Aw man. This book. This book! it was a funny rollercoaster sweet heartbreaking ride!
I loved every character, well expect Sadie Evans, but i am sure that it was set up to be that way.
I loved to follow Garland, Parker and Edwin on a search for Garland's lost love, even though it didn't exactly end as i had hoped, it was beautiful and heartbreaking. It makes me want to re-read it again, just so i can follow them on the crazy wierd, fun and heartbreaking ride once again. But i am not sure my heart would tollerate it.

“That newspaper was my first glimpse of the outside world, and I wanted to see more of it.”

FORMAT READ: eBook (Adobe Digital Editions)
READ IF: looking for a light and feel good, classic, YA Contemporary
SIMILAR VIBES: All the Bright Places, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, John Green-ish
*All my reviews are spoiler-free unless stated otherwise*

OVERALL: 3.5/5
This is a book to read when you want a light and “classic YA contemporary”. I enjoyed the writing style for the majority of the book and there wasn’t anything that I particularly disliked.

I thought that the characters were very relatable and I found the whole vibe of the book has a bit of an adventurous feel. The narration and writing style very easy to get into with fun character relationships. The writing style also reminded me of PJO (Percy Jackson) because of the chapter titles and overall writing feel… which was really cool.. and cute and sweet <3

The plot was centered around a lot of highschool-y subjects and I just don’t think that was what I expected from this book nor was I in the mood for it. It was a tad bit cliche even though it was hilariously enjoyable. The added touch of World War II gave the book its own personality and made it more original.

PLOT: ★★★☆☆
WRITING STYLE: ★★★★★
CHARACTERS: ★★★★☆
THEMES: ★★☆☆☆
PACING: ★★★★☆
PAGE TURNER: ★★★☆☆

Thanks to Chad Alan Gibbs and Borne Back Books for sending me an ARC to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I read the synopsis of this book, and it is so much more! Such a fun, madcap adventure. All 3 major characters are well developed, unique, and instantly likable.

I have been a fan of the author’s nonfiction work for years, and was eagerly anticipating this release. It definitely did not disappoint.

Edwin Green teams up with new girl Parker Haddaway for a history assignment in which they have to interview someone who lived through World War II. That’s how he meets Garland Lenox and somehow agrees to help “a crazy girl bust a ninety-year-old man out of his nursing home so we can take him to France against his attorney’s wishes to find a woman he met during World War II, all in the hope of becoming famous and winning back my ex-girlfriend.” Let’s see how that goes!

Our narrator Edwin is immediately engaging, with his fantastically sarcastic voice and love of lists. The way he weaves his story keeps you hooked, as do the outlandish chapter headings that give us a tantalizing taste of what is to come (ending in Chapter 66 with “In which—oh hell, just read it and find out.”).

The book is full of laugh-out-loud moments, and the author’s humor is even evident in his Acknowledgments section, which is the funniest I have come across. Despite the levity, the book also contains some of the most heart-wrenching descriptions of the war and one of the most bittersweet young adult romances that I have read. This is a wonderfully romantic and wacky story that will leave you yearning for more. As Garland Lenox is fond of saying, “You can’t make this shit up.” Except that the author did. Or did he?

My favorite read of the year so far. Even more amazing now I know it’s the author’s first novel.

Warnings: coarse language, war, suicide, sexual references, violence.

If you think about it too much, the plot of this book is pretty ludicrous. Luckily, Gibbs keeps it moving pretty constantly so we don't do a lot of lingering on the details. Instead, we get caught up in watching the ridiculousness unfold. Its a standard road trip comedy with a touch of heart. On the plus side, it doesn't resolve in a neat and tidy way. Everyone leaves the situation a little bit changed, perhaps a little bit wiser, and looking at the world through a different lens.

I loved everything about this book - it was so unexpected! Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down - I had to find out what happened. I loved Edwin Green, Parker Haddaway, and especially Garland Lennox - I have never laughed so hard when reading a book in my life! This is definitely one I'll be reading over and over again.

This book was so stinking cute. It was witty, hilarious and the main trio worked so well together. It was an adventure filled with so much randomness, but also history and love in the most unpredictible ways. It was a great summer read, I enjoyed sitting by the lake while reading. It felt lighthearted but it definitely was deeper than that. I think Chad Gibbs did an awesome job with his first novel. I am excited to read what he has in store next!

