Possibly the sweetest coming-of-age novel ever penned.
High school is almost over and Honey Blackwell couldn’t be more prepared for her promising future. Honey’s parents’ alma mater, Texas A&M, has accepted her, her career is already guaranteed, and she has a long-term boyfriend with plans for a family. Honey only has to walk in the path that’s been set before her. Easy-peasy. Except everything about her happy ending feels like drudgery. What if her relationship with Luca is only one of convenience, rather than him being her soulmate? What if she doesn’t want to get into real-estate, even though that is what’s expected of her? What if she secretly got accepted into her dream college but it’s a thousand miles away? Leaving home would jeopardize everything she’s been working toward and devastate her family and boyfriend. But it is her future after all. “You can make yourself happy, or you can make everyone else happy.” So Honey turns to science to help make some difficult decisions. She and Luca decide to temporarily break up and date other people based on research about finding one’s perfect match. If they can’t find a soulmate in someone else, then their destiny must be together. From friends to family members, everyone in Stonebrook is sure that Honey and Luca are meant to be together. Everyone, that is, except Honey.
Possibly the sweetest coming-of-age novel ever penned, If We Break Up is an innocent look at love through the eyes of a kind-hearted girl who doesn’t want to disappoint anyone in her life, including herself. Readers will be able to immediately relate to Honey’s struggles as she takes on some very adult decisions, including weighing her stable and traditional future against unpredictable and exciting possibilities. It’s difficult not to love such an upbeat character, even as she experiences a crisis of conscience. The writing style is crisp and clean, enabling readers to enjoy weekend family cookouts and potentially awkward first date outings right along with Honey. If you’ve been looking for an innocent rom-com that is suitable for all readers, If We Break Up is sure to be your next obsession.
