Just when I thought I couldn't love another Abigail Johnson book more than Even If I Fall, Abigail went and did it! This book gave me all the feels. I loved connecting with these characters who each had individual stories and just understanding the different lives people have. This book is for everyone and I urge you to go and pick up a copy!

Jolene and Adam meet on their neighboring balconies where they are forced to spend every other weekend due to either a divorce or separation. They slowly become friends while navigating the difficult and quite often tragic waters of their teen years. A poignant, emotional roller coaster that was vividly portrayed, realistic in both characters thoughts and actions. I did question a few times what the main plot of the book was, it tended to get muddled with all that was going on, but over all a really really good book.

Every Other Weekend by Abigail Johnson

Adam Moynihan’s life used to be awesome. Straight As, close friends and a home life so perfect that it could have been a TV show straight out of the 50s. Then his oldest brother died. Now his fun-loving mom cries constantly, he and his remaining brother can’t talk without fighting, and the father he always admired proved himself a coward by moving out when they needed him most.
Jolene Timber’s life is nothing like the movies she loves—not the happy ones anyway. As an aspiring director, she should know, because she’s been reimagining her life as a film ever since she was a kid. With her divorced parents at each other’s throats and using her as a pawn, no amount of mental reediting will give her the love she’s starving for.
Forced to spend every other weekend in the same apartment building, the boy who thinks forgiveness makes him weak and the girl who thinks love is for fools begin an unlikely friendship. The weekends he dreaded and she endured soon become the best part of their lives. But when one’s life begins to mend while the other’s spirals out of control, they realize that falling in love while surrounded by its demise means nothing is ever guaranteed.

It was definitely the premise of this book that drew me in. Two children who are forced to spend time with someone they don’t want to decide to cut their losses by hanging out together instead. Ooooh, drama galore.
Yes, Every Other Weekend is a classic YA romantic drama, but that doesn’t mean it’s boring. This was a nice wholesome take on the forbidden relation story; Adam and Jolene will only keep seeing each other as long as their families are broken.
Jolene is definitely the more complicated character here. She keeps herself closed off, and tries to play everything off. The way her parents treat her leave her starved for love, and she isn’t always able to accept the good things in her life. Adam, on the other hand, is basic. He’s understandably angry and hurt, and he doesn’t really try to hide it. He thinks that anything is possible if someone tries hard enough, and while he doesn’t fully understand Jolene all the time, he’s always supportive. Both undergo oodles of character development, and that really comes off as the main point of the story: watching as two people grow and evolve from the circumstances they live through.
The plot plays out well, with some trivial issues, some deeper issues, and some really stressful issues. Still, Adam and Jo handle everything well enough, and you know that everything will turn out fine-for Adam at least. The story doesn’t try to sugarcoat things, nor does it force an unrealistic happy ending. Things work out as well as they can, which somehow leaves it feeling more possible and more heartwarming.
Every Other Weekend is a great, light summer read.
This book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

So, last nite, on the nite before the first day of school, when I should have been getting good sleep, I lay awake pining for this book because I made myself put it down. But my stomach was still achy in that good way that tells you that the feelings are just so real and both beautiful and excruciating at once. Then tonight, I have stayed up much too late again because I couldn’t think about sleep until I read through the end of this book, if not the end of Adam and Jolene’s story. The tears were for the beauty and the pain and the joy I feel from living with these lovely, heartbreaking and heartbroken souls for a time will be a gift. 🤓💜📚

I enjoyed the story, but I never got pulled into it or the characters. It reminded me a lot of Eleanor and Park, but without the deep emotional pull. Overall great, just missing something more.

