open up to Kisney about her past.
Overall, I liked the book! It had its heavy and light moments. I thought it had a good mix of wholesomeness and serious topics. I would recommend this book to anyone!

I was drawn to this book because of its premise and the promise of a sapphic best-friends-to-lovers situation. While there are certain aspects I enjoyed—mostly the bonding between the main characters during the roadtrip section—I can’t say I was blown away. The book feels more YA than Romance/New Adult, and the plot in the second half of the book relies heavily on a dramatic lack of communication between the characters to create conflict. That communication issue feels unearned because the book sets these girls up as best friends from the start. So, despite the emotional baggage the characters are bringing to this relationship, the reader has no reason to believe the girls would act that way with each other. That being said, I did enjoy getting to know Kinsey Han. She's a super interesting main character, and I wish I could have seen (or read) her be happy for a bit before the HAE.

*This ARC was provided through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

Thanks to Netgalley and the author for the ARC of this. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

This was so cute! I loved the chemistry and backstory (friendship) between the main characters, and I felt like the side characters despite not being on page much were well developed and added to the story. The required romance misunderstanding was a little meh, but overall I enjoyed reading this and rooting for love. It was slower burn than I usually go for in a romance, but it was sweet and easy to read. I definitely want to go back and read the first one.

Officially this book is part of a series, but trust me, you can definitely read this as a standalone. The characters are different from the first book!

That being said, I can tell you that I really liked this book. It was really good and entertaining. It was a book that was fun and a pretty quick read. In the way, that it is not a difficult book to understand. It’s a book I would read if I needed a break from studying or my head was just overflowing. The book is fun, a bit cheesy, and so sweet. It’s a love story, but so much more than that. It’s about friendship, family, trust.

This immediately leads me to the second thing I loved about this book, the characters. Sasha, being a bit grumpy and thinking no one likes her because of that, and Sasha feeling like she can’t share her issues with others. They both are made to be seen as very realistic characters, having their issues and insecurities. Their chemistry is adorable, and I immediately wanted them to get together. The mental struggles Sasha is going through are relatable to everyone to some degree, at least I think so.

The story moves smoothly, there are no questions left unanswered and everything develops at the right pace. The girls get closer and their story gets entangled more and more. You just start rooting for them. There were so many cute moments that made my heart flutter and feel all warm and happy. Of course, there also were moments that I wanted to scream at Sasha and Kinsey: “These two idiots, why don’t they see it!”. In a good way of course.

The reason I’m giving it four stars though is that I had some trouble getting through the middle part of the book. It failed to grab my attention and keep me interested. I would read a few pages and then I would want to do something else again. When I was at the 70 percent mark of the book I got into it again and finished it in one go. But that is why I can’t say this is the perfect book.

Review of The Map to You by Rachel Stockbridge

Thank you NetGalley for providing me access to this eARC of Rachel Stockbridge’s fantastic New Adult romance novel, The Map to You!

The Map to You is about two college students, Kinsey and Sasha, who didn’t exactly have the best introduction: Kinsey was upset because she had just broken up with her girlfriend and Sasha was trying to cope with the fact that her crush (Kinsey) was going to be her new roommate. Over a year later, the two live in different dorms and have a close friendship they cherish. When Kinsey’s mom has a health-scare at the beginning of the spring semester, it’s Sasha who drives Kinsey cross-country to be with her parents at the hospital. During their road-trip, Sasha’s past starts to creep up on her. As the story progresses, Kinsey and Sasha are confronted with the weight of their romantic feelings for each other. This story is perfect for people who are connoisseurs of the they-were-roommates trope, the there was only one bed trope, and the friends-to-lovers trope.
5 out of 5 stars

This book is a dual POV story and readers are given a glimpse into both Kinsey’s and Sasha’s heads which is excellent because Kinsey and Sasha are both extremely loveable. Kinsey describes herself as cranky and grumpy and sure, she is those things, but she also loves fiercely and is protective of the people closest to her. Sasha is an adorkable jock who would rather flirt than talk about her feelings. Both characters learn to open themselves up and trust each other more during their road-trip down south and the events that follow.

This story is hilarious and filled with endearing characters, but there are also discussions of potentially triggering topics like child abuse, toxic relationships, and mentions of drug and alcohol abuse (not by the main characters).

The Map to You by Rachel Stockbridge comes out January 25, 2022, so be on the look out for it!

This was an enjoyable NA book by an author I hadn't read before. This is apparently the second book in a series, and I was unaware of that going in until I was finished with the book so it's fair to say this stands on it's own.

The Map to You follows Sasha Deforest and Kinsey Han who are close friends at NYU. Sasha has had a crush on Kinsey for a while now and has been too afraid to tell her upfront so she deflects her feelings to Kinsey in the form of sarcastic flirting. Kinsey met Sasha right after her heart was broken and after getting through that, started to get feelings for Sasha, but doesn't think exuberant Sasha will ever have feelings for an introvert pessimist like Kinsey. So they both keep their feelings to themselves until a sudden road trip brings them even closer together.

A new favorite book! Stockbridge is a very talented author with a distinctive writing style that leaves me wanting more. Very well done!