Rating: 3.5 Stars

Meet Me in Outer Space was a book after my own heart. It was the type of story I always adore - on the lighter side, but with some substance.

Things I loved:

• Edie was a wonderful character! She was a girl with goals, and was willing to go the extra mile to help her get closer to achieving her dream. I gave her a lot of credit for going head-to-head with her French professor regarding her modifications, as he was not quite onboard with helping her in any way. I also liked that she didn't make excuses for herself. She understood her disability and her needs, and she tried to do what she needed to do to succeed.

• I had no idea how Edie resisted Hudson, because he charmed the pants off of me. I adored him from their first on page together, and loved how supportive he was of Edie's goals and dreams. Hudson was so unapologetically himself and he did and said so many things that brought a smile to my face. I thought he was a total keeper.

• I honestly can't recall reading another book with a character having Central Auditory Processing Disorder, and I love that Grace brought attention to this disability. I liked learning about the modifications that make things a little easier for people with this disorder, and I found the information and insight Grace offered to be quite interesting.

• This was Edie's story, but it was also a solid romance. These two were so precious together, and there were some really, really swoony moments too. There was so many times I smiled until my face hurt, and that's the kind of hurt I always welcome.

• There were a bunch of fun extras: the photo exhibit, lots of fashion facts, fun with foreign languages, and the volleyball games -- each of these things added to my fun and enjoyment.

Things that were not perfect:

I found myself a little disappointed in the ending. There was a very adorable and fun and cute set up, and I really enjoyed that, but I wanted a little bit more. It felt so open ended, when you take the conflict into consideration. I think some people would be ok with this ending, but I needed know just a little bit more.

Overall: A solid debut, which kept me entertained and grinning from ear to ear.

If you're a regular reader of the blog, you probably know by now that I can ALWAYS go for a cute YA contemporary. That being said, Meet Me In Outer Space delivered on that front!

In Meet Me In Outer Space, we follow our protagonist, Edie, who is struggling in her French class due to a learning disability that her professor will not make adequate accommodations for. Her TA, Hudson, offers to tutor her to help her bring her grade up, and cute romance ensues.

One thing I loved about this book was that it's exactly the college-aged YA that so many readers have been begging publishers for. I always love reading books set in college, and Meet Me in Outer Space was no exception. One of my favorite things about this was just reading about Edie's day-to-day life as a college student. Plus, we get some awesome fashion elements, since she is studying to work in the fashion industry. Edie, as a character, is so driven and goal-oriented. She has such a clear idea about her future, which I enjoyed since it felt a lot like how I was in college. Additionally, Edie's Central Auditory Processing Disorder was #ownvoices representation, which was wonderful to see! We get insight into how Edie's CAPD affects everyday processes in her life, but it's not the central focus of the narrative. We see how frustrating it can be when people don't validate her disability as a "real" thing.

The friend group in this book was SO fun to read about, too. They gave me all the college vibes, for sure. I especially loved Edie's friendship with her roommate, Serena.

Really, this book is very straightforward: you go in expecting a cute romance, and that's exactly what you get. It may be a little surface-level, but that doesn't diminish the quality of the romance. Hudson, Edie's love interest, is exactly the kind of nerdy book boyfriend that is my kryptonite. He was so endearing (and so full of puns!). The last scene, in particular, felt so cinematic and vivid, and it definitely had me swooning a little bit.

Overall, if you're looking for a cute romance set in college, with plenty of heart (and lots of French!), I highly recommend checking out Meet Me In Outer Space.

What touched me the most about Meet Me in Outer Space is how much Edie's mind set mirrored my own. She is single minded about her future, focused on getting through her French 102 course so she can go to Paris. But what she doesn't plan on is meeting Hudson, her TA in French, who charms past her defenses. But we need to open our hearts and realize that sometimes a distraction isn't a bad thing, that not everything is black and white.

Edie has a learning disability that is making her French 102 class impossible. While seeking out help she meets her French professors teaching assistant Hudson who becomes her tutor.

The relationship between Edie and Hudson is both semi romantic and toxic at the same time depending on how you view healthy relationships.

