I will not often add an author to my “always and forever one-click” list, but Emma Lord has busted through in just two novels. I loved Tweet Cute. It was a top of 2020, but You Have a Match has grown my love exponentially for her writing. She strings together sentences so intricately it’s a symphony of words. A melody to the theme of teenage love, angst, and everything in between. The plot took a few twists that drove Lord’s messages home smoothly and precisely.

Abby Day is my kind of gal. A bit adventurous, a little creative, and a lot of inner chaos. She spoke to me as if she was a part of me. She also has an innate ability to be there for those who need her most, and that is something everyone should aspire to be no matter her age.

Emma Lord is well on her way to being a household name in the wonderful world of Young Adult literature, and I am thrilled to be reading her work every step of the way.

Absolutely adorable! The primary conflict of this novel is not a romance, but a sisterhood: Abby discovers she has an older sister who was adopted away that her parents have never mentioned. Abby and Savannah connect, get to know each other, and scheme to learn why their parents gave Savvy away. I love the mysterious family drama of this book - the girls learn their history in bits and pieces, so they and the reader are always longing for more information. Their parents’ reasoning for giving Savvy up is, while complex, both reasonable and painful.

Romantics, don’t fear - a significant secondary plot is Abby’s crush on her best friend Leo, and the fallout of almost-kissing him several months ago. This plotline is standard teen angst and OMG JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER!!! And as a teen who suffered the same angst, I can say it is utterly realistic even as adult me wants to shake them both silly.

Refreshingly, there is NOT a love triangle with Savvy as she has her own girlfriend troubles to angst over.

My one complaint is that the two plot lines struggled to be dominant which resulted in both feeling a smidge rushed. There were a number of time-hops of “and then we spent the next several weeks hanging out together” that I really wish had been fleshed out. Ditto to Abby’s other developing friendships, which mostly felt designed to advance the sister-switch and romantic plots. Basically, this book has a lot going on for it and I would happily read a twice as long version!

Overall, definitely recommended for a cute but surprisingly heart-twisting read!

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Emma Lord is a new-to-me author, but I had heard a lot of good things about her first book (although I have yet to get around to it), and You Have a Match sounded interesting. And while there are some issues I have with it, it’s a fun book that I really enjoyed.

Despite what I may have expected from what I heard about Lord’s previous work, this book was less of a romance and more of a story about sisters finding each other. There is a romance that plays a role in the book, however it’s not the main focus.

I enjoyed the characters and the relationships, particularly Abby and Savannah as they learn more about each other. It was interesting to see them get to know each other, and they played off each other really well.

I also think it’s great that this book is providing a perspective for people who’ve been adopted or who have found out about secret siblings and other relatives due to adoption, since the topic isn’t one I’ve seen talked about a ton and absolutely should be promoted more across the board.

I did think that Abby doing it because of her friend/love interest Leo, who himself is a transracial Filipino adoptee in a white family was…interesting? My friend, Aarya, unpacks a lot of the issues with usage of these DNA services for BIPOC, and I think she discussed them more concisely than I did, so I’ll defer to her on this. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3410916303?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

But I will say I agree that Lord did the smart thing by not to unpack things from his perspective, while also being concerned at the way this is used to include rep without having to bother with exploring cultural aspects, as well as all the biases in the algorithms of DNA services.

This is a fairly good book regardless of some of its flaws, and I can’t wait to read more from Emma Lord in the future. I strongly recommend it if you’re looking for a sweet story about newfound sisterhood.

This is my first book by Emma Lord and I must say that I enjoyed it, but it's also something that I won't remember for long.

Abby Day signed up for a DNA service to support her best friend and secret crush Leo to find out more about his familial history. What she didn't expect was to get a message revealing that she's a younger sister to the famous Instagrammer and healthy lifestyle influencer Savannah Tully. Savannah messaged Abby to meet up and encouraged her to join the summer camp so they could find out what happened to their parents. Abby decided to go, only to find out that her sister's been friends with Leo all this time and Leo is actually one of the camp's junior chefs. What followed is a series of getting-to-know-each-other between two sisters, trying to learn more about what transpired in their families a long time ago, and Abby trying to figure out how to tell Leo about her feelings once and for all.