Oh, my! This is exactly my kind of book! I loved the slow-developing romance between Adam and Jolene. I mean, I LOVED IT. When they finally did get together, it was a little anti-climactic, honestly.
Adam and Jolene were both in bad places in their lives due to entirely different family circumstances, but their stories paralleled each other for a good long while until they suddenly diverged. Adam was coping with his parents' separation and the loss of his oldest brother, and Jolene was a pawn between her parents in the aftermath of their bitter divorce. Both teens are 15 but seem so much more mature in dealing with each other. That being said, the only thing they do is kiss, which is why I marked this book as MS appropriate. I'm not sure MSers would be into their story, but there's certainly not anything inappropriate content-wise (not even cursing).
Jolene does make a poor choice (several times) hanging out with an older man in his apartment, hoping to get a reference to the film program she wants to enter. As an adult reader, I saw it coming a mile away and keep telling Jolene to stay the heck away from Guy--she did not listen, but at least she dealt with it in a mature way, which I think led to her (and her step-mother's) redemption.
This book reminded me of Eleanor and Park (lite). The slow burn of Adam and Jo falling in love was really just lovely to read, but when they finally did get together, I WANTED MORE!

Oh, my this was beautiful and heartwrenching. From page one, Abigail drew me in with characters I fell for instantly and became truly invested in. This book was one of my most honest portrayals of grief and divorce. Well done!

Adam Moynihan and Jolene Timber both have separated families. This fact brings their lives together as Adam's dad moves in to the apartment building where Jolene stays with her father and his girlfriend. Both Adam and Jolene only stay with their dads 2 weekends a month, and happen to have the same weekends. Jolene is growing to be an old veteran at the separated family thing, but for Adam it is new and he is having a hard time coping with it. Luckily, they bump into each other and begin a friendship to help each other through the very often miserable every other weekends.

As the child of divorced parents, this book hit the nail on the head when it comes to some of the feelings and often unhealthy coping mechanisms kids come up with to deal with their parents' separation. Though Adam and Jolene deal with their feelings in very different ways, I identified with both and felt their character writing was very genuine. The author writes all the characters with a lot of depth, and develops all of them throughout the story in believable ways. Even a character I wouldn't have expected to be able to grow and change is able to at the end.

The only thing I found a bit hard to relate to were some of the character names, like Jolene's best friend's boyfriend. But that is a tiny thing and didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the book. Overall, this book had me in tears at multiple points, and I was incredibly invested in the characters and storyline. It's the kind of book I want to tell everyone about, and can't wait to rave about it closer to its publishing date. Links to be added closer to that time.

This story was so beautiful! I don't know that I've ever seen my own experience as a child of divorce represented so well. I knew from the title "Every Other Weekend" that I had to read this one, and I was not disappointed. Johnson just gets it - she understands all of the complicated, messy, ugly feelings that come from being stuck between separating parents, and somehow, she weaves it beautifully into a story of first love. I'll be recommending this one highly!

I enjoyed this book more than expected. There's this layer of the two characters both having broken families but at the same time being so different in how/what makes them broken.

While Jolene and Adam are completely different from one another, their time spent every other weekend together and watching their relationship tentatively grow was both wonderful and heartbreaking.

Seeing the depth of neglect from Jolene's parents was really a struggle to read about. Discovering the reason for Adam's parents separation was both sad but understandable given the what caused it. Seeing the potential for reconciliation on one family's end but knowing there isn't much hope for the other just really stung.
Adam really brought feelings into Jolene's life that were foreign to her. Her struggling to really allow these positive influences and feelings into her life at such a young age was painful.

Adam and Jolene really complimented each other and brought to the table things the others lacked and I really loved watching their relationship organically grow from one stage to the next. I loved seeing the differences in their family dynamics and how it affected them and how it caused their influences on others they interacted with.
There was even a side character that only appeared in a few scenes but I wanted to learn so much more about them and was happy knowing there was more content for them out there.

While not a perfect ending, its extremely hopeful. I would definitely recommend this book to others for Jolene's snark, Adam and Jolene's interactions and for those who enjoy watching a love story grow slowly as they read.

I loved the cover on this one so much! I was just hoping for something a bit quirkier. However this one is packed with emotion and great dialogue! It’s character driven with lovely writing!