Edie has a dream that she has been working on for a very long time... go to Paris to immerse herself in the fashion world. In the book, when she is not spending time trying to get Hudson to tutor her in French, she is working on a project called "The Dress." She poured so much of her heart and soul into this dress and you can really feel this girl's fashion aspirations. She doesn't want to be in a relationship because after the semester is over she is going to Paris for the summer and planned on staying for the Fall semester. What she is terrible at is articulating this to men. She allows the subject to be brushed off a few times by Hudson. They never really say what needs to be said, which should have been Hudson saying... go to Paris, stay through the fall

Hudson for me was just borderline toxic.
- She initially didn't want to be tutored by him so he signs up to be a tutor so she'd have no other choice
- Several times she had to tell him no to kissing because she needed to study to pass her mid-term and final. She squeaks by with a D in the class but I bet she could have done better if he spent more time actually tutoring her.
- He doesn't really want to listen to her when she tells him that she cannot start a relationship because of Paris
- When she broke it he kept texting her ... she said that "He'd texted me twice, both times trying to justify why we should stay together. Telling me that he wasn't going anywhere. That he would be there for me when I came around. The problem was that I had no intention of coming around."
- Edie says this last declaration several times. Even when her supposed best friend Serena tries to change her mind she tells Serena no.
- When he goes to Serena's photo exhibit that featured photos of Edie he texts Serena for copies of the pics because he is a glutton for punishment
-When Edie was in classes after the break all he did was stare at her while she was trying to pay attention

Serena- Edie's best friend
- recognizes that Edie has been working so hard on this Dress, that it was her dream to go to Paris, yet works with Hudson to derail Edie's ambitions by insisting that she really wants this relationship.
- Makes Edie put on the dress and tricks her into meeting with Hudson at the planetarium. Which would have been cute but all the actions leading up to this moment tainted the romanticness of it for me.

Then the book just ends with Edie and Hudson in the planetarium. Well did she go to Pairs? Did she stay the fall semester? Did they actually have the proper conversation regarding what happened between them? Personally I don't think she wanted the relationship. She used Hudson as a distraction to blame if she failed. Hudson forced himself on her causing him to be her distraction so he is to blame as well. Forcing a relationship at the end just left me feeling less positive about the story.

Thank you to Netgally and Swoon Reads for an opportunity to read this book. The opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this book, but I found it pretty surface-level. None of the characters are very expanded on and the main conflict is a will they/won't they relationship. I found the main character kind of annoying because of how she was treating Hudson, first unjustly thinking he's rude and then constantly leading him on, and Hudson himself wasn't developed much. I love that this is a #OwnVoices book and talks about CAPD, something I had never heard of before reading this. I love that it takes place in college, even though the characters seem more like high schoolers at times. It just didn't go as deep as I think it could (and should) have.

This is a short book with a lot of impact, especially as it adds to an area of published books: Disability Own Voices.

Edie has Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD), which makes French class difficult with the professor's accent and his firm refusal to allow Edie to use the tools she normally uses to succeed. Fashion student Edie needs to pass this class, because--in addition to her language requirement--she's going to France that summer, possibly longer. Enter Wes Hudson, ridiculously attractive TA and fashion disaster, who offers to tutor her...

This is a fantastic story, full of cute interactions and opportunities to learn about life with CAPD.

Edie Kits is an early 20-something college student just trying to pass French so she can go to Paris in the summer and study abroad in the Fall. That is her goal: Paris, Paris, Paris. Her French professor, Mr. Clément, and the cute TA, Wes Hudson, make it achieving this goal hard enough without the added complication of her disability. Edie Kits has central auditory processing disorder (CAPD); messages get jumbled up or completely distorted, especially in noisy environments where she can't focus. You know what also makes it hard for her to focus? Wes Hudson. Between her growing infatuation for him and struggling to pass French 102, will she ever make it to Paris?

I wanted to like this book. I really did. It is a #OwnVoices novel for a disability that 1. doesn't have a lot of visibility in fiction and 2. doesn't have a lot of visibility in the real world either. I was also looking forward to a cute, fluffy romance, especially considering my past few reads this month. Unfortunately, by 30 pages in, I wasn't feeling it and by 60, I was ready to DNF this book. However, since the ebook was only 160 pages, I figured I might as well finish it. By 111, I just started skimming the pages to get the gist of what was going on and to find out how it ended.

I thought the concept was cute and like I said, I was excited to read it. It wasn't a /bad/ book, in my opinion, but it was not the book for me. However... it just....... annoyed me more than anything and that is incredibly disappointing. Edie was whiny and the hot, then cold, then lukewarm, then tundra aspect of her relationship with Hudson was just ridiculous. At many points in the book it felt like she was overreacting and because she wanted to be upset, or wanted to find some... flaw in Hudson to be like "See! Paris," she would twist things to be offended. All of the characters, even Edie, were quite flat and one dimensional and I really just didn't understand Hudson. One moment he was all "I can't do this; you can't have it both ways," and then quite literally in the same breath said, "Let's overanalyze this later and kiss for now." It made no sense. His reactions-- their entire relationship-- did not make sense to me, at all. And part of me thought that maybe things that he was doing-- the constant apologizing, the biting at his nail beds, the bouncing knees-- were pointing to an anxiety disorder and that would maybe explain things, but.... no, that was never even suggested. Edie was just as bad; she wanted to say she wasn't leading the boy on, that he knew what he was getting into, but just as often as she was like, "Nooooo, Paris. None of this," her actions contradicted her words and she continued to pursue a relationship with him-- even if she didn't want to admit to herself that it was a relationship (if you're not in a relationship with someone and you're sure that they know that they're "just your tutor," then why do you feel the need to preemptively break up with them, hm?)

