3.5 stars --

a really interesting concept, about two teens whose paths cross multiple times over the course of three years on the subway. a wide range of issues are tackled, including racism, police brutality, and mental health, to name a few. i thought it was overall well done, however the events of the end felt very abrupt, and could have benefitted from a little more of a conclusion.

Cute romance of two kids who are very relatable to my high school students, and they met on the NYC subway! Aside from the romance, the tension comes from how different the characters are, and how race and privilege are explored within the Latinx community.

I’ve decided to dnf this at 74%.

This book drew me in quickly and it was fun and cute for a while but the more I read the less I enjoyed it. I think the characters grated on me a little to much and it just didn’t hold my attention enough for me to finish it. The writing is good but I’ve just lost interest in continuing. I would recommend it to big YA contemporary fans, but not necessarily if you read a lot of it because it’s quite similar to a lot of others. Overall it’s a fine read, but I sadly just didn’t love it.

I love books that follow multiple characters, especially ones that have intense interests in hobbies. Isa and Alex were great to read from. I really connected to Isa since I took ballet for fifteen years and it was a huge part of my life. I enjoyed seeing how focused they were on their futures.
I thought their meet cute was adorable. Their whole love story made me smile and feel giddy inside. I like that they faced serious issues within their relationship and had very important conversations.
I wasn't a fan of the judgmental side characters, but I think that's the point. They added a lot to the story and made the book very down to earth. Overall I'm a huge fan of this book and will be reading more in the future by this author.

3.5/5 stars
The relationship was definitely my favourite part of this story. It was formed through casual bump-ins on the train and this premise was one of the main reasons I requested this book! (the author executed this SO well and I loved the game of describing a person and having to try and guess who it was, it’s like a more interactive version of people watching haha)

I liked that the conversations between the characters had depth and loved the inclusion of elements of dance and poetry to the story.
The pacing of the story was a bit slow for me, especially since there was a lot of time skips but overall, I really enjoyed this one and would definitely recommend picking it up.

I DNFed this book, it took me a while to get into it and the reviews were also not that promising. While I thought I would love any book with a Latino love interest, this just wasn't for me.

As many of my readers will know I don’t read that much contemporary especially when its romance based but I have heard a lot of good things about This Train is Being Held and I managed to get a copy from the publisher. We are introduced to one of our two protagonists; Isabelle “Isa” Warren who is a ballet dancer from a well off family as she rushes to an audition for a dance school and on the train she meets Alex Rosario, a baseball player, although she doesn’t know his name. On the train, he not only holds the door for her but shields her from a perverted man trying to film her. Isa remembers this and we can see she makes a big impact on Alex and he remembers her, but he comes from a different world to her and we do learn early on that he is playing baseball because of his father even though it isn’t what he wants to do. This book is told over a long time period so we move quickly in October, we Alex and Isa meet on the train going to separate Halloween parties but Chrissy, Isa’s best friend, dares her to kiss a guy on the train and as she remembers Alex she kisses him. The opening to This Train is Being Held was great as both Alex and Isa have difficult homelives, although we have seen more of Isa’s right now as her mother doesn’t want her to dance and she has to hide that part of her life but her mother also has a prejudice against Latino men and even verbally attacks a young boy in a store after he bumps into her, she even goes as far as telling him to teach his grandmother English because they spoke Spanish to each other. Immediately, I don’t like Isa’s mother and Alex’s father also feels a little off for me, but I am hoping for some development in those characters, but I love both Isa and Alex.

As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Isa and Alex met a few more times on the train but we get to see more in their respective lives. One meeting happens because Alex’s friend Danny has got mixed up with a gang that start a knife fight with a rival gang on the train and he believes he is going to be implicated as he was there but he meets Isa on the platform and she distracts him when the police come through looking for the boys involved in the fight. The second time he is heading a party with his friends as sees Isa with her friends, but she doesn’t approach him or talk to him and he believes it is because she might be embarrassed to be seen with him. When they meet in December, they have their first proper conversation where she tells Alex that her mother hates dance, but she loves it and he begins to show is love of poetry over baseball. They also clear up the issue of the previous meeting as she explains that she thought the girl he was with was his girlfriend and didn’t approach him because of that, not because she was embarrassed to be seen with him and while they aren’t in a relationship yet we know it is coming. Perception is a big thing in this novel as Alex doesn’t want to be judged for coming from the DR, but his friends also judge Isa, assuming she can’t speak Spanish because she is white, but her mother is Cuban. We also learn more about Alex’s relationship with his father which is strained as his parents aren’t together and his dad wants him to be a baseball player because he played for the Yankees and he believe that people won’t judge Alex on his race when he is a star player but he doesn’t know that Alex doesn’t want to play baseball, he wants to write poetry as it is something he loves, the same way Isa loves to dance.