I liked this book. It was a little different from other YA books. It started off as a fairly standard meet-cute book with 2 kids who meet every other weekend because their parents are divorced/separated so they spend every second weekend at their dads' apartments. But it takes a darker turn because Jolene's situation is fairly bleak. She's collateral in her parents' acrimonious divorce fight.

Adam, on the other hand, is dealing with his parents' very recent separation. His parents still love each other and it's clear that they will reconcile at some point.

The romance between Adam and Jolene takes off slowly, but it's very sweet and it's definitely PG.

This book is a sweet coming-of-age about broken families and finding solace in another soul. I loved the two characters and how they develop throughout the story was heartbreaking and fulfilling at the same time. Two kids experiencing the separation of their families in different ways end up spending time together every other weekend and develop a friendship.
Definitely should come with a Trigger Warning. There's an attempted rape in the book that was not completely unexpected (there was a lot of lead up to the scene that made me frustrated with the MC because it's scary creepy how this dude behaves) but it was hard to read none-the-less as someone who has experienced that.
Other than that, I loved the cute YA story that brought me back to youth and first love. Made me reminisce about the guys I crushed on in High School and how it was never as pure and perfect as this relationship. Doesn't mean they didn't have their own problems in the book (distance being an obvious huge obstacle) but also jealousy and miscommunication about what each other is going through.

WOW, this book was super long! But it was really good too! This is the story of Adam and Jolene, who meet because they both spend weekends in the same apartment complex with one of their parents. Adam's parents are separated because the grief they share of the death of Adam's older brother is much to overwhelming to bear together. Jolene's parents are in the middle of a nasty divorce where everything is about money. Jolene's father left her mother for a much younger woman who Jolene must spend her away weekend with because her dad is never home. Adam and Jolene slowly become friends. They become closer and closer the more time they spend together. This is a beautiful story of a friendship that turns into love over time in spite of many obstacles that they have to overcome. Adam and Jolene are adorable together--funny and real and they are great as friends and as a couple. I loved them!

Another great book by Abigail Johnson and I'm not surprised because I love everything she writes. This book had me hooked from the start and I couldn't wait to see how it ended. How can you not fall in love with Adam and Jolene and their amazing story. Great book and a must read.

I requested this book through netgalley because of the author and the fact that I have read and enjoyed her previous books. I also requested it because of the premise and the fact that I haven't read another YA romance set in the same way. Adam and Jolene are both 15 (almost 16) year old who are dealing with very different family situations but those situations have brought them together every other weekend as neighbors in the apartment buildings where their fathers live next door to each other. They are immediately drawn to each other for different reasons and they find something that they needed in their lives from each other. Both of these teenagers are flawed and dealing with different issues of loss. The way that the story develops and the alternating point of view makes even more of an impact on the reader.. As the reader continues through the story, told by weekend dates that Adam and Jolene are living in the same place, Johnson slowly reveals more about them and the pacing is natural and the relationship feels real. These are teenagers with real problems who are finding a way to survive their circumstances through friendship.. I will definitely recommend this to my high school students and encourage our librarian to purchase a copy. A really well written ya novel with romance but this is so much more than just a romance. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Truthfully, EVERY OTHER WEEKEND is a difficult book for me to rate. On one hand, I appreciate how unflinchingly flawed its protagonists are. Both Adam and Jolene are messy, caustic, damaged kids. Both are dealing with their respective traumas in perhaps not the healthiest of ways, but they're sixteen and feel all the more real to me because of their flaws (though, at times, they don't seem 15/16 at all). On the other, everything from the cute-sy illustrated cover and the synopsis and marketing materials do little to convey just how heavy this book often is (trigger warning for sexual assault, by the way, because I wish I had been warned for that). Had I gone in expecting that tone, my overall reading experience would have been quite different

With that said, I did enjoy this. Abigail Johnson does gut-wrenching character work that leaves me wanting to put all of her previous books on my TBR. If you're in the mood for a contemporary YA along the lines of EMERGENCY CONTACT or WE ARE OKAY, then make EVERY OTHER WEEKEND a priority read for 2020.