I have read almost all of Kenneally's Hundred Oaks series and have greatly enjoyed most of them. Since I rarely read YA contemporaries anymore, figured since this one was by an author I have good experience with that I would give it a try.

Even though the time jumps in this book sometimes kind of confused me, I think I like how she did it. The concept of her revisiting the same periods of time through the course of four years showed a lot of Lulu and Alex's growth over the course of high school which we really don't get to see much of in other YA books. I thought their on-and-off again relationship was really realistic which always gets big bonus points from me and I liked how the book ended. Overall I really enjoyed this quick read and I will probably continue to read anything she puts out!

Huge thanks to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for allowing me to read an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

I’m really sad I didn’t love this book, especially since it’s set on my birthday. But the alternating timelines pulled me from the story. I did read through Freshman year though. Ugh.

This was such a cute story! Omg, I devoured it.
This book follows a high school couple from when they meet, get together, and go through break ups and make ups. It follows them for four years throughout their high school career. You see what happens on May 7 each year when their school goes on a class trip. Let me tell ya, their class trips were way better than ours were! You also get to see a little insight from each year in between the trips.
What I liked most about this book was the relationship felt so real. They broke up and made up so many times over the four years. They dealt with jealously and figuring out how to be friends (or not) while broken up. What was great about this book is it was very open about teenage sexuality. About deciding to wait or not, buying protection together. It even mentions failed protection. I read a lot of ya, and I rarely see this.
Four stars for this heartwarming love story. If you love ya contemporary, this is a must read!

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and feelings are my own.

I've enjoyed Miranda Kenneally's books in the past. I think she writes really good YA contemporary romances and this book seemed to have a romance that developed over a few years, so I was quite eager to pick it up. While in the end, it wasn't my favorite book from the author, I still had an overall pleasant experience with it. Part of my not enjoying it as much as I enjoyed Miranda's previous books could be because I'm no longer a teenager. Four Days of You and Me narrates the story of Alex and Lulu on four field trips over 4 years. The two have a very up and down relationship throughout the years and the book walks you through those highs and lows. As you can imagine, it's quite a drama-filled experience. Perhaps, if I had formed a stronger connection with Lulu and Alex individually and as a couple, I would have enjoyed the drama better. Their chemistry wasn't entirely there for me and I often thought their relationship was exasperating - again, I'm an old lady now and I'm clearly not the target audience for such books anymore. I also found the constant back-and-forth between the timelines to be jarring. Again though, that is very much a personal preference issue. I've never had much luck with books told in multiple timelines in the past. Still, despite my issues with the Four Days of You and Me, I can't deny that the story was readable and had a touch of an addicting quality to it that all of Miranda Kenneally's books have had. In the end, while Four Days of You and Me wasn't my favorite, I'd still recommend it if you're in the mood for a story like it.

Confession: I have been a big fan of Miranda Kenneally for years. So, I was excited to read a new stand-alone book from her. Four Days of You and Me is a cute frenemies-to-lovers story. Lulu and Alex's relationship is explored on one day throughout their four years together. Its a fun story that I was glad to ready.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

This one really missed the mark for me. I think partially I'm too old for it, but then when I think about some of the content and messaging of the book, I don't know that I'd want younger readers reading it either. I found the writing simultaneously immature/juvenile, and overly explicit and horny. Which you know, I guess is reasonably true to the teenage experience for a lot of people but it was still cringy and problematic overall. Props to the book for including conversations around contraception but that's probably one of the only level-headed actions that the characters take.

I found the characters pretty flat, and very shallow, and I didn't really believe their relationships because we weren't shown any evidence of it. It's like the book somehow couldn't stick to the premise of only being four days (more on that later) but still used that as an excuse to tell rather than show and to leave the characters as maybe one or two personality points rather than being actual complete people.