As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Alex talks to Isa more about his love of poetry, but he begins leaving her poems that tell her the feelings that he can’t express when speaking. It is nice to see both of them feel themselves with each other and their relationship is blossoming nicely, and it is interesting to read about. However, Isa’s father has lost his job meaning the family are going to make cut back until he can get another job and while this seems to be a bad thing it means Isa can move schools as the dance school has a free tuition compared to her private school which is something Isa wants despite what her mother forces on her. I didn’t like Isa’s mother at all, whether or not she has mental health issues that is no excuse to act the way she does and how she rigidly controls every aspect of Isa’s life from what she studies to who she is friends with and this comes into play where she bumps into Danny. She remembers him from the train, and he walks her to class, but her mother is also there and explains that Danny is part of a gang which Isa can’t believe because he is so nice, and she forbids Isa from ever seeing him again. Isa’s mother has a big prejudice against Latino men although we don’t know why and despite Isa being majorly in love with Alex, she also knows that her mother would never approve of him.

As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, we see a problem forming between Isa and Alex as Alex wants to meet Isa’s family and have her meet his but Isa knows this won’t go down well and tries to put off the meeting as long as she can. When Alex starts catching on, she invites him to her performance as her parents will be there, but it doesn’t give them much time to interact. To attend Alex has to borrow a suit from his father which makes him seem really out of place and he feels it too but he wants to be there for Isa despite his own issues with his father and his treatment of his younger brother, Robi. At the performance he briefly meets Isa’s parents and while her father is nice to him, her mother won’t even shake his hand and Alex knows why. They have to leave minutes after, and Alex thinks it is because of him and watching the first act of the performance he begins to doubt whether he and Isa can actually go anywhere in their relationship because of how they will be viewed by others. He sees Isa in the intermission but leaves afterwards and she doesn’t from him for over two weeks where we learn Isa’s life is falling apart. Her father still hasn’t got a job, they have to move to a smaller apartment because they can’t afford theirs and her brother has got kicked out of school but she doesn’t tell Alex any of this because she wants to protect the easy relationship they have but this is in trouble if she doesn’t open up and trust him and he has to do the same with her because he doesn’t talk about his father and the baseball career he wants for Alex.

As we cross into the second half of the novel, Alex and Isa do eventually make up and air their insecurities about their relationship but Isa is still refusing to talk to Alex about the issues she is having with her family even as they are getting worse. Isa does make up for this but anonymously submitting one of Alex’s poems to a magazine who publishes it and tells him about a school where he can further his love of poetry while still playing baseball like his father wants. Shortly after getting back together Alex and Isa take the next step in their relationship and Isa meets his mother which makes Alex really happy as he loves his mother but things get dicey again when Isa is supposed to meet Alex to go to concert he got ticket for, especially for her and her brother has ended up in the hospital. It seems that both Isa’s mother and brother are bipolar, moving and her father losing his job has taken a massive toll on the family and Isa feels as if she has to be the strong one until her father can make everything ok again which isn’t the case as she is only a young woman herself and she shouldn’t be shouldering the whole burden alone. By this point, I was really torn about finishing the book or DNFing it as nothing much was happening which is to be expecting as it is a slice of life contemporary but I was hoping for a little more drama to help push the story forward.