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book, in exchange for an honest review.

I recently read a review for this book on Paul’s Picks blog. He made it sound so good that I just had to check it out myself. I’m happy to report that he has excellent taste. This book was funny, sweet, and heart warming.

Edwin Green has been in mourning since his ex sort-of girlfriend unceremoniously dumped him. He’s been unable to move on, since she’s now super famous and the constant topic of conversation at his high school. He’s been trying to become famous himself, in an effort to get his ex’s attention. Unfortunately, Edwin’s Youtube channel is less than popular.

That’s the state of things when his class is given an assignment- conduct interviews with a WW2 veteran. His partner is the only other ongoing topic of rumor at his school: Parker Haddaway. She’s sassy, confident, and not much is known about her. They speak to Garland Lennox, a cantankerous vet who convinces them to break him out of the nursing home. The three of them embark on an adventure of a lifetime overseas, trying to track down his long-lost love.

What I love about this book is how well everything just fits together. Each character has their own unique voice and motivation, as do all the people they meet along the way. While I have a soft spot for poor, pining Edwin, Garland is what pushed this book above and beyond for me. The stories he told about his life- maybe a third of which are true- were such fun to read about. The truth underneath his b.s. was heartwarming, and the resolution for his character was bittersweet and perfect.

And the hijinks they manage to get into! I laughed out loud at the incident involving a French police officer. This is one not to miss. It’ll make you smile.

Title: Two Like Me and You
Author: Chad Alan Gibbs
Genre: YA
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Edwin Green’s still not over his ex-girlfriend. She’s famous. Like, really famous, everyone-knows-her-name famous. They split up a year ago—on Black Saturday—and Edwin’s been plotting to get her back ever since. His plan: to get famous, too. That’s not working out too well, so he’s stuck in high school, surrounded by idiots.

Until he ends up paired with mysterious new girl Parker Haddaway on a history project. She introduces him to Garland Lennox, a WWII veteran stuck in a nursing home. But Garland wants Edwin and Parker to sneak him out of the nursing home and to France, where he’s determined to find the love of his life, a girl he met during the war. Soon Edwin finds himself all over the news, but as the media is joined by the French police, he’s not sure being famous is all it’s cracked up to be.

I love the voice in this novel! Edwin grows a lot in this novel and realizes some things about himself—and his life—that he’s never considered before. He starts out as someone who lets life happen to him, but he learns to be an active participant in his own life along the way. He ends up in some hilarious predicaments, thanks to Garland and Parker, but it’s a thrilling, fun ride.

Chad Alan Gibbs lives in Alabama. Two Like Me and You is his first novel.

(Galley courtesy of Borne Back Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

Not a bad read but I don't think it was necessarily my type of read. Certain parts did make me giggle though.

I received this book "Two Like Me and You" from NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own. A fun book! I loved this book. It was fun and exciting. Adventures everywhere. This is not a real life book - don't expect a storyline like that. This is a crazy adventure book. Just a fun entertaining read.

An amazing roller coaster story of lost love, of an adventure and of doing right. It had everything a book needs to have and more. There were tales of extreme bravery that no one could make up, slightly illegal breaking out, car chases, romantic scenes and not the clingy making you puke kinda but the good ones which make you feel alive and live there in the pages of the book, homourous narrative, colorful characters and beautiful writting.
The story is told from the perspective of lovestruck and heartbroken (since almost a year) Edwin Green when he gets stuck in a school project with the mysterious Parker Haddaway, a beautiful redhead with secrets and hell-may-care attitude. They talk to the effervescent ninety year old war veteran Garland Lenox as part of this project and find out about his adventures and bravery in WWII but most importantly the love of his life, Madeline, a beautiful french girl who saved his life but was believed to be dead. Until Lenox found her photo in one of their books. Thats when the story gets interesting and they find themselves in France dodging police and lenox's attorney while the world stops to breathe and wait to find out the finale of a love story from the age of the war.

A story to be read, understood, enjoyed and read again. A story which makes you laugh, cry and fall in love.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC

This book was excellent! Loved the story line! The history, Love, and the laughter.

