*In the Orbit of You* by Ashley Schumacher is a heartfelt and beautifully crafted story that captures the complexities of love, loss, and self-discovery. Schumacher's tender prose and relatable characters make this novel a compelling and emotionally resonant read.

There is beauty in the unknowing and in the knowing. This book dives into the unpacking of it and the connection between Nova and Sam.

Sam and Nova were childhood friends. Together, they invented an imaginary world called “snailopolis” with adornments in the dirt and, of course, snails. It was largely to take them away from the reality of the bruises and cigarette burns on Sam’s body. The very ones that Nova kissed when Sam moved away to live with his uncle. The two promised to find each other again one day.

Over a decade later, Nova is tired of constantly moving for her mom’s job. She can hardly unpack and forget about making friends. Now, she is at another school in her junior year of high school. But then Nova can’t believe it—Sam is here—it’s her Sam.

This was a very heartwarming story about long-lost friends reunited. Sam and Nova had had an incredible bond. Sam had a horribly abusive home life, and Nova was his refuge, his comfort. But when they reunite, Sam has a new life—he’s a football player with friends and a girlfriend, so Nova does her best not to interfere. But call it fate or destiny, Sam and Nova can’t seem to forget their promise to each other all those years ago.

There are some really cute and touching scenes that melted my heart. I enjoyed both Sam and Nova, but I wouldn’t call this an angsty YA romance. Yes, they started to develop feelings for each other, but you don’t get the tension and heat like in some romances. This is more about the struggle of losing each other for good. While this touches on important and serious topics, it doesn’t get heavy or dark; it’s more about Sam and Nova’s relationship.

3.5 ⭐️

Thank you @wednesdaybooks for the gifted ebook via Netgalley.

I thought I could give this two stars, but I started to write this and realized it's a one-star review. I'm so mad because it had so much promise with a cute idea but went down the drain with a cheating trope. To make matters worse, the MMC is cheating with the FMC, but they are doing it "privately so no one gets hurt" (🙄😒 I hate people), and, to make matters even worse, the MMC's girlfriend's previous boyfriend cheated on her. I thought maybe they would be better people, but the emotional cheating went on, which kept losing my interest in pushing through by the 50% mark. By then, I only liked Abagail (the girlfriend) and his two friends. If it weren't a cheating trope, I would have enjoyed the book as the author writes good prose.

'In the Orbit of You' by Ashley Schumacher is a sweet childhood-friends-to-lovers story, which is one of my favourite tropes. I wish the secondary characters had been a little more developed, but I really liked the couple. In all, it was a cute book.

Really sweet YA novel about young love. I was fully swept away by the emotions in book and think readers of all ages will enjoy it!

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest reviews. All opinions are my own.

Very cute YA novel. The characters are wonderful, flaws and all.

I really loved the characters that the author created, flaws and all. I viscerally felt their attraction to each other.
But I couldn't get over the cheating aspect of the storyline and just wanted Sam to have been honest with his girlfriend.

3.5 Stars

This was a book that sucked me in quickly and kept me wanting to read, but might be hard for some because I think it perfectly captures the messy moments of teenagers on the precipice of ADULT LIFE and how monumental that can feel when fate throws in what appears to be a cosmic connection.

There is a lot of poor teenage decision making around blurring the lines of friendship and cheating, but I felt like it was a truly honest portrayal of how complicated that can feel and how despite best interests, it can be so easy to justify the things you want while trying to be the good person when really, you are making a selfish decision regardless of consequences.

As an adult, I was able to read this with hindsight and it really gave me so much nostalgia and FEELS while also making me scream because my fully developed brain is screaming at Nova and Sammy's totally undeveloped ones like WTF ARE Y'ALLL DOING BUT ALSO I GET IT BECAUSE *FEELS*.

Somewhat of a sidebar on the "cheating" complaints in other reviews. I think this is important and will try to be vague, but wanted to warn you of potential plot spoiling in case this gives too much of the plot away:

My junior and senior year of high school I was with a guy who I really loved and I know he really cared about me. But as we started to go through our senior year and make a lot of big decisions, we were torn in different directions of what we wanted. This made us hold on to something that wasn't really working, mostly out of habit and also because IT'S HIGH SCHOOL AND NO ONE WANTS TO EXPERIENCE THAT ALONE WHEN YOU ARE IN A RELATIONSHIP ALREADY BECAUSE OMG EVERYONE KNOWS Y'ALL AS A COUPLE. So, when he cheated on me, I was heartbroken and STILL tried to hold on to the remnants of what was instead of seeing it as the break he was trying to give both of us.

