Review: When We Collided by Emery Lord

Title: When We Collided
Author: Emery Lord
Publisher: Bloomsbury 
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Hardcover, 352 Pages
Published April 2016

Summary: Jonah never thought a girl like Vivi would come along. Vivi didn’t know Jonah would light up her world. Neither of them expected a summer like this…a summer that would rewrite their futures. In an unflinching story about new love, old wounds, and forces beyond our control, two teens find that when you collide with the right person at just the right time, it will change you forever.

I'm going to admit, the first thing that made me interested in this book was the cover, which is something that I shouldn't really say because judging a book by its cover is bad and everything. But the truth of the matter is, the book first made it onto my radar when I was looking through the 2016 releases and saw the cover. It made me look into the book more, and I realized that the story was super intriguing. I'm a sucker for summer romances, so I was excited to delve into this book.

There were things about this book that I liked, and also a few things that I wasn't so crazy about. I'm going to start with the things I didn't like before I wrap it up with the positives. (This is in no way a bashing review, and author Emery Lord is such a sweetheart and I have nothing against her personally whatsoever!!)

The thing that bothered me the most about this book was definitely the insta-love factor. Vivi and Jonah pretty much have a "thing" from the minute they meet. I get that it's the whole "love at first sight" kind of thing, but it struck me as way too much like insta-love, which is my biggest pet peeve ever. (If any of you guys are longtime followers of The Book Bratz, you'd know that I tend to rant about insta-love a lot, because I can't stand it.) So when I started to detect insta-love in the story, it definitely turned me off to it a little bit. 

(There are some spoilers ahead so please skip to the next paragraph if you haven't read the book yet!) Another thing that I wasn't crazy about in this book was the ending. I didn't like how Vivi spiraled off on such a manic episode and treated Jonah so poorly, but what I think I disliked even more than that was when she left without saying goodbye. Having them not end up together was a shocking sort of letdown, but that was Lord's choice to write, so I obviously can't fault her for that. What bothered me more was the fact that even when Vivi knew she was breaking Jonah's heart, she decided to twist the knife a little more by leaving him a note on a tree instead of saying goodbye to his face. 

The ending also leaves you with a more than a few questions, like what happens to Vivi and Jonah and the bistro and their families and what happens between Vivi and her friends, and Vivi and her father, and all of that stuff. Just leaves you with a bunch of unanswered questions.

If you've read this far, you probably are thinking that this is a negative review and I hated this book and you definitely shouldn't pick it up. Wrong. I actually did enjoy this book -- I enjoyed everything about it except for the few things that I pointed out earlier. I loved Vivi's character, because she was so spontaneous and whimsical and creative. It was definitely entertaining to see the things she did and the situations she got herself into, and how rash yet brave she was. She was definitely a character that I longed to be more like.

I also loved the relationship between her and Jonah. Everything about them was sweet, sexy, and just so gosh darn adorable. You could tell that even if they fell in a love a little bit too fast, they genuinely cared about one another. I enjoyed reading about their adventures and their escapades. Their summer love was definitely something to admire, because even if it wasn't perfect, it was definitely something to envy.

All in all, I liked When We Collided. It was a fascinating, different love story about finding the person that's a match for you and making it work even when things feel tough and wrong. I enjoyed the characters and the story line. If you're looking for a summer read with a bit of drama and weight behind the story, this book is definitely the book for you. (And author Emery Lord is pretty awesome, too!)