As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, it turns out Isa’s brother took an overdose which is why she was called to the hospital the night of the concert but over the next couple of days she ignores Alex who is becoming increasingly worried. They do have a brief Instagram conversation where Isa tells him she needs a break because things aren’t going well in her family, but she doesn’t give him any further explanation and Alex decides to walk away. We jump to September bypassing July and August and the pair still haven’t really spoken and Alex is now in a casual relationship with Kiara, but he still loves Isa and she still loves him, but she can’t allow herself to be with him right now. Merrit was in intensive care for a long time and since his release the family have been doing therapy together but Isa still doesn’t talk about her problem insisting she is fine, throwing herself into dance but those around her including her best friend are worried and I am worried for her too. Alex is moving forward too as he transferred into the school Isa suggested for him and has been doing pretty well but it doesn’t take away the pain of seeing Isa on the train. While I really want them to be together it is only going to happen if Isa can trust Alex and talk to him and not put up her mask every time, he mentions something that upsets her. Alex does try to talk to Isa coming clean about his father but even after laying himself bare for her, she can’t return leaving instead. Afterwards he gets into a massive fight with Kiara after she discovers his poetry and believes it is about her only to find out he is still in love with Isa. Meanwhile, Isa injures her ankle from overuse meaning she can’t dance for weeks or months, this also means that she has no escape from the madness inside her house but she does tell her father the truth about Alex partially and she discovers a note from Merrit saying he wants to meet the mystery man and I am hoping they can make it up in the last 50 pages of this novel.

As we cross into the final section of the novel, things finally come together, and we see Isa and Alex finally learn to trust each other with their darkest parts of themselves even if it takes Merrit almost dying to do it. I liked how everyone was finally opening up, Isa’s mother dealt with some of her prejudice, Merrit is dealing with his mental health issues, Isa’s ankle is on the mend as is her relationship with Alex and most of all, Alex is finally being seen for the person he is rather than who people want to see him as, even if it meant sacrificing the relationship he had with his father. Overall, This Train is Being Held was ok, there were elements of the story that I enjoyed and the relationship between Isa and Alex is amazing as it deals with racism, police brutality, mental health and some other very serious issues but I was really let down as nothing really interesting happens until the very end of this novel so it was hard to get through because I was bored. While it wasn’t my cup of tea, there are some people that will really enjoy this book.

I was really excited to read This Train is Being Held as let's face it the cover is really pretty. Even though I was drawn in by the cover, I got a story that I liked a lot and it was one of my favourites last year.

To start, I have a slight criticism which is that the book was a little slow and I do feel like it takes a little whole to get into. I do still like a slow read though and found the way the book is formatted kept me engaged.

I do like the whole concept of wanting them to meet and the collection of small meet cutes throughout the story. Seeing two characters slowly fall for each other and come from different backgrounds was interesting to read about and I really enjoyed it.

They both liked each other and seeing them get closer and go through difficulties still be in a relationship was realistic to read about. I also think that the writer tackled some conversations around race and whiteness in comparison to being Latinx that was important and I learnt more from the story.

The plot does pick up at the end and was tense and exciting. I was genuinely afraid for the characters which is a credit to the great writing of the author. Compared to the beginning section of the book this is a big difference. It is this that definitely makes the story better and made me enjoy the characters and the book even more.

Of course, a main part of the book is the romance and Ismée William's goes a great job at developing the romance between the two characters. I loved both Isabelle and Alex and their romance as well as their characters individual. Both were great to read about and I also loved the family relationships in the story to.

Basically, I highly recommend This Train is Being Held and it was one of my favourite books of last year. I can't wait to read more from Ismée Williams in the future.

The Verdict:

This Train Is Being Held is an important and heartbreaking read that will leave you hanging until the word.

A boy and a girl meet on the train, and the boy leaves poetry for her to find as a relationship is kindled on their individual journeys in lives separated by class and circumstances. Isabelle's family is well-to-do with a history of mental illness, whereas Alex's family struggles with money. Both of their parents push Isabelle and Alex toward goals they don't want, with Isabelle longing to dance and Alex aiming for poetry. They both learn about each other on these mutual train rides over three years, as their romance and relationship deepens.

This Train is Being Held is a slow burn, and I think that makes this romance more meaningful. Each character gets to see the hardships in each other's life. Isabelle's mother is dealing with mental health issues and has certain racial prejudices towards anyone who has darker skin, whereas Alex's father is controlling and Alex himself deals with racism as a Dominican American. It's nice to see a romance book that bites off more than the sweeter side, as real life is often tart and sometimes bitter. I found this train ride got me where I wanted to go, and I think you'll enjoy it too!

