3.5 ⭐️

This book follows three friends, Grace, Isa, and Everett as they skip school to try to fix and figure out their relationships, while Grace's brother James tries to find them. It's a take on Ferris Bueller's Day Off (and includes a lot of pop culture references). There are 4 POVs and I really liked Grace's (and Grace/Everett overall).

My biggest issues were: There was too much going on. Because of this, I never got into all the characters or their relationships. I didn't like Isa's character and James was separated from them for a lot of the book, so their relationship fell flat for me. Some things never had satisfactory conclusions either. I wanted an epilogue! And 2) there was a lot of telling, not showing. I liked Grace/Everett, but sometimes it seemed like Isa was more important to Everett than Grace was. It was weird.

Author K.L. Walther does a great job seamlessly interweaving 4 POVs and some flashbacks. All 4 of our main characters get to narrate, and 'While We're Young' is all the better for it!

Miss Student Body President and everyone-loves-her, Grace, is the mastermind behind an unofficial Senior Skip Day during which she goes joy riding all around Philadelphia with her two best friends, Isa and Everett. Though the trio's friendship did not heal in the aftermath of Everett breaking up with Isa, years ago, Grace has remained close with both. She designed their Philadelphia itinerary with the goal to heal the friendship between them.

This is simultaneously a light and fluffy, feel-good read while also touching upon heavy topics. The secrets these teens keep from each other are fairly minor, and make for some really good witty banter and heartfelt friendship reconciliation - Grace's crush on Everett kept from Isa because of girl-code, and Isa sharing kisses with Grace's brother, James. The heavier topics involve death of a parent, potentially losing a house they grew up in, and cheating on a spouse.

Super cute. If you're a fan of 80s teen movies and YA rom-coms, you'll enjoy this book. I enjoyed the adventure aspect as well as getting to see all four characters points of views.

DNF at 26%. Boring and redundant. I wasn’t interested in the authors style at all and didn’t find it worth my time.

I love her stories that remind me of all the beautiful and difficult parts of being young, in love, in complicated friendships. This group of friends has been bonded since childhood but have grown apart and become much more complicated. Before they graduate Grace wants to take a trip to Philadelphia to try and mend things. Obviously there’s romance, difficult topics like depression and she captured all of it really well.

4.25⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ i loved this book so much. from the references to some of the best movies to the dynamics and characters themselves, it was such a fun a cute book that keeps you intrigued and rooting for the characters. i loved the storyline and how it was dealt with and just how all of the characters talked things through and cared for one another. i also really appreciated the depth we got to everyone which added lots of emotional aspects into the book. highly recommend and i can’t wait to have the physical copy of this book next year and to read more books by walther. my favorite of hers yet!

A solid cute YA story, just not the most outstanding for me personally and deserving of four/five stars.

What a fun read! I loved how each of the friend group had a POV and a purpose to needing a day off/reconnecting with one another. The banter, side quests, and history were fun. I am not sure if this story connects to Walther’s other books but it did feel like it ended abruptly or there was context missing. It was a great snapshot of this one day, but I still yearned for an epilogue with updates if there were consequences, or how college life was treating them. I also wanted to know more about the parent friend group dynamic and peer more into their childhood! Overall I wanted more, which is good rating for me because I know I would read more from this author!

i enjoyed this book just didn’t give me a 5 star feeling! had great vibes and it was a really fun time, will recommend and purchase the book once it’s out

KL Walther does no wrong, I’m obsessed with her books, and The Summer of Broken Rules is one of my all time favorites. She just tells a great story, and makes you feel comfortable and giddy reading it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's | Delacorte Romance for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The story follows a group of teens who were once inseparable, bonded through family ties and childhood friendships. As they grew older, their relationships changed and became more complex. In a final effort to repair things between her best friends before they all head to different colleges, Grace organizes a day where she, Isa, and Everett skip school to have an adventure in Philadelphia. The day takes many unexpected turns. Meanwhile, Grace's brother, James, spends the day trying to figure out what is going on and later trying to track down his sister and friends.