I liked that this story is mainly about two sisters who started as strangers but eventually grew closer together. I liked that they were both determined to give each other a chance to be the sister that they long lost and just recently found. I liked that Leo was from a Filipino family or at least, background. However, I didn't enjoy the parts where grown adults started acting like children. Really, it was like watching bad reality TV. Boy, was there A LOT going on...and they were all over the place too. It's as if the author didn't know which conflict to tackle and solve first before jumping into the next. I was slowly losing interest in the end. I didn't even shed a tear during those moments when the 'truth' is out already and I was 100% sure I was supposed to be emotional.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and Wednesday Books for providing me with an earc!

Thank you to NetGalley, Emma Lord and St Martin's Press for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Just like Tweet Cute, this novel was adorable but also very relatable. All the characters are so likeable and have their own little problems that remind me of when I was a teenager, I loved how they used the testing to find out she had a sister she never knew about. All the characters are flawed in their teenage, everything is about their lives way. I loved the camp atmosphere and how adventurous it made the main character and changed her life for the better. I would definitely recommend for a lighthearted and fun read.

Unfortunately, I did not finish this book because it just wasn't the book for me. My biggest issue is how totally unrealistic it felt. I spent many years in summer camp and would have loved to be at one so incredibly unsupervised... even high schoolers seemed to run the kitchen and do all the planning and cooking for the summer camp. It may be my own issue, but I just couldn't get over these unrealistic details. So many things just felt way too convenient to steer the plot how the author wanted it to go and I stopped around 40% in because I could tell it wasn't going to get any better. I do know people loved this book so I'm not discounting it... I'm not a huge YA reader in general, so that's on me, but when I do read YA, I appreciate when it feels realistic.

I actually picked this one up because of how much I loved Emma Lord's debut, Tweet Cute, and I'm glad I did!

I think that Emma Lord does a really great job at incorporating more meaningful familial relationships into this book. The new, developing sisterly relationship between Abby and Savvy along with the history-filled, healing relationship between their families all help contribute to a "realer" story. I actually thought that this was going to be a more romance-focused book going into it, but it definitely took a back-seat to the rest of the story.

I do wish we got more of the side characters though. They don't have too much of an importance in the story, and I really wish we got to see more of Finn, especially. I thought that there was so much potential in his character, and it never got explored to the extent that I would have hoped. In fact, I felt like his character arc ended too abruptly for my tastes, and I didn't get enough closure with him.

Overall, I think that it is a cute, meaningful read. It's not perfect, but I do think that it is a very worthwhile book.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed You Have a Match!! This young adult romance was filled with so many things I love about reading, especially the friends to more than friends trope. Emma Lord knows her audience well, and that shows in the twisty plot, the great dialogue, and the teen situations. I loved the characters and the fierce dedication they have to their causes and each other. This book will be hard to keep on the shelf in my media center!

"If you learn to capture a feeling' it'll always be ,louder than words."

'You Have a Match' by Emma Lord falls under the genre of YA contemporary. It is by all means quite a wholesome book. The concepts of love,loss,grief and conflict are at the core of this book. The book revolves around a girl coping with the loss of her grandfather,her changing dynamics with her friends and her trying to set future goals. She eventually falls in a whirlwind of events when she finds out about her sister after a DNA test match.
The book is heartfelt and is packed with funny and relatable anecdotes. The relationships are potrayed very realistically. I did go through a rollercoaster of emotions while reading this. The author, Emma Lord has a very descriptive style of writing which really worked for me and the setting was beautiful too. Also the characters were written so well, I wanted them to be my friends ,the author has done a commendable job in fleshing out each character.
P.S.: Emma Lord needs to release a cook book with all the delicious dishes metioned in this book and 'Tweet Cute'

Overall I loved this book. The only con is that I would have liked the writing to be little more flowy but otherwise all good. It's safe to say I am definitely a huge fan of Emma Lord.

Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday books for this ARC .

You Have a Match by Emma Lord is so much more than a Parent Trap retelling. This book explores first love, found family, family secrets, self discovery, and forgiveness all in the setting of summer camp.