In this book, Sammy and Nova have a kismet sort of reconnection after being each other's "soulmates" in kindergarten...and I say soulmate because I don't know how else to describe it (the author spends much of the book having the characters try to describe i, ultimately having them realize it's bigger than words. It was love in its purest and kindness form. So when they see each other at the end of high school by complete fate, they are immediately drawn back together. Sammy has a girlfriend, Abigail. Sammy and Abigail are the couple that is classic high school, but Abigail is kind and not mean etc. So it's painful to read from the POVs of Sammy and Nova as they try to be respectful of boundaries while also feeling that they are not in control of fate (and hormones) pulling them together.

I say all of this because while some disparage this book for being a massive cheating trope and for being a horrible example to the targeted audience, I feel like it actually is a great example of what they are feeling and often witnessing in the purest of forms. SO many of us want to be seen as the good person regardless of our actions and attempt to justify them vs owning them and apologizing or instead, for having just been the bad person in the first place. This was a beautiful depiction of this very common moment in so many teenagers' lives.

I was the Abigail. My bf was Sammy. And just like Nova, there was a girl who was kindness and complicated feelings that came in-between the cracks of an already fracturing relationship. While it was HORRIBLE to live out (I didn't handle it nearly as gracefully or as well-adjustedly as Abigail did), this story was all of the feelings I knew I felt throughout that stage of my life. I also was attracted to someone else, blurred the lines, and tried to justify. I just was never caught in these feelings and never fully crossed a line, so somehow I became the good person and victim of a cheating debacle.

Young Aduklt audiences need books like this. Not for the romance of it, but for the ability to share the message of: HEY YOOU ARE AT A TIME IN YOUR LIFE WHERE YOU HAVE TO BE SELFISH AND MAKE DECISIONS THAT HURT OTHERS: CHOOSE THE LEAST DESTRUCTIVE WHEN YOU CAN AND BE CONSIDERATE OF OTHERS AS YOU NAVIGATE THIS CLUSTERFUCK OF A TIME IN YOUR LIFE.

Obviously, this book resonated with me, a mid-30s person who could be these characters parent, but is sitting right in their feelings with them with the added hindsight of WHOA THIS COULD REALLY GET MESSY. I'll leave you with the following quote from Abigail towards the end of the book, that really captures what I think is the actual heart of this book:

"'You're trying to get out of this and still feel good about yourself,' she says. 'You're trying to justify everything. It's not my job to fix that for you.' ... 'I knew something was wrong and I should have pushed harder, should have <i>made you</i> talk to me or broken things off myself but . . . I thought it could last, you know?'"

and then:

"'You might [get together],' she interrupts. "And maybe you should, but not now. You need to figure out your shit and let her figure out hers, first. That way neither of you gets hurt because of rushing something that need time to brew.'
'I'm sorry, Abigail,' I say again.
Abigail stands, offering her hand to pull me up behind her.
'Don't be sorry,' she says. '<b>Do better.</b>'"

📚 Book Review 📚

A big thank you to #wednesdaybooks for the #gifted copy of #InTheOrbitofYou !!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📖 In the Orbit of You by Ashley Schumacher

Close friends separated as kids reunite as teens.

What to expect:

💋 Romance
💝 Friends to Lovers
😩 Pining
🐌 Slow Pace

Spice: 🌶️/5

Quick thoughts:

✨ Sparks fly between Nova and Sam.
✨ I wanted more from the story.
✨ A lot of back and forth, will they won’t they.
✨ Felt like nothing really happened.

Overall thoughts:

When Nova and Sam bonded over snails by the fence separating their yards as kids they never thought the day would come where they would be separated. However, it did come and for a good reason as Nova would eventually come to realize.

After years of moving around Nova finally lands in a school where she believes she can just be herself. Fate has other plans though when the boy she thought she’d never see again comes back into her life. As the two teenagers are magnetically drawn together they must decide what their futures will look like and whether or not that means staying together or parting once more.

I was completely absorbed by this story. The premise was so intriguing. The idea of finding love as a child and then being separated was heartbreaking. I couldn’t wait for them to be reunited.

Sparks flew off the page between Nova and Sam. Their chemistry was executed beautifully. I was invested every step of the way.

It wasn’t until about two-thirds of the way through that I realized nothing really had happened in the story. I love character driven novels and this is definitely character driven but it needed something more, something felt missing.

This is a will they won’t they, sweet romance full of pining. I recommend reading it and seeing how you feel about it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Goodreads: 3.85
YA Romance

⁉️ How do you feel about will they won’t they romances?

