Review: Begin Again by Emma Lord

Thank you Wednesday Books for my copy of Begin Again! All thoughts are my own.

If you’re a fan of YA that takes the next step to transition it’s characters to college, this is the book for you. I thought this book was fun and contained a lot of transitional aspects that young people can relate to. it wasn’t a total winner for me, especially because I felt distant from the main character for most of the book, but I know a lot of other readers enjoyed it.

Synopsis:

“As usual, Andie Rose has a plan: Transfer from community college to the hyper competitive Blue Ridge State, major in psychology, and maintain her lifelong goal of becoming an iconic self-help figure despite the nerves that have recently thrown her for a loop. All it will take is ruthless organization, hard work, and her trademark unrelenting enthusiasm to pull it all together.

But the moment Andie arrives, the rest of her plans go off the rails. Her rocky relationship with her boyfriend Connor only gets more complicated when she discovers he transferred out of Blue Ridge to her community college. Her roommate Shay needs a major, and despite Andie’s impressive track record of being The Fixer, she’s stumped on how to help. And Milo, her coffee-guzzling grump of an R.A. with seafoam green eyes, is somehow disrupting all her ideas about love and relationships one sleep-deprived wisecrack at a time.

But sometimes, when all your plans are in rubble at your feet, you find out what you’re made of. And when Andie starts to find the power of her voice as the anonymous Squire on the school’s legendary pirate radio station–the same one her mom founded, years before she passed away–Andie learns that not all the best laid plans are necessarily the right ones.

Filled with a friend group that feels like family, an empowering journey of finding your own way, and a Just Kiss Already! romance, Begin Again is an unforgettable novel of love and starting again.” —Goodreads

What I Liked:

  1. The Friend Group—I often get nostalgic for the good ole days of college and the friend group in this book definitely made me feel that way. I really loved how different everyone was and how fast they became close. That was the magic of college!

  2. Andie’s Internal Discoveries—I wasn’t sure I was going to be Team Andie by the end of the book but her internal discoveries on her journey to finding herself vs just trying to follow in her mom’s footsteps were very satisfying and relatable for the age group.

  3. The College Campus Vibes—Each school has something that makes it unique, and the ribbon challenges were such a fun and distinct aspect.

What Didn’t Work:

  1. Almost Too Much Going On—I did this on audiobook so maybe that’s why I felt this way, but there just seemed to be so much going on. From the transfer mistake ala The Gift of the Magi (or so we thought), Andie’s father’s grief and their strained relationship, the friend group, the radio and ribbons…it was a little too much for me. I wanted things a little bit more streamlined.

  2. Pacing—The above reasons caused the pacing to be totally off for me and that’s probably the most important thing I look for in the books I enjoy.

Character Authenticity: 3/5

Spice Rating: N/A

Overall Rating: 3/5

Content Warnings:

Grief, cheating, death of a parent, abandonment