Shit wtf this book was so emotional!! I actually found the POV duality a really neat story telling device, since the second POV is NOT the second love interest.

All the Way Home by Alex Ritany is a sweet, wholesome, thoughtful, young romance that explores mental health, family, changing identities, loss, the complexities of family and hard things unspoken, heteronormative and neurotypical relationship norms, healing, and the courage it takes to be honest and true in love.

Without ever feeling heavy-handed or weighed down by the significance of it all, All the Way Home is a feel-good little exploration of love in many forms.

The first chapter was a bit clunky for me, however Kieran and Zach became quickly endearing, especially once their adventure together properly began. And then, as the story unfolded I found myself laughing (Mara is delightful), blushing, and falling in love with their journey with wholesome delight.

I deeply appreciated the way Ritany handled the confusion and heartbreak of staying true to yourself as a young adult who is figuring themselves out, and the reality that hard conversations are, well, HARD... The only way through is THROUGH.

All the Way Home has some wonderful lessons for younger readers about the damage that avoidance can do, and the importance of reckoning, repairing, and reaching out for help so we don't have to navigate the painful stuff alone.

Kieran and Zach are lovable and irresistible. If you're a romance lover and like low angst journeys of self-discovery, you'll love this book.

I'm grateful to W. W. Norton & Company as well as NetGalley for the advanced reader copy so I could dive in early.

Gah, I really enjoyed this book! First, the cover is perfect, I kept going back to look at it. The title confused me until I realized it was part of a lyric from Let It Snow, and then it made total sense to the book. Typically I don't read YA, but this one looked too good to pass up and it more than exceeded my expectations. I want to be very clear upfront that this is not what I would call a sweet and fluffy book per se, it deals with mental health, identity, and the faulty perceptions we hold both for ourselves and the people around us. We are on a character journey here for sure.

As some have said before me, at first it threw me off to not have one of the main love interests be one our POVs, but it really did make sense for the themes of the book. To get the "not my favorite" part out of the way: Rena was frustrating as a narrator. Even though ultimately I was invested in her story and had a lot of empathy for her, I was frustrated with her the majority of the time. She was like a ketchup bottle, you just kinda wanted to shake her, even as you understood why she was being difficult.

Back to what made me love this book: Zach and Kieran. We start out with Zach, feeling very overwhelmed and anxious in the security line at the airport four days before Christmas, and a runaway water bottle introduces us to Kieran, or Teal Coat as we know him at first. These two were precious. The fact that the entire book takes place in 12 hours while their flight is continually delayed made the steady pacing all the more impressive. The romance actually felt realistic, despite it happening so fast. There is zero spice in this book, but I still got a little fluttery at times with their long looks and brave moments. Not being in Kieran's head ended up making this more intriguing I think, as we figured him out from Zach and Rena's perspective, and had to question our own perceptions about him as the book went on.

The only critique I have for the ending is I wanted a little more. An epilogue of maybe a year down the road at the following Christmas would have felt like the perfect way to end my time with these characters, but I still smiled all the way to the last word. If you want a holiday YA romance with a little extra heart to it, then I definitely recommend this book! 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own and freely given.

Ritany wrote a future bestseller in my modest and honest opinion. It is a brilliant novel I'll never stop recommending.

I’m so happy I got to read this!! All the Way Home is a perfect holiday romance to add to your reading list this year. Alex Ritany you ate this up!!