K.L. Walther beautifully captures the bittersweetness of growing up. One minute, you're in the comfort of childhood, and the next, you're on the cusp of adulthood, facing life's tough realities. There is a lot of underlying tension within the friend group as secrets are revealed and buried feelings come to light. This coming-of-age story shows how quickly things can change and that you should enjoy each moment before it passes.

While romance is a key element, this book also explores deeper themes like grief, depression, anxiety, loyalty, and forgiveness. This sweet story is inspired by Ferris Bueller's Day Off (and as someone who was raised on 80's movies, I loved the little nods throughout the book). This was a sweet read, but I think this book would be better appreciated by younger readers who are on the edge of big life changes.

2.5 ⭐️

Thank you Netgallery for this ARC! It was a quick and easy read, I loved that it was kind of like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and had an interesting spin to it! The ending did feel very rushed which I personally didn’t enjoy and there were still questions that I had that weren’t answered. I did enjoy the Taylor Swift references as always!

do you know and love the movie ferris bueller’s day off? well, this movie retelling is definitely made for you !!! i need to confess and say that i haven't seen the movie YET but i added to my letterboxd watchlist !

in this book, grace invites isa and everett to an adventure in the city even though they have class but that’s another subject, grace’s intention you may ask is to revive the trio ! how her brother james enters the fun day even when he needs to attend school due to attending and actually shouldn’t know about the trio missing class? this guy fooled everyone and isa let it slide that she was hanging out with his sister ! what can i say, he’s my fav <3 graduation is closer than ever and they will be separated even if they don’t want to so let’s join their amazing day !

the secret is that isa and everett haven’t talked in the past years because they’re exes… but grace believes they can be friends again ! what she doesn’t know is that isa is hanging out with her brother… they just aren’t dating because james wants grace to know about it and isa is concerned that their friendship will be over. while poor isa has no idea that grace likes everett and that it’s reciprocate, but they don’t acknowledge it. what a fun mess !!!!

from the bottom of my heart, i really had fun with this read because, even though i spent 12 hours with this group, i was able to feel like a high schooler again. when we’re kids, all we want is to be considered an adult and when we’re done with school and college, we want to be kids again. that’s why i love this book, how can you not feel the same emotions as the characters?? especially when they almost encountered with principal unger LMAOOO

thank you to netgalley, random house children’s books and klw for sending me this arc <3 kaethe i swear, i better see all of them in the future because i already miss them !

I love K.L. Walther's writing. This book reminded me so much of my senior year in high school. I really liked how you got to see all different view points of each character throughout the day. I loved how this adventure heals some relationships and allows the characters to grow from their past. I would recommend this book to the high school or young college age person. I was a little older than I think the target audience, but I love the author and her writing that I was so happy to get this ARC.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House for the ARC of this book. I really enjoyed it!

my public review:
"I realized I was way late on this review when I had a dream about the book LOL
𐬹 ۫ ۪ <i> picture ferris bueller but instead of the principal chasing them, it's ferris' sister (all genders are reversed in this book, so it's technically the fmc's brother!)</i>

QUAD-POV (very easy to follow!)
BEST FRIEND'S BROTHER
MISCOMMUNICATION . . .

i loved this book!!! the redone ferris bueller's day off was SO fun. it's a comfort movie that i watch with my family every so often, and K.L. Walther did a stunning job of recreating it, paying it's dues to the original movie (the sneaky interviewer had me giggling.)

<b>YAY!</b>
╰𓇼 the characters were lovable!!!! i adored isa and everett, they made me swoon and sigh and wish i was there to be their friend.
╰𓇼 LA LA LAND MENTION! "big day for annoying people"!!!!!!
╰𓇼grace and isa's meeting story was original and cute, i lovvvevlovleoloveloved it so so much!!!
╰𓇼 "my heart somersaulted.
that boy."
OH MY GOODNESS

<b>BOO!</b>
╰𓇼 the use of the word "slay"... maybe never do that again?
╰𓇼 the bullying of pink pantsuits. WHAT did elle woods ever do to you?
╰𓇼 the complete miscommunication and dancing-around-the-topic

OVERALL I loved each character, the plot, the way it was written (cheesy white girl romance! just like K.L.'s other book i've read) and the book as a whole.
i can't wait for it's release so i can buy it and annotate my favorite parts all over again!!