I enjoyed the slow burn romance in this book, and also appreciated how it tackled important issues related to Latinx culture, mental health, and prejudice. Good stories will always make you feel something, and This Train is Being Held had me feeling all the feels because of its wide range of themes in romantic and personal life.

Don't miss out on this fantastic book!

Alex and Isa live fascinating lives but their paths only cross on the train. Their romance begins sweetly and unfolds over a few weeks but the story continues to check in with them in this way with nothing really happening.

With the external factors at play, this book could have quite easily been amazing but I think it relied too much on the premise and lacked execution. Occasionally we have moments in the "real world" but they are few and far between.

DNF. Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early copy! I decided to not keep reading this one, it was not for me. Thanks!

I wanted to start this one, but I lost all interest honestly. I’ll hopefully get to it soon, however right now I’m just not drawn to it.

I enjoyed reading several aspects of this book! The pacing was wonderful, characters were well drawn, and the reading experience on the whole was delightful.

This book was amazing! I expected it to be as soon as I read the summary but it surprised me how easily I got into it. This story was a slow burn romance between two characters who meet in the NYC metro. Their lives are completely different, but they both had in common family issues.
This was one of the things I most loved about the book explored the complex family dynamics of Latinx families. The two characters were adorable and together I was rooting for them since they met.

This Train is Being Held is one of those books I didn't get to until after release even though it seemed right up my alley. An unlikely romance between a dancer and baseball player from a meet cute on the subway? But This Train is Being Held is a book that tackles tough issues of racism, mental illness, and heartbreak. It encompasses this huge range of emotions and action that leaves you feeling like you just ran to catch a train. While it has these elements of romance, it's a book that is more emotionally intense especially as the book progresses.

Their two different worlds collide in an explosion of color, privilege and prejudice. Despite their families, their different versions of their future, and their schedules, can they be together? Isa is a white passing biracial Cuban American and Alex is a Dominican American whose baseball uniform changes his appearance in the eyes of society. This central conflict is manifested and explored in a variety of instances from the way strangers treat them together, their family expectations, and their own images of their future.

THIS TRAIN IS BEING HELD was cute, unique and a really enjoyable read!

Told by the dual perspectives of Isa and Alex, our two MCs, this story spans not days, not months, but YEARS as the two of them repeatedly run into one another in no place more romantic than... the subway.

It's a romcom-type meet-cute, but it's also a story of immigrants, of prejudice; it touches upon hatred just as it touches upon love. It deals with lightness and heaviness without losing touch with the heart of the story, and the romance was... a little insta-love, but done beautifully well.

This story pulls on your heartstrings, but it's also one that instantly brings a smile to your face. I really enjoyed it!

I went in to this book expecting the typical YA romance but that wasn’t the case, the main characters had real problems and issues going on and their conversations had depth.
Personally for me the pace was too slow and therefore it dragged a bit, however the writing was beautiful. I would recommend that you give This Train is Being Held a go.

3.5 stars

The Train is Being Held is about far more than just two teenagers having a meet-cute moment on the subway, which was both good and bad. Good because I thought the author delved into a lot of pertinent topics like racism, classism, mental health and struggling to meet parental expectation – all while falling in love for the first time. The flip side was that I felt like I needed more time and a much deeper development to capture all the growth and drama that the two main characters, Isabelle Warren and Alex Rosario, experience over the course of three years. Trying to stick to subway encounters and using time jumps to cover that period of time didn't really allow for that in a way to be even more meaningful. When private school student and aspiring ballerina Isabelle meets Dominican-American star baseball player Alex, it's pretty much attraction at first sight. As the 1 train keeps throwing them in each other's path, they learn more about what's lies beneath the surface. He struggles with wanting to go to college and study poetry (I admittedly didn't love the inclusions of his poems) with his father's push to go major league. While Isabelle's unstable mother and family drama make her feel like she always has to be okay and perfect. Alex and Isabelle help each other to pursue their dreams and I found their relationship to be very sweet and romantic. But as I said that something more was missing for me to really fall in love with this book, despite all the great elements it had going for it.

Do I recommend? It's a sweet, quiet book that read really quickly for me. If you're at all interested, I'd recommend borrowing from the library.

