When I first read the description of this book I was really excited. This sounded like it could be similar to Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which was a favorite of mine as a teenager. The story centers around a group of friends going through their senior year of high school, and all the decisions that are made that year.

The book centers around Paige, and what choices she is struggling to make. Along side of her, is her core group of friends that have similar, but also different decisions and influences. The reader quickly learns that Paige has had some drama throughout her teen years that causes her to be anxious about the decisions she has to make about college and her future. She also has a boyfriend, Max, who is trying to make his own decisions about what he wants to do after high school.

What I liked about this book was how relate able I felt the characters would be to teens going through high school right now. While I graduated high school a decade ago and some things have changed, I remember feeling all the stress and anxiety that Paige and her friends were going through. It does a good job of showing all the excitement of senior year, but also all the background emotions that don't get discussed a lot. The author does a good job of making the reader feel compassion for Paige and her friends. Several times I just wanted to reach out into the pages and give them hugs, and tell them everything was going to work out.

There were some parts of this book I found more interesting than others, and read through them just because I wanted to find out what was going to happen. But overall I enjoyed reading this book, and think teens going through the same challenges as the characters would really enjoy reading it.

Somehow, in the black hole that is the YA Fiction community, I missed the name Emery Lord. She made her debut in 2014 with contemporary novel Open Road Summer and pounded out four more novels after that. It was the 2017 romance When We Collided that finally got her on my radar. Funny, heartwarming, and achingly raw, WWC takes first love and intertwines it with themes of grief and mental health — themes very much needed in the YA genre. Lord’s stories are kind of been-there-read-that, but she separates herself from the rest of the pack with real characters, real thoughts, real life. She perfectly captures the intensity that is the teenage mind, the liminal mind. And her character Paige Hancock, from The Start of Me and You and the 2020 sequel The Map from Here to There, is another one of those great minds.

In TSOMAY, we’re introduced to Paige after losing a boyfriend to a drowning accident. On top of that, she’s dealing with a sick grandmother and a rather unique situation with her divorced parents. She’s a smart girl, but sometimes — well, a lot of the time — she’s an overthinker. Her anxiety would completely consume her if she didn’t have the incredible support of her friends and family. Throughout her healing process, she also makes a new friend named Max. And that’s about all you need to know going in. TSOMAY isn’t all that exciting, but that’s sort of the point. It’s just a slice-of-life about a young girl trying to live her life again.

The friendship is the star of the show, very Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but the loveline is a great supporting actor. It was a slow burn romance, and a natural one at that. Still, I can’t help but wish we’d gotten more of the couple as a couple. (More on that once I get to the sequel.) My biggest complaint wasn’t even the book’s fault. I listened to this on Audible and the voice actor just made Max sound so bizarre. Like a 12-year-old nerd from a 90s sitcom. I’ve enjoyed the actor’s previous work, but mainly because she was voicing older characters. Here, it just felt off. Luckily, all the charm, Max’s cuteness included, was in the writing.

"He and I clashed like colors — not armies meeting mid-field in battle. We were green and blue, sometimes in tones too similar to complement. But sometimes as natural as summer sky and the green lawns below."

Moving on to TMFHTT, which wasn’t as pleasant a reading experience. It was a frustrating ride, as it felt like I was reliving the stress of being a high school senior. Being in that weird headspace where you’re questioning everything. Unfortunately, Paige’s anxiety had full control of her as she was in this headspace. I was angry with her the majority of the novel, but oddly enough, this didn’t make me angry with the novel itself. I was glad to have read the TSOMAY first, so I was able to understand Paige and Max. Understand their roots and understand why they were being annoying as hell. Their mistakes, as frustrating as they were, made sense for the characters.

As a reader, I just wanted to see poor Paige take a breath and let things be. It takes her quite a while to even begin doing that, and I appreciated Lord for doing so since anxiety is not an easy thing to conquer in real life. But again, I was really craving more cute coupley moments, especially after the first book’s ending. I love these characters, so the fighting — which was constant — was pretty tough to get through. I wouldn’t call this a cozy Friday night read… but a thoughtful read. One that will make you cringe over silly teenage mistakes but smile over the memories anyway.

**Much thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for providing an ARC of TMFHTT in exchange for an honest review.