<b> pre read </b> ✧⋆ ˚｡⋆
i've read ONE book by K.L. Walther before, so i'm guessing by the description of this one it'll be like better than the movies with a lot more taylor swift references!!"

BUT, i was pleasantly surprised with this book, and would rate it 3.5 if goodreads and netgalley had half stars. There weren't any obnoxious taylor swift references, bad moments (aside from principal unger's pink pantsuit slander!), or any gay best friends. I love having all types of gay best friends, and i think this would've been a good book to include one in, if it was done right.
I think the stereotyping of a queer comedic relief character has become disrespectful, obnoxious, and just there for people to be able to say that it does, in fact, have lgbtq+ representation, no matter how small. I love that this book stayed true to the characters, and there was nothing anyone did that i would say "what! that's out of character!" to.
K.L. did a fabulous job on this, and i will be buying the physical copy as soon as it's out on paperback!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children for sending me a digital ARC. I loved The Summer of Broken Rules and was so excited about the opportunity to read this new book early. Unfortunately, it fell a little flat for me. While it was an easy and enjoyable read, I didn't feel super connected to the story or the characters. I do think a younger audience will enjoy the adventure, but it was just too similar to its inspiration for me.

Such a fun read! Highly recommend.

Many thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

I’m of the Ferris Bueller generation so actually not the target audience. It does warm my heart, however, to see young people loving 80s pop culture.

The author makes no qualms that this is in fact a written remake of the iconic movie. There’s even a cameo scene where the three newspeople are named Sloan, Cam and Ferris. The difference in this remake is that you have opposite genders. “Ferris” is a female, Grace. “Jeanie,” Ferris’ sibling, is a male, James. “Cam” is a female, Isa. “Sloan” is a male, Everett. It’s interesting, but no doubt the original genders are way better. The plot is almost identical. Grace pretends to be sick so she can skip school to spend a day in the city with her friends. It’s over the top satire, just like in the movie, where the whole school and town rally behind Grace to get well. It takes her brother no time to figure out it’s all a hoax and skips school to find her and out her.

The part I did not like is the part that deviates from the movie. There’s a romantic subplot involving all four characters. Isa dated Everett 3 years ago. They broke up, but it’s never been fully resolved. Isa’s friend Grace has pined for Everett all this time and he for her, but neither are aware. Isa and James like each other, but also, both are clueless. All of this completely ruined the awesome Ferris plot. It was whiny and way too mushy. I came so close to removing another star over this, but the homage to my decade won out.

This book was such a fun delight to read!! Truly enjoyed this whole adventure from the first chapter to the last! If you grew up loving Ferris Beuller’s Day Off you will love this book. Three friends go off on an epic adventure planned by Grace. A day to rekindle friendships and have fun before going off to college. It was filled with humor, light hearted moments but also some topics that many teenagers experience in this age. There was a little bit of romance, friendship and a lot of mischief in this book. I loved the various points of view from each character to really get a full perspective on the whole day. I have always loved K.L Wather’s writing and the adventures her books take us on. With all her books there are various fun pop culture references, Taylor swift references and other movie references besides Ferris’s Bueller’s Day off. It’s just a fun light hearted read I think anyone would enjoy!

As always with Walthers writing I absolutely loved this one! I loved the Ferris Bueller's Day off vibe. I loved all of our main characters and their motivations for their adventures. Between the four different POVS you got more of a character driven story (which I'm usually not a fan of) as opposed to plot driven but it worked so well in this one. Overall this was such a fun read filled with adventure, charm, and character growth.