Now the premise (a love story told over 4 years, only showing us one day from each year) really appealed to me, I like it when authors challenge themselves to tell stories in new and intriguing ways but this just didn't deliver on what it promised. First of all, while most of the focus is on one day each year (the class field trip) there is certainly plenty of narrative that we're told that doesn't occur on those days. In fact the excursions really just seemed like a quirky place to arbitrarily set regular drama. So rather than creating a story around the premise, it almost seems like she had a story and was like "how can I make this different" and then sort of split up a narrative that way. Plus there were a bunch of unnecessary time jumps forwards and backwards that were just jarring, and were confusingly titled - it just really didn't work.

If you want a book that does this idea well, read Birthday by Meredith Russo, it's written really well, has diverse representation, and more considered depiction of teenage relationships in my opinion!

Miranda Kenneally is one of my favorite authors. Her books are always fun and keeps you engaged through the story. I couldn't put this one down. I loved how Lulu and Alex always found their way back to each other. Great read!!

This book was a really cute read. The characters were cute and a lot of their behaviour reminded me of myself and my friends when we were that age, which made me laugh a couple times! The plot and characters could have been a bit better, but honestly the book was super cute so I really recommend reading it!

I love sitting down and just inhaling a book – by that I do not mean smelling a book although that is great – I mean ripping through the pages so fast that you look up and you’ve read the book in one go. Four Days Of You And Me by Miranda Kenneally is a book that I picked up after reading a real door stopper and I just fell right into the story so easily. I completely gelled with this book.

Four Days Of You And Me is about Lulu, who is running for freshman class president as the book opens. She loses to Alex, a baseball player and popular kid. This makes Alex Lulu’s mortal enemy. So, we get to where Alex and Lulu are on the freshman class trip together. They end up locked in an escape room. After they figure out the way to escape, they have this attraction to each other. So, the book details four years of on and off relationship between Lulu and Alex. The pivot moments are around the annual class trips. You see, there is an endowment at their school for a special class trip every year. I should also say Lulu is working on writing a graphic novel and Alex works at his family’s restaurant but is also a really talented baseball player.

I don’t know what exactly it was about this book that I just ate up. There was something interesting about the plot structure and timing. It would go into detail on the trips but then we would get flashbacks from the previous year to get context for certain events during the current year’s class trip. I think this moved the story along and kept it from being mired in the mundane or boring.

There are SO many elements of this book I enjoyed – from the chemistry between Lulu and Alex – to her friendships with Grace her cousin and Max her best friend. I loved seeing Lulu’s interactions with her classmates over four years and how she grew as a person. Plus, how Lulu chased her dreams. The romance scenes were sweet. I mean, yes there’s some graphic moments so maybe don’t hand this to a kid. Still, overall, Four Days Of You And Me is an excellent young adult contemporary and the perfect beach or vacation read (even if that vacation is just in your backyard given the times we are in).

I did not finish this book as I wasn’t really feeling the storyline. From what I read, I found the story and characters to be cliche and cheesy. I’m sorry I can’t give you a full review, but I just wasn’t captured enough by the story to finish it.

In Four Days of You and Me we follow Lu(lu) and Alex. We meet them again on the same day for 4 years. How did their relationship develop? How did they develop themselves?

There were a lot of time skips in this book. One moment your reading about them in year 1, a moment later you have a flashback to something that happened before. This made this book a bit vague. I didn't follow the story that well at first and I hated the jumps in time. Later on, the story became a bit easier to follow and flowed a bit more. All those jumps made reading this book not so smooth. The pacing was a bit of, because of that.

I loved following the same characters for a longer period of time. With other YA you only read about the characters for a few weeks or months, but this was 4 years. I loved their development and how their relationship developed.