When I started You Have a Match, I had no idea what I was getting into. I expected a typical cute summer camp story about two sisters who have been separated for 16 years finally finding each other again. And that's what I got and so much more. After completing a DNA test, Abby is contacted by Savannah, her full-blooded sister she never knew she had. With some conspiring and sneaking around behind their parents' backs, Savanah and Abby agree to meet up at Camp Reynolds for the summer so they can get to know each other and figure out why they never knew about each other before. However, Savannah "Savvy" turns out to be completely different than Abby expects which makes her summer camp experience far different than she expected. Add on an awkward crush on her childhood friend, constantly breaking camp rules, and a parental feud, Abby's summer is so much bigger than she could have ever imagined.

I will admit, I had a hard time getting into this book, but once Abby went to summer camp, I could not put this book down. I am a sucker for any summer camp type books, and this was no exception. What I also loved was that Abby was not your typical shy, quiet, rule-following main character, but she also wasn't the typical badass, no feelings, no vulnerabilities, tough chick either. I love those character tropes, but it was so refreshing to have a middle ground. Abby was bold and unfearing about many things, but she also held back to avoid any kind of confrontation. So being able to see her character growth from this to being able to handle herself in any situation, bring up issues that bothered her, and confront her demons was so incredible to watch. The transition was natural and challenging just like it would have been in real life.

The other characters in the book were also standout. Each person from Savvy to Leo to Mickey and even the other girls in Abby's cabin were distinct. I could tell each person was their own person and knew who was speaking even with out the dialogue tags. I also really enjoyed the female/female romances with some of the side characters, and that it wasn't made into a huge deal. There wasn't any hooplah about there being lesbians in the story, no grand coming out parties or announcements, just two women in a relationship together plain and simple.

This book also explores the idea of family secrets and family feuds and what can happen when left to fester for over 18 years. While I was able to predict much of what had happened, that didn't deter from my enjoyment from the book. The parental relationships played such a huge role in this story and was nice way to tie everything together.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants a summer book but one that isn't just sunshine and rainbows and fluffy romances. This book had interesting and developed characters, an fascinating storyline with complex issues, and a cute friends to lover romance.

Freaky Friday twist to this story... but instead of the parents separating and splitting the twins, it's a heartfelt story about a young couple giving up their first born to their friends due to unusual circumstances. Although the book doesn't reveal that in the beginning and does a good job keeping the real why towards the end.. this was a really cute story!

Abby and her friends opt to do a DNA test for one of their anthro classes and she finds out she has an older sister, Savvy who is her full blood biological sister. The two girls meet, end up at camp together for the summer and discover the real reason why Savvy was given up for adoption.

This book also shares side line stories of Leo, her best friend, who is also coping with his closed adoption and his interest of finding his roots. Budding relationships and romance are also embedded within the story which makes this book so cute. 4 stars!

You Have a Match is a fun read ability 16 year old Abby whose life is at the crossroads. One DNA test will show she has a sister and will unleash a family secret that has been hidden for too long. I liked Abby because I think readers can identify with her angst and struggling to make the right decisions. I thought the way the healing occurred was done very well and had a good ending. Although fiction, the story is e timely plausible with social media and ancestry searches revealing more secrets than ever before.

First, thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was very excited to read another book by Emma Lord, her last one tweet cute was very good and I was hoping this one was it too. But it did not deliver the same quality as the first one.

The book is very well written and the story is captivating in some points, but I felt that the mysteries the author try to do during the book, about Abby and Leo relationship, the restaurant, I think the bigger was why Abby's mother was mad with Saavy's mom but still then they felt very predictable.
The story also loses some power having only one POV, the savvy and Leo side would be interesting in some situations.

Overall was an enjoyable book but I think it lacks some aspects of Tweet cute which made the book for me better.

You Have a Match is Emma Lord's sophomore novel and while I didn't love it quite as much as her debut 'Tweet Cute', it was still a fantastic YA story.

Abby and her two best friends Leo and Connie all take a DNA test. Leo is adopted and wants to know more about his heritage. Abby gets quite the surprise when she finds out she has a full blooded older sister that lives near her. How is this even possible? Abby decides to keep it quiet for now and go to the summer camp her sister Savvy works at and spend more time with her. Maybe they can figure out why/how all this happened...

I felt this book was kind of like two different stories that kind of merged in a way. There is the story of Leo and Abby. Best friends. It's fairly obvious (at least to the reader) that Leo is the romantic interest early on and both have more than friendly feelings for one another.