The Map from Here to There starts a couple of months from where The Start of Me and You left off. Paige Hancock is in her senior year and works at the movie theater in a suburban Indiana town. She finished a screenwriting program earlier during the summer. Paige has aspirations to study film in college and she wants to go to NYC or LA to study.

Max Watson, Paige's boyfriend, surprises Paige with an early arrival from Italy due to a canceled excursion. For those who need a refresher, Paige lost her ex-boyfriend in The Start of Me and You and it was a very rough junior year processing grief. Through an amazing support system, Paige has been able to live her life even during the hard times. She met Max through QuizBowl and ended up opening her heart even though she is healing.

In The Map from Here to There, Emery Lord hones in on the different relationships Paige has, just like in The Start of Me and You. It's not all about romantic relationships but friendships are also important. Lord puts a spotlight on female friendships which is rare in most young adult novels. Kayleigh, Morgan and Tess really care about Paige. Senior year is a big year for many and everyone has their own path to forge. Through college applications to partying to different family dynamics, Max's and Paige's friends are very supportive and help Paige at times when her anxiety peaks. Senior year is about wondering if relationships will be fragmented due to the distance. It's about finding who you are and doing what is best for you.

Although I love how Lord continues Paige's and Max's story, it was a slow first hundred pages with very little happening in the plot. Paige became frustrating in this novel compared to in The Start of Me and You. However, I am happy that Paige and her friends are responsible when they are drinking and they either have a designated driver or they call someone to pick them up at a party. Paige's parents are supportive of Paige when she wanted to resume sessions with her therapist. And Paige overcomes her fears. I find it odd that the book ended right when Paige goes on spring break with her group of friends. I was hoping to see at least high school graduation or the summer before college.

If you are looking for a continuation of Paige's and Max's romance story, this is not the book to find it. The Map from Here to There is focused more on Paige's journey through her senior year and how she deals with loss, a car accident, separation, finances, anxiety, etc. I do have to give Lord credit for adding a super lovable new character. Hunter Chen works with Paige at the movie theater and he adds just the right amount of humor to the novel.

Lord writes contemporary novels about real-life teen issues like losing loved ones or how to navigate life when having mental health issues. Lord discusses how teens cope with having mental health issues as well as addressing how to help those who have mental health issues through her novels. Many readers will be able to relate to Paige and what she endures every day. It's important to forge strong support systems and Lord guides readers to do just that through her characters. I highly suggest reading The Map from Here to There after reading The Start of Me and You even though some readers mention how it's fine just reading this novel as a standalone. Also, check out When We Collided by Lord.

I LOVED The Start of Me and You, so when I heard that a sequel was coming I was very excited! I loved Paige and her girl friends and thought that she and Max had a very cute story. Luckily, those things did carry on into this book, though I felt there was a little more drama around both. In the last book, I remember really liking Paige, but in this book I found her to be a little bit annoying. Like…was she this annoying in the last book? I just had a hard time being patient with her.

Plot-wise, I didn’t feel like this book was strictly necessary. A lot of contemporary romance books are good left the way they are and I kind of felt that way with this story, but it was still pleasant to get a little peek at “after the HEA”. I thought Hunter was a really interesting character that I was glad was included. He was written in a way where in another book, he would definitely have been the love interest. But instead, Lord develops him as a surprisingly deep side character. Paige has a moment where she reflects on what that “other book” could have looked like, and I enjoyed that.

Overall, I thought this was a good book, but not quite as good for me as the original. Just a small spoiler, we don’t ever find out what college Paige picks (which annoyed me to no end). I would maybe be here for some of my other contemporary romance faves to get sequels, but then again…maybe not.

Overall Rating: 3.5
Language: Moderate
Violence: Mild
Smoking/Drinking: Moderate
Sexual Content: Mild

Note: I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I've read and enjoyed several of Lord's previous books, but didn't realize THE MAP FROM HERE TO THERE was a sequel to one of her novels I haven't read yet. There are certainly enough context clues that I didn't have a rough time reading, but I'd definitely recommend picking up the first book because I could tell there was plenty that I was missing or not fully appreciating. I do find it pretty odd that there's nowhere in the cover copy either here or on retailer sites that indicates this isn't a standalone, but is instead a sequel. All that aside, the prose is lovely, the characters vibrant, and the pacing worked well for me.