Another great aspect of this book are the several side characters. I loved Ryan, Grace and Max. They were so lovely and a great addition to the story. The friendgroup was great and I really liked reading about all of them.

so i loved the hundred oak series, contemporary romance with a side of sports, are totally my thing. i honestly don't know why, because i am the least sporty person ever. i think it's because the stakes with sports are so clear and the conflict really tends to work for me.

four days of you and me is a much different concept from her earlier work. this isn't bad, it's just different. and while miranda is usually an auto-buy for me, i had some hesitation based on the premise because if there is something anyone should know about me is that i am not a big fan of flashbacks.

and so we follow alex and lulu's on-again, off-again relationship over the course of four years, set on during an annual field trip. the conceit is great. it's just that this kind of conceit is so not my jam. i am rarely interested in what characters did in the past, i want to know the here and now and what it means for the future. and that's the other thing...where things end...it's not that satisfying?

there's a lot of build-up with little reward? i don't know. i know these are teenagers and life is obviously still uncertain. but it just felt like a lot of investment for not enough return.

**four days of you and me will publish on may 5, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/sourcebooks fire in exchange for my honest review.

Miranda Kenneally has been an auto-buy author of mine for a long time now, her books are always my go to when I need a pick me up. And it’d been a while since I’d read any of her books, so you could say that my eager anticipation of Four Days of You and Me was an understatement. Once again Kenneally did not disappoint when it came to this book, I enjoyed the twists and turns we were given with Alex and Lulu and how the chapters panned across the past and present of their lives during their time at high school. There were seriously so many ups and downs, that I was at times dead set that Alex and Lulu weren’t meant to be. But I liked how Kenneally kept us guessing at how things would end up between them. The friendship groups in the story were a delight too, seeing them change up, pan out, but still remain strong over the years. I thoroughly enjoyed Four Days of You and Me, this book made me super nostalgic of the trips I made back in my high school years and the meaningful and long-lasting friendships I made during that time. If you haven’t already picked up this lovely book, what are you waiting for?

Four Days of You and Me by Miranda Kenneally was a book I was excited to read since I have always enjoyed her work. Her latest novel takes place on class trips over the course of four years, but this element was one of the only aspects I enjoyed about the book. Much of the story is melodramatic, and the use of flashbacks becomes confusing since the state of the characters’ relationship is constantly changing from chapter to chapter. Furthermore, their relationship is toxic, and because of this, I had trouble rooting for them.

This book is set over the course of four years and follows Lulu and Alex’s complicated relationship. Every year, they go on a class trip with their school, and their relationship changes during each outing. These trips evoke a sense of nostalgia, and I loved going along with the characters to the amusement park and other destinations. That being said, there is a lot of unnecessary drama, and the book is more graphic than I was expecting. It is especially jarring during the earlier stages of Lulu and Alex’s romance when they are in grade nine. I love reading about school trips and travel, but I was just not invested in the story.

❀ NON-LINEAR PLOT

Another element that prevented me from getting into this book is the non-linear plot. Flashbacks can be excellent if they are well-executed, but in this case, the story becomes confusing. The characters go from enemies to lovers and back to enemies, and the flashbacks come across as a lazy way to show how their relationship develops. I believe there are so many better ways this could have been done, and without the confusion.

❀ SELFISH MAIN CHARACTERS

I also did not really enjoy either of the main characters. Lulu is working on a graphic novel, and I enjoyed reading about her passion, but she, along with Alex, is selfish. Alex tells Lulu that he is only able to go to college if he gets a scholarship through baseball, and she feels hurt and tells him that he cares too much and is not spending enough time with her. There are many other similar instances of this in the book, and I did not enjoy the messages this sends. Neither of the characters communicates or really supports the other, and their relationship is unhealthy.

❀ COULD HAVE BEEN AN ADORABLE ROMANCE

Four Days of You and Me had the potential to be an adorable romance as it takes place almost entirely on school trips. I enjoyed the nostalgia of being taken back to the museum and the amusement park, but this was really all I enjoyed about the book. The non-linear writing style is confusing, and both the main characters are selfish. Ultimately, this one was a disappointment.

Four Days of You and Me just missed the mark for me.

I have a lot of love for Miranda Kenneally — her Hundred Oaks series is a fantastic YA Contemporary series! This book, though, lacked the same easy feeling that I experienced with her prior work. The nonlinear timeline and timehops often make it difficult to follow. There are also several times where I feel elements were added for the sake of having “X, Y or Z” versus actually being necessary to the plot.

