Format: Paperback
Published: July 6th, 2021
Age: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary – Romance
Rating: 5/5 Stars
I adored this book! I got so invested in Olivia and Toni’s story, and it’s in such a unique and vibrant setting. As it is from Leah Johnson, I wasn’t surprised by how much I liked this. Johnson has an ability at crafting realistic but stand out teen characters in a way that just draws you in. Something I definitely feel is a mark of good/bad YA is how I respond to the characters, too – I often find when it’s YA that’ll appeal to the market audience, I tend to feel like a parental or aunty figure towards the characters involved – I just want to reach through the pages and give them a big, big cwtch!
Partly this comes from remembering my own teen experiences and relating to the characters on that level. And here I related hard to Olivia – a girl who is in love with being in love, adjusting herself for whoever takes an interest in her, changing to be who she thinks they want her to be, and eventually ending up nursing a broken heart every time. For Olivia, she thinks it’s because of her – that she’s too much, that she makes the wrong moves. Her latest breakup is a particularly bad one, leaving her an outcast, with her mother and sister both looking down at her for her actions.
Johnson really allows us to get to know these characters, and it becomes clear that Olivia is, yes, flawed as everyone else, but someone who others take advantage of. In her family, she’s the scapegoat, while her sister is the golden child, leaving Olivia to seek validation elsewhere. Then there’s Toni, grieving after the death of her father and trying to work out what she wants in life – the stability of college and a career, or music like her father. Music took him away from his family, but Toni is still trying to work out who she is and what she wants.
Where Olivia is bubbly and talkative, Toni is quiet and closed off to guard against being hurt. Each are at the festival with their best friends, and it’s the interactions between the four that help this book really sparkle. As the weekend progresses, they get involved in a scavenger hunt and a music competition, bringing Olivia and Toni into close proximity.
I really loved how messy and flawed both girls were, as it made them so completely real. It also helped that the character development is handled really well, as Olivia especially tries to balance her growing feelings for Toni with her relationship with best friend Imani, something I think most teens struggle with on all sides as they grow up and dynamics shift, and Toni tries to work out which direction she wants her life to go in.
Both girls learn a lot about themselves, and their journeys make the ending that much sweeter. They grow as individual characters, allowing them both to ultimately do what’s best for them. It’s just a really sweet, delightful book about finding your place in the world and the power of music.
Reading Challenge
Musicals Reading Challenge 2025
Prompt: Kiss Me, Kate – Too Darn Hot – Set during summer OR makes you think of summer/heat
Progress: 2/24
Unwrapping Words 