It's been awhile since I've read a book by Emery Lord and I forgot how wonderful her writing is. The Map from Here to There tackles real conflicts teenagers face and in such a relatable way. It showcases the ugly side of deciding your future and all the stress one can feel from having to make such a big decision in their young life. I don't think this time of a teenager's life is explored enough in YA so I was happily surprised while reading this book.

I actually haven't read The Start of Me and You so I can't say much about the romance between Paige and Max before this book. Their relationship is a bit messy throughout the story which I loved and hated. I wish there were more sweet moments between the two but I also enjoyed how real they felt for a high school relationship. The friendships in this book were A+ though!

This is a book for lovers of YA contemporaries. <3

I was a little ways into this book when I realized that it was a sequel to a book I had not read. It wasn't a big problem, though, as the events of the previous book are well recapped in a way that feels natural to the narrative. It's a more complex relationship that we usually get in a teen love story. While the last book seems to have left them in that "happily ever after" state, this one follows them through a year of change, of individual growth and relationship complications.

This was heart-warningly cute but also unexpectedly deep. Paige is a high school senior who wrestles with a lot of relatable questions: go for in-state tuition or try to apply to dream schools also? Try to stay close to your boyfriend or make decisions based on other factors? She also battles anxiety, grief and the overall sense of how uncertain one's future is. Who says that high school years are the most carefree? What about all the pressure to do well and get into a good school, on top of social anxiety, fitting in, first love, etc. I really enjoyed this book: both for the easy style and the poignant topics raised.

I loved this book! It was such a good sequel to The Start of Me and You. It’s just so real. It digs into real stuff like what really happens to a couple after the HEA. But the part I identified with so much was Paige’s anxiety. It was raw and real and I have so been there. This was worth the wait.

Upon opening this book to begin reading, I realized after getting about a chapter or two in that this is, in fact, a sequel. A thing that I definitely hadn't realized when I requested it. Despite that, reading this book it felt like it could be a standalone and while I think some backstory from the first book would have helped bring me up to speed faster, I felt I was fine from where I was.

This book, centering around a girl named Paige, tugged at my heartstrings from the very first chapter. It was heartbreaking and heartwarming and definitely a story that I won't soon forget. I highlighted so much of the book because I wanted to keep so many quotes in my memory.

While reading, I felt tones from both The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson (a strong and unique group of friends) and The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen (lessons on grief and relationships) which are two of my favorite books.

In terms of my own reading experience, I felt frustrated by the choices that were being made throughout this book and I'm not going to lie when I say I was a bit disappointed in the ending. But I could understand why the book took the path that it did and I tried not to let it phase me too much. I was appreciative of all the different topics that Lord touched on throughout this book and how strongly fleshed out each side character was. I think I can sum it up by saying that I was a fan of every aspect of this book, except for the romance. I think it was stunning but the romantic aspects fell flat. I absolutely adored how realistic the relationships were, but in the end, I think this is what kept me from giving this 5 stars.

I would love to get this into the hands of any teenager. This is such a unique and strong story and I really do recommend it.

If I had known this was a sequel, I wouldn't have requested it. I didn't read the first book and therefore didn't understand some of the narrative and character choices.

Paige and her crew are written so well, it's like being back in high school. Sweet, sad and funny, this book reminded me of the trials, tragedies and loves of teenagers. They aren't small people waiting for adulthood, but complete human beings with such capacity for love, loss, confusion and joy. I can't wait to stock this book and recommend it for the teens I know that shop at my store. Well done!

I’ve had my hands on this arc for what seems like forever and I don’t know how it took me so long to get here.

I really liked Paige. She’s struggling and anxious and just being a teenager and at times it was hard to be in her head. Not for any of those reasons specifically, but also, it was those reasons exactly. Everything was heightened and emotional and maybe a little nonsensical.

Plot wise it was just okay. Scenes did feel repetitive and the constant push and pull with Max made me want to rip out my hair. {And don’t get me started on the nearly entire book-long implication of a love triangle} I will say that Emery knows how to write a group of friends, especially female friends, and as always, she delivers in that aspect.

Overall, it was perfectly messy slice of time. I wanted more answers and sweetness and togetherness. There was a quiet settling when I finished and I realized even though I didn’t get them, it all worked beautifully.

This review isn’t even close to what I want to say and I feel like it’s sort of perfect for this book. There were loads of things I loved and several things I didn’t care for. And while, I wasn’t ever captivated by the story, I did want to know how it all turned out.