Hearing a love story from an elders point of view but also involved with teenagers was a great plus that you do not see often enough.

I enjoyed the fact just when you got to a point you knew what was going to happen then the storyline changed.

arc received from netgalley!

I overall enjoyed this book. It was fun and fast paced, but it’s definitely not a book that I’ll remember in five months.

The plot was definitely unrealistic. I know it’s fiction but there were just so many parts that really did not make sense and I just couldn’t picture happening in real life.

As for characters, I loved Edwin. He was awkward and it just made me smile. Sadie was literally irrelevant and was only used to persuade Edwin to go to Paris when in reality I think he would’ve gone anyways. Parker literally came out of a John Green novel. She’s mysterious. She doesn’t talk to anyone at school, doesn’t show up to school very often, and doesn’t share anything about her family. She’s also adventurous and outgoing and is quick to go to Paris in hopes to actually run away and stay there. She played a lot with Edwin’s feelings which is where my next problem comes in.

It’s a mix of the ending and the romance. Both were so unsatisfying. I really wanted to see more between Edwin and Parker but... nothing happened? There were what, two kissing scenes? I just felt like they could’ve developed into something but they didn’t. And the ending? Basically the ending of Paper Towns. After I finished this I just kind of sat there and didn’t really feel anything? Well, I felt like I wasted my time.

The other thing is that this book is history heavy and often has flashbacks of WWll. History is not something I enjoy reading about so having to read through all of Garland’s stories bored me a bit. But I can see how someone else would enjoy it!

Overall, I did enjoy this book, but I felt like it could’ve been more. The ending kind of ruined it for me.

Loved this story! It was such a cute, fun read! It definitely pulled me away from my usual genre of dark murder mysteries! I think I will be reading more like this!

"So hypothetically, if someone had an opportunity to win back the love of his life, an opportunity of, let’s call it, questionable legality, should he take it?”


📖Two Like Me and You 📖
🖋Chad Alan Gibbs
Much thanks to NetGalley, Victory Editing, Borne Back Books and Chad Alan Gibbs for this complimentary copy. This review is voluntary and opinions are fully my own.


📚 Series: No.
📚 Genre: Young Adult (Fame/Adventure/Coming of Age)
📚 POV: First person.
📚 Cliffhanger: No.


⚠ Content Warnings: Use of guns. Kidnapping/Abduction. World War II Stories.
⚠ Read if: you are in need of a funny feel-good YA adventure. Think: John Green-ish.

🌹

Two Like Me and You is an amazing debut novel that will make you laugh out loud and then squeeze your heart in the end.

Edwin Green, a highschool student got dumped when his girlfriend suddenly skyrocketed into fame. He definitely wants to win her back and keeps trying to make himself famous just so she will notice him again.

A history class project got him partnered with Parker Haddaway, his high school's new girl with mysterious past. The project led him to meet Garland Lenox, a World War II veteran stuck in a nursing home whose only wish is to reunite with his long lost love... in France.

This book was a rollercoaster of adventures of this unlikely trio. There's a lot of too-good-to-be-true but ridiculously funny scenes. There's a lot of law breaking reminiscent of a good old comedy film. But very cute and very sweet. It was so easy to read and I felt like it was unputdownable that I read it overnight!

Though Parker fit the Manic Pixie Dream Girl formula that most readers hate, I still fell for her and loved her and it is quite sad to have finished reading this so quickly and not read about her anymore.

I have to commend the very beautiful insights of this book. The connection between the characters were strong. I am sure Edwin grew up a lot from the adventures and all the lessons he learned are lessons that I will also keep close to my heart.

Chad Alan Gibbs did a great job at this debut. Very interested to read his future works!

☁ THE CRITERIA ☁

🌻 Blurb:⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 Hero:⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 Heroine:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 Support Characters:⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 Writing Style:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 Character Development:⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 Romance:⭐⭐⭐
🌻 Pacing:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 Ending:⭐⭐⭐
🌻 Page Turner:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌻 Book Cover:⭐⭐⭐

☁FINAL VERDICT: 4.09/5 ☁

Two like me & you was a great read! Definitely kept me entertained. Epic adventures that made me laugh out loud. You don’t have to be a young adult to enjoy it;)

Two Like Me and You tells the story of how Edwin Green gets roped into a crazy Paris-bound adventure by new girl Parker Haddaway. The pair meets Garland Leno, a World War II veteran, and together the three venture to France in search of Garland’s long-lost love. Did I enjoy this book? Yes. Did it seem to go a bit off the rails at times? Definitely.