What a sweet young love and romance between two who are just starting out in life. Bonding over mutual pains the two get closer during school in this lovely novel.

This was a really sweet novel of kids who grew up together and were suddenly moved away from each other reuniting in high school. Can their friendship pick up where it left off or will it not survive the changes to who they are now. I give it 3.5 stars

“I sound like a damsel, like a princess after the knight saves her from the dragon. And I know I’m empowered and can fight my own dragons, but is it so wrong to want him here kissing my hand in the dark?”

This one was hard to rate. Ashley Schumacher’s writing is so easy to read. I flew through this and wanted to find out where the story was leading. However, neither of the main characters were particularly like-able because of the choices they were making. Sam’s people pleasing was off the charts and Nova put way too much pressure on herself to figure out the course of her life during her junior year in high school. I had a lot of empathy for both characters due to their childhood experiences, but I still wanted them to make better choices in the story.

Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

Read if you like:
Second chance friendships
Adoption stories
YA angst

I absolutely loved Ashley Schumacher’s debut, Amelia Unabridged, and then I enjoyed her second book too. After that I don’t know if I’ve just “outgrown” them, but they are definitely more teen/YA driven. And while I do enjoy a good YA from time to time these just aren’t hitting the spot for me.

I would still recommend it as I’m sure for the right crowd it would be well received - it might just be time for me to move on.

3.5. This is the type of book I would have devoured as a teenager, so in that respect I think it works for its intended audience. But there's a healthy amount of emotional cheating (that turns into physical cheating at one point), and that's a real sticking point for me. Still, the whole angsty "fated mates" aspect makes sense here and leads to a (somewhat) realistic ending.

This is a beautiful story of love, loss, trauma and finding your way back to your true self. The author does a great job of telling this story through both characters. When it comes to child trauma the one thing, we do remember is what was good and sometimes it is one person who made your horrible situation bearable. That person for Sam was Nova, she was one good thing he could count on and when he had to leave her, they made a promise to find each other when they are older.

What neither of expect is a personality test they both take, and they are match. Nova is used to new schools as her mom's jobs have them moving all the time. But this move is different, when she sees Sam she knows right away and he does not, so she thinks he has forgotten her. But when he sees her name on the test it all comes back to him, the past the trauma and that one true friend. Suddenly everything they thought they wanted is changing, and that all-consuming. Can they move forward outside the orbit the built.?

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for copy of this book for my honest review.

This story follows the unfolding love story of Nora and Sam. The story begins when they were kids and neighbors and bonded through a hole in the fence. One day Sam reveals he is moving away and they make a promise to find each other in the future. Years go by and they end up in the same high school. Sam is a star football player and has a girlfriend. Meanwhile, Nora had been moved around from place to place, never finding a stable home environment with her mother. Once there is a realization that they have found each other again, their connection picks right back up where it left off.

This was a friend’s to lovers trope folded into a coming of age story. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I won’t say much, but there is cheating involved in the story and that was a bit off putting for me. So, if that’s a trigger or dislike for you - this may not be a book for you. The characters choices were not the best at times, and I personally found that to get in the way of me fully enjoying the story as well. With that being said it was an interesting read, so I'm rating it 3 stars.

Thank you to Wednesday Books + NetGalley for the copy of this book.*

Ashley Schumacher has a way of pulling at my heart strings with each book I read and it's never a disappointment. Nova and Sam's worlds combine after many years apart. Their chemistry is undeniable. Their self-discovert is beautiful and the ending is absolute perfection.

No one can evoke an emotional response like Ashley can. Her books will forever be some of the most evocative in the genre.

This book is Ashley's best work since Amelia Unabridged. I absolutely loved it (I couldn't get enough) and it was incredibly wholesome and heartwarming. This book reminded me why I adore the childhood friends to lovers trope - it's the best one I've ever read.

In the novel In the Orbit of You, Ashley maintains her exceptional writing streak by portraying a young woman who constantly relocates with her single mother, preventing her from establishing roots or forming meaningful friendships. Nova, currently a high school junior, has explored various personalities and interests throughout her educational journey. Now, as she confronts a new school and contemplates her true identity, she is surprised to encounter Sam, her childhood best friend and next-door neighbor. They spent time together outside and vowed to locate each other after he moved.

Whenever he encounters Nova, he's filled with fear about reconnecting with his past, but he can't resist the irresistible connection to his dear friend.

Nova and Sam revisit their friendship, only to find that there are complicated feelings involved. And each of them has things to figure out about themselves. How can they possibly move forward with it?