I think the concept for Four Days is fun! It’s cool to revisit the class each year for their field trip and see how each character has grown and which relationships have changed. I also liked to see what events led to each character’s development, but, again, I think the execution fell short.

When you’re a character-driven reader and you don’t like a main character, it makes it difficult to connect or truly invest in a story. I don’t want to harp on every little thing that bugged me about Lulu, so I’m simply going to say that she annoyed me. Alex has a much better character arc but it stretches a bit too far by the end. I loved the secondary characters, though! I was there for Ryan, Grace, Max, and Caleb!

Overall, I wanted to love Four Days of You and Me but just didn’t. If you’re a fan of Miranda’s, you might still want to pick this one up! I just feel that the confusion caused by the timeline of the story may cause similar issues in a lot of readers so I’m hesitant to recommend it widely.

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book. Please note that it, in no way, had an effect on my opinion or review.

This book has a really odd and interesting structure. It does get a bit boring to revisit the field trip over and over but the relationships are growing and developing over time.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

This story takes place on the same day every year on the high school class field trip. We see friendships and relationships grow and fall apart, with a few flashbacks throughout the year for context. I thought it was done pretty well, but with the split timeline I felt some of the emotional depth was lost. It was a bit harder to connect to the characters this way. However, it was still really cute, a quick read, and had plenty of humor throughout!⁣

When I saw Miranda Kenneally had another book coming out, I didn’t hesitate to click “Add to my TBR.” This And this book was everything I needed and more! It was different than her others, but still had her signature writing style. Definitely worth the read!


Lulu and Alex have been circling each other for years. Most times they’re up, but sometimes they’re down. But somehow they always seem to come back to each other in the form of a kiss. And it always seems to happen on their school field trips. Are they meant for each other, or is love enjoying watching them circle each other and leave?


Reading this was like coming home. Its always so comforting to read a Miranda Kenneally book. It was like slipping on your favorite pair of jeans or some really holey pj’s. Definitely something you would love to do hundreds of times. Kenneally’s way of writing a romance makes me feel just as comfortable as coming home.


The writing style itself was also nicely done. Even with the bouncing back and forth and the insta-love aspect, I thought it was well done. Yes, even the insta-love was well done because (SMALL SPOILER) they aren’t together for a good while after that. (/SMALL SPOILER) So to me, that totally negates that fact lol


One of the main reasons I didn’t give this 5 stars is the main character. I liked Lulu well enough, but she was so quick to point out what Alex was doing and make sure he was doing exactly what she wanted and all that, but she didn’t seem to look past that. Alex was a nice kid and I’m glad he spoke up about it. (That’s actually what ticked me off too. She got so angry at him for being mean, but really I think he had just bottled it up and like a shook up soda, he blew up.)


And then there was the ending… Why in the world did it end there? I mean, there isn’t even an epilogue! I just felt like after all that back and forth between them, nothing was resolved. We don’t get to see what happens to them? [SPOILER] Yes they make a decision, but how’s it turn out? I know this is the “Happy For Now” theme, but I hate it. Probably why I’m reading more and more adult romance, so I can get the full HEA. [/SPOILER] It would have been ok it we got a glimpse of them in another book, like her Hundred Oaks series, but I think this is a stand-alone. And that just made me sad.


Overall, I love Kenneally’s books and I love her even more. Anyone that can make me read and still like my least favorite romance troupe (insta-love) is definitely going on my fave authors list. I can’t wait to see what else she has in store for us!

Thank you so much for eARC copy of this book. Unfortunately, I was unable to connect with the writing for this one. I have read and enjoyed some of Miranda's previous books so it does make me sad that this one just did not click with me. I wish this book all the success and I look forward to working with you again in the future.

Kind regards,

Brittney

First off, I am so glad for a new book from this author. Second, I am in love with these characters. These beautifully crafted, fabulously flawed characters. I cannot say much more, but you will not regret reading this YA book.