The Start of Me and You by: Emery Lord

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary
Published: March 31, 2015 by: Bloomsbury
Pages: 384
Rating: 4/5 stars

When Paige Hancock's boyfriend tragically died in a swimming accident, she thought that she would never love again. Now two years later and back at high school, Paige is determined to convince everyone that she is perfectly fine, so she decides to try and get her long-time crush Ryan to like her. But when Ryan's cute, nerdy cousin Max comes to town, Paige builds up a friendship with him, and she will need to learn whether it's worth holding onto the past, or looking towards the future.

I really, really liked the concept of the book. I'll admit when I first read the synopsis, I was a bit dubious. I thought that Paige would be really annoying and pushy, and that the plot would be boring and unoriginal, but what I got was a really sweet story about love and loss. It was really quite cute.

I actually really liked the characters in this book. I think in contemporaries the characters are usually hit or miss, but here they were definitely very well-rounded and likable. Paige seemed very relatable and not at all flat or boring, and Max was so incredibly cute! He was so kind and fun and really seemed like my dream type of guy. This book is definitely fluffy.

I really liked the concept of this as well. You would think that it would be very sad and dark, but it was actually very uplifting. You don't usually think about how a person gets back into the dating game after the loss of a partner, so I think that this book brought a unique take on a really sad issue. I think it could have been very motivating for people going through the same issue.

I guess the only thing I didn't like about this book was the stereotypical nerd/hot guy trope. I think because Max was nerdy and Ryan was the hot jock, it took Paige a long time to give Max the time of day, which kind of annoyed me. Why is there the stereotype that nerds are less attractive than jocks? this is coming from a fellow nerd.

Overall, I really liked this! It was cute and unique and also very easy to get through. Definitely a great contemporary read. Although watch out for stereotypes.

Have you read The Start of Me and You? What did you think?

Emily @ Paperback Princess