**Huge thanks to Bloomsbury for providing the arc free of charge**

The Road from Here to There by Emery Lord – a review.
Paige is starting her senior year of high school. She spent her summer at a screenwriting school at NYU and her boyfriend Max just got back from Italy. Senior year comes with a lot of decisions about the future and Paige’s anxious mind is running wild. Does she choose a college close to her midwestern home and close to her friends, or does she take the leap outside her comfort zone and chase her screenwriting dreams? It’s Paige and Max forever, right? Forever is a long time and that’s a lot of pressure when your whole future is ahead of you.
I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. I did not realize that this was the 2nd in a series. But that just means this book was so well written because I didn’t feel like I was missing a part of the story. I may not be a senior in high school working out her future college decision, but I resonated quite a bit with this story as I just graduated college and am working on figuring out the next stage in my life. Paige has a lot of anxiety and it was written so well. I have anxiety as well and reading about hers triggered mine a little. I definitely had to take the first half of this book in stride. Once I got to the second half, and Paige starts working through her anxiety little by little, I found it very cathartic for my own anxieties. I also quite enjoyed the subplot with her friend Morgan. Morgan has endometriosis and is lobbying the school board for more sex education that covers more than wrapping it up. All of the characters have a good background for their motives and things become more fleshed out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury YA for sending me an early copy for review!  RELEASE DATE: January 7, 2020

Right, so as much as I adored The Start of Me & You, this sequel was not it. It's not that I necessarily hated the experience of reading it, I just felt like it brought nothing new to the table after the end of the previous book. 

Of course, some of the stuff I loved from book one was still in this one, like the anxiety rep, and the overall relatability of Paige. The rest of it though, wasn't very compelling.

I love romance books about the start of relationships, and I like ones about the middle when they are going well. I don't mind a few chapters of fighting or miscommunication because it adds tension and excitement, but in this book, the amount of unnecessary conflict just became annoying. 

Another element to this book that I thought I would enjoy was its content surrounding college decisions. However, its portrayal of the process wasn't very realistic, and you never even get to find out where she goes. I was just personally hoping for a lot more resolution. This book essentially ends in the same place it begins. 

While I was disappointed by this book, I'm definitely still excited to check out some of Emery Lord's other works!

i enjoyed the book. I will have my full review closer to the release date. i haven't read the first one in the series. but i don't think that affected my review.

With The Map from Here to There, Emery Lord delivers a beautifully written and compelling follow-up to her popular novel, The Start of Me and You. I loved the first novel and couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy of the sequel because I really wanted more of Paige and Max’s journey. The sequel was a little surprising, but in a good way. It’s a much more serious and emotional read than the fun and fluffy one I was expecting. While there are certainly plenty of fun and fluffy moments with Paige and her friends as they go through their Senior year together, the story focuses more on Paige and her continuing struggles with anxiety and identity. Paige is trying to make big decisions about life and college and really just figure out who she really is and where Max fits into it all. As Paige considers her options, endless questions just constantly flood her brain and ramp up her anxiety: Will their relationship survive if they go to separate schools? Should a decision about where to go to college be based in any way on what school your friends and/or significant other are going to?

Lord does a wonderful job of continuing Paige’s journey in a realistic and relatable way. The fear and uncertainty about life after high school is certainly an almost universal experience. I did find myself occasionally frustrated with Paige because of how she was letting all of her uncertainties interfere with the important relationships in her life, but at the same time, I found that was a realistic aspect of what she’s going through as well, so I could forgive her for it.

One of my favorite aspects of the sequel is actually that Paige’s core group of friends were still a big focus of the story. I honestly expected them to take a backseat to Max and Paige so it was great to see this wonderful friend group still in the forefront and to follow their Senior year journeys as well.

The Map from Here to There is overall a very satisfying sequel to The Start of Me and You. If you weren’t ready to say goodbye to this lovable cast of characters after the first book, I think you’ll be happy with Lord’s continuation of their journeys.

This book is a continuation of a series that I read last year and I knew immediately that I wanted to read more. I couldn't remember everything from that book, but I found it very easy to get back into the book without much effort. The characters were still very believable and likable (at times) and I found that the situations that they were going through to be very believable and like I remember how I was back in high school.