I am very proud of the author for writing a book that sheds light on her own disability, one that we don't hear or see in the real world or fiction that often. And like I said, it's not a -bad- book and I'm sure that there are many with tastes different than mine that might love this book. However, I just... really did not like it.

The beginning of this book really had me hooked. You find out right away that Edie has a learning disability. She is trying to learn French in order to go to Paris the following summer and not feel anxious about not knowing the language. She goes to her advisor first and it is clear he is not much help. It was cringe worthy the way he pretty much disregarded her disability. How very frustrating to be in that situation and not be able to get the help needed. Then she went to her French teacher and he was even worse than her advisor. While the advisor was clueless, her French teacher was down-right rude. Enter Hudson the cute teaching assistant.

Edie and Hudson's relationship started out pretty rocky and there is some up and downs with them. Edie feels as though Hudson feels sorry for her and feels as though he is being rude to her. However, the more they interact, the more she realizes she might be wrong. I thought Hudson was a great character and felt Edie was pretty hard on him throughout the book. She sometimes frustrated me with the way she pushed people away. However, I did like their interactions there was a lot of humor between the two of them.

I loved all the secondary characters in this book. Edie's best friend Serena is the kind of friend anyone would be lucky to have. I loved all the interactions between the two friends.

Overall, I felt like book showed a good depiction of what discrimination students with disabilities might encounter. It also did a good job of expressing the frustration that must occur at not getting the help necessary and how hard someone has to work with disabilities. The characters were fantastic, the book was full of funny moments, and I loved the sweet romance between the two characters.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review from Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group Publishing via NetGalley.

This book does an awesome job of presenting a character with a disability that isn't often heard of. It reminds me (sort of) of Katheryn Erskine's Mockingbird in the sense that Edie's voice is so real and relatable, even for those who haven't specifically encountered or experienced her hardships. Definitely an auto-buy and one I'll be recommending heavily.

I received an advanced copy of the book via NetGalley. Meet Me in Outer Space is a cute, light read. It is a young adult romance. Edie has an auditory processing disorder which causes her to struggle in a French college course. She has dreams of working in the fashion industry, and has plans to go to Paris, France during the summer. Therefore, passing her French class is her biggest priority. However, she soon finds herself distracted by the Teaching Assistant/Tutor.

I had a few issues, personally, with Edie’s character. She manipulates the relationships with her male friends. She knows how they feel about her, yet she continues to string them along and hold them responsible for how things end up. She also reacts in ways that are not typical of someone who is feeling the emotions that she is feeling. I felt that the ending of the book was a little rushed.

I love reading books with different themes- learning disabilities, mental health issues, etc. I love seeing the inner workings of someone’s mind and thoughts when coping with these things. Unfortunately for me this one fell flat in that regard.

Edie was just so... whiny. She was whiny to the point of feeling more attention seeking than someone who was just frustrated with people’s lack of understanding. There was some explanation in the beginning of the book as to how this disability works, but that was it. Edie actually got legitimately angry at Hudson when he asked her to explain it to him. She acted as if he was viewing her as a sideshow and not as a person. Uh no.. he was genuinely curious about it. She complained so much that people weren’t understanding and then complained when someone tried to learn about it. She just came across as very juvenile.

I actually liked Hudson. I thought he seemed like a pretty cool guy, but I don’t feel like he was developed well. After finishing the book I’m still not positive that I have a grasp on his personality.

The book itself was okay. The biggest issue I had was that It just.. ended. The chapter ends and there is no more. We never get an epilogue involving Paris which was such a huge theme in the book.

This book very much read like a YA novel set in a college atmosphere. It was unbelievably clean. No joke, a 14 year old could read it and aside from very mild cursing and the phrase “sexual tension” they would be just fine.

Overall, this book was just okay. I wouldn’t suggest it to someone, but i was able to finish it without any issue.

<i> ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review </i>

Meet Me In Outer Space By Melinda Grace is an AMAZING read. I could not put this one down and I loved the twist such a surprise. A Must read for all.