This book definitely has all the things: car chases, escaping from police custody, troubled childhoods, a famous ex-girlfriend, an irate old man who happens to be a pathological liar. It’s an entertaining tale, but sometimes I was left thinking, this is insane. I think we probably could have dialed down some of the craziness.

I wish we had dived a little deeper into Parker’s character. I feel like we get only a superficial view of her. Her character is very manic-pixie-dream-girl-esque, which I isn’t my favorite trope. She has never spoken to Edwin and yet after being assigned a project with him, recruits him to help with the plan to go to France because he can drive and speak French (or so she thinks). Throughout the book, we get to see just how quirky she is. She likes singing random rap lyrics, skips school to hang out at the retirement community, and *spoiler alert* thinks she killed her parents. A lot of the time, her character felt like a plot device designed to help Edwin get over his obsession with his famous ex-girlfriend and realize that there’s more more to life.

Edwin’s ex-girlfriend Sadie is the worst. For the life of me, I could not understand why he was so hung up on her, especially after the way she broke up with him. If someone did that to me, I would want to punch them in the face. I wouldn’t — but I’d want to. I did enjoy seeing Edwin’s view of Sadie change by the end of the story, and could appreciate that he seemed to grow as a person.

And Garland was the absolute best! I loved his insane stories (some true, some bald-faced lies) and how at the end he always goes, “You can’t make this stuff up.” Garland has such a big personality and I love that he’s willing to put everything on the line to find his long-lost love. I also enjoyed how he was willing to give everyone, including police officers, sass. His character really added a fun element to the book. He also made me realize how few characters from an older generation exist in the YA genre. We need more!

This book was a breath of fresh air. The concept was unlike anything I’ve read and I greatly enjoyed the action-packed adventure.

Two like Me and You is the feel-good YA novel that the year 2019 needs. And that's the statement.

Before I jump with my review for this book, let me just extend my gratitude to Chad Alan Gibbs and Victory Editing for writing and publishing this gem. Huge thanks also to NetGalley for approving my request to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Two like Me and You is like a fresh fruit juice you suddenly had in your hand after a week of walking in the desert. Yeah, this book is definitely refreshing. It has all the elements I want in a book - romance, heartbreak, adventure, escapade, history, and touch of reality. Chad Gibbs perfectly mixed all these ingredients beforehand hence the amazing result is, with no doubt, perfectly presented as well.

The moment I read the gist before requesting this book, my attention was fully engaged. Talking about a hopeless romantic teenage guy who desperately wants to win his ex-girlfriend's attention back with an additional twist of a complete stranger who suddenly became a friendly savior plus a whole mix of adventure to Paris. Who wouldn't want to read a book so flavorful like this?

Also, the characters are uniquely relatable in their own ways. Edwin Green is the hopeless romantic most of us may have been at some point of our life while Sadie Evans is the image of the love of our life we so desperately want to end up with but for no apparent reason, the universe decided to not let our wish be. Parker Haddaway, or should I say Emily Bloom, represented us in a way how the society always judges a person through the cover but also an admirable character for her strong take on not letting others' thinking affect your whole persona.

But Garland and Madeleine's World War II love story is what sold me with this book mostly. How our young MCs crossed path with a WWII veteran who also happened to be in search for his long-lost love one if not being imprisoned in a seniors facility in Alabama. The sequence of this book also make me realize on how true the butterfly effect is, and how all of our main characters' action continued to ripple all throughout the book which started with a simple written project about World War II.

And of course, the writing is commendable as well. The way Chad Gibbs written this book is truly impactful and most of the sentences will either leave you rolling on floor laughing (yeah, I can't make this shit up, son) or silently sobbing because the words are wonderfully woven in an intricate pattern.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and devoured it in one sitting after an overnight shift. So if you are into teenage romance with a whole lot of adventure and escapade plus a sprinkle of World War II love story and a lot of unquestionable backstories, then this book should definitely be on your TBR. Ciao.

RATING: 5stars