The other part of the story is the familial aspect. Getting to know Abby's sister, Savvy, and also seeing the background story between her and her parents. I think the author did a good job balancing the two, but I also think the story maybe would have been better for me if the romance was stronger, or there was no romance at all. The relationship with Leo was like dangling a carrot in front of you... it never felt like enough. But that could just be me.

Overall, I had a lot of fun reading this book. It had humor, a lot of heart, and a great family/found family storyline. I'm looking forward to reading more of Emma Lord's books in the future. It's obvious she's a talented writer!

What I liked...
The strong friendships. I feel like reading about strong friendships are always so much fun, and they just serve as a reminder to be thankful for my own. The relationships in You Have A Match were to die for, and they just felt so authentic and genuine, something I feel isn’t present in so many YA novels!! I also loved how even though there was such an adorable romance, it didn’t take up the whole plot! It stayed at the side during the whole novel, while the sibling relationships and strong friendships mostly stayed as the main focus.

All the amazing tropes. There were SO. MANY. of my favourite tropes in this book!! There was found family (quite literally in this case) and HUGE parent trap vibes!! There were also sibling relationships, strong friendships and friends-to-lovers which I adored!! There was also SO 👏🏼 MUCH 👏🏼 BANTER 👏🏼 I know that so many other readers also love banter, and this book was full of it!! Some other things that were present in this book include pranks, as well as tons of family drama and sisterly love!!

The characters. All the characters were well developed, and all of them had distinct personalities and traits. I also felt that each of them felt authentic, and I think I mentioned this before, but all the relationships were so so genuine and didn’t make me cringe while reading through the book!! I feel like so many YA books aren’t able to portray teenagers realistically, and there’s always a lot of stereotyping, leading a ton of teen readers to cringe while reading the books. Each of the characters were extremely lovable and I found myself rooting for each and every one of them, and not just Abby, the main character.

What wasn’t my cup of tea...
The unrealistic events. I feel like a lot of events in You Have A Match were really unrealistic, and a bit too coincidental. What I mean by this is that a lot of these events would probably not have been able to happen in real life, and felt straight out of a Disney movie. Like Marie (Drizzle & Hurricane Books) also said in her review, a lot of events felt a bit over the top and exaggerated, and that was completely unnecessary!!

Overall!
I’ve given ‘You Have A Match’ a rating of 4.5 stars (as you can see above) because it’s a fun, light, fluffy, contemporary read full of diverse characters, and a super fun plot!! (we need more books like these)!! It was easy to go through, and the pacing was just right!! Honestly, I would go ahead and recommend this to anyone because I’ve seen very few negative reviews for it, and I know it was a delight to read!! However, these are just my opinions, and everyone is entitled to their own, so you may, or may not like it as much!! I do hope you get a chance to pick it up when it’s released!!

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

You Have a Match sees three best friends, Abby, Connie, and Leo decide to take a DNA test to find out more about themselves. It's mainly for Leo, who was adopted, to discover more about his Filipino heritage, but Abby is shocked when her result show she has an older, full sister, who lives only thirty minutes away. She's always thought of herself as the elder sister of three younger brothers, the eldest child of her lawyer parents, and to find out that she's been lied to for all her life is heartbreaking. Meeting up with her new sister, Savannah, or Savvy, they both realise they want to learn more about each other, and the situation they now find themselves in. So, Abby decides to ask her parents if she can attend the summer camp at Camp Reynolds that she had been against, but her parents had wanted her to go to, as Savvy is a camp counsellor, but pretty much as soon as she arrives, things start to go wrong. Savvy is a lot more strung up that Abby expected, the rules are over the top, and to make matters worse, Leo is also a counsellor, and Abby is still coping with her unrequited crush, and the aftermath of the B.E.I. (Big Embarrassing Incident) during Thanksgiving. Will Abby discover the truth about her family situation, and be able to overcome her feelings for Leo?

When I read Tweet Cute over a year and a half ago, I was just in awe at Emma's writing and how she made her book come to life, so I jumped at the chance to read an ARC of her latest book, You Have a Match. This time around, it was as good, if not better. Her characters are even more fleshed out and real, and I just adored every minute I was reading this book. Abby was such a relatable character, and I could completely understand her feelings throughout the book. In the last year she's lost her grandfather, who she was extremely close to, realised her feelings for her best friend and believes they are unrequited, is struggling with school, and then has a new, seemingly perfect sister thrown in on top. She just feels like a failure, and