Paige is dealing with a new relationship, her parents getting back together, and the looming college application process plus everything else in a teenage girls life. I feel like the situations were dealt with in a very real way and I felt connected to Paige in a lot of ways.

Overall this was a great book by Emery Lord and a fun one to read.

I usually sit down to write a review soon after having finished reading a book, but pretty much everything about my usual for The Map from Here to There was thrown off. I read the book in small sips, dipping in and out, thinking about it and trying not to when I wasn’t reading it. My love of The Start of Me and You is intense. I adore Max and Paige. I also adore Emery Lord and her magnificent ability to write anxiety onto the page. Unfortunately for this book, the anxiety representation made my own anxiety worse. Between that and my own expectations and desires for what I wanted this to be, my rating was definitely affected. What I will say is that The Map from Here to There is a really fantastic look at senior year of high school when you have a boyfriend you want to keep, but also you really want to explore your own life and identity.

So much of this book reminded me of who I was at 17, although at least Paige was confident in the direction she wanted her life to go. Or, at least, mostly. I loved the way a particular college campus was described as giving Paige a sense of home, because that’s how I felt the first time I set foot on UNC - Chapel Hill’s campus. (That is not where I went to undergrad.) I loved the representation of the disappointment of not getting into a school and also the sense of relief that came alongside it because I felt that way too. I loved Paige’s friendships with Morgan and Tessa and Kayleigh still being explored and how the real HEA is knowing their friendships will stand the rest of time. I loved the anxiety representation, even as it made it hard for me to read because it was so real. I loved the funny moments and the way this book seems to capture the lyrics of 22 by Taylor Swift (which is maybe weird because they’re 17) that things are “miserable and magical at the same time.” So much of life feels that way, but it’s hard to write it, I think. I loved the parental relationships in this book because it felt real.

You may have noticed a glaring omission here though. Because what I didn’t love is Max. Not Max himself, I guess, just the overall arc of Paige and Max, which was not what I wanted. And the truth is, that’s not fair. The book is great and if I wasn’t almost exclusively a romance reader, I would have just loved this book for all the great things it did give me. But I am, and this book is both realistic and has an open ending. Sometimes that’s fine and sometimes it’s not at all what I want. I don’t want the realism of the pressures of other people talking about you and your high school boyfriend causing you to freak out. I want the blithe confidence and adorable was of how cute Max and Paige are together without that pressure.

However, my issues with the romantic arc aside, this book was really, really great. I just wanted something a little different. If you’re a teenager though or someone about to start senior year of high school? I can not recommend this duology enough. Because like Paige’s teacher says in this book, where you go to college is just one choice. You’ll have so, so many to go. And I know, for me, this book would have made me feel so much less alone during that time of my life, which is really all we can ask for in a book.

Within the first hundred pages I knew that this book was not intended for me; not the way it was written, not the subject matter at hand, and whether or not this impacts your reading experience depends entirely on the value you place on that last year of high school.


....I think that this is a perfectly serviceable story about the choices we make as we move towards adulthood…that said, there were things about the plot - specifically the conclusion - that left me unsatisfied.

Because this is a story about college and moving forward I would’ve preferred if there had been much more emphasis on the choices Paige was making to further her goal to get into film school rather than pages upon pages of Paige lamenting about her relationship with Max and how it’s falling apart. I actually would’ve preferred that Max and Paige not gotten back together at all because it makes the message of “things change” a little shallow. I wanted to read about her internship. I wanted to read more about her time at NYU.

There was just so much in this book that felt like filler. The deceased old boyfriend, the car accident, the side plot with Hunter. I wanted to see this book actually address how relationships grow and change as you move on from high school but what I got was ultimately, a story about two teenagers who are expected to be together and them dealing with that. A novel that does that better is The Pact, albeit in the most melodramatic way possible and a novel that’s more realistic in it’s portrayal of the choices we make as we move toward adulthood is With the Fire on High.

Ultimately, this wasn’t a book that I was able to connect to and I’ll be the first to admit that this was a YA that puts the Y in YA. There is a line in this book that describes a character as having “eyes as wide as a Pixar character.” What does that even mean? Is it a reference to Wall-e? Because Pixar characters don’t have big eyes, that would be Disney…

Anyway, The Map From Here to There gets ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ (and a half!) out of five.