I was partially surprised by this book. I went in expecting a fluffy romance but the author gave the main characters real issues to deal with. Both are dealing with difficult parents and trying to figure out their future. Their talks on the subway got really personal

As I read more, the more disappointed I became and it had to do with the time frame and the romance. The relationship between them starts off well but then came the miscommunication and the unnecessary drama. This book has a slower pace than what I thought I was getting. Longer than I thought actually. From the synopsis, you would think that this takes place over a few weeks or maybe even a year. I just felt like I missed so much in the time span it stretched across.

While it wasn't for me, I do hope that others enjoy this more than I did.

One of my goals for 2020 is to read more novels with Latinx characters by Latinx authors, and I was thrilled to find that This Train Is Being Held featured not one but two Latinx protagonists, I was thrilled! The story follows Isa, a white passing, half Cuban ballerina, who meets Alex, a Dominican-American aspiring pro-baseball player, on New York public transit. Existing in different classes, social circles, and areas of New York, they keep running into each other on various trains until they realize there is definitely a spark between them that they both can’t deny.

While this is definitely a YA Romance novel, I found there to be so much more going on in this story that helped develop Alex and Isa’s world into a fully immersive reading experience. Both of their families play a major role in their lives and in the story, from Alex’s divorced parents (his Dad is an ex-MLB player who is pushing him to follow in his footsteps and his mother and stepmom whom he has great relationships with) to Isa’s seemingly privileged and inaccessible family (that’s fraught behind the scenes with mental illness). Both of their families (and even friends) have prejudices and preconceptions about why their relationship should never work, especially Isa’s mother who despite being Cuban, has a deep distrust of Latino men due to her own issues with her father. Yet the story doesn’t turn into a “let’s be together despite what our families think” situation. Though both having flawed families, Isa and Alex both care deeply for their parents and siblings and often choose to prioritize them first, though it caused problems between them, which was heart-wrenching yet realistic at the same time.

This story also really dove into the topic of mental illness in an honest and raw way. Isa’s mother is bipolar and so is her older brother Merritt. One of the first times we meet Isa, she’s tiptoeing around her mother, hoping she can leave for dance class without her mother having an episode. Throughout the course of the novel we see Isa having to be the rock of her family when things start falling apart, and though at times she can seem emotionless and detached, it’s clear that her behavior is a coping mechanism because she’s so often not able to react on her emotions due to always watching out for her mother and brother. Yet at the same time, Isa is terrified of exhibiting any signs or symptoms of bipolar disorder herself, as it’s a constant looming threat hanging over her since she’s seen several close family members suffer from it. While This Train Is Being Held isn’t a mental health focused book exactly, it did an honest job showcasing that mental illness can run in any family and the toll it takes on those dealing with it, and that money or privilege doesn’t make you immune to its affects.

As mentioned previously, both Isa and Alex come from different Latinx cultural backgrounds. Alex’s family is still very much involved in their Dominican culture, speaking primarily Spanish and still keeping their culture alive through food, family gatherings etc (and what mouth-watering food it is! There are some wonderful food descriptions in this story!) Isa, meanwhile, has a much different relationship with her Latinx heritage, and while she speaks Spanish, she’s white passing and doesn’t have many of the same struggles or fear of authority that plague Alex, and her family is less open in their celebration of their culture (probably partially because her Dad isn’t Latinx, and also because her mother seems to have assimilated pretty thoroughly into American culture and doesn’t speak Spanish or reference her Cuban background much). Both families have preconceived notions about the other (positive and negative) and it was refreshing to see multiple Latinx cultures explored in one novel.

Alex and Isa’s story takes place across the span of quite a bit of time (if I remember correctly, at least 1-2 years) and sometimes there were big time jumps between scenes. I didn’t find this jarring, however and found that it fit with the overall theme of them meeting by happenstance at different points of their lives on the train. At the end of the story the tension definitely increased as many of the elements that had been simmering in the background came to a peak in an action scene that was honestly a little more intense than I was expecting (though I couldn’t put the book down!).

Overall: This Train is Being Held is an honest exploration of growing up Latinx in today’s American society and highlights both the differences and similarities of the experiences of the characters. While at times some of the decisions the characters made could be a little frustrating, it was realistic given their personal and family situations and it was fascinating to see how fate kept bringing them together on the train. It’s a story of coming of age, finding yourself, rejecting and embracing familial expectations and most of all finding your person in perhaps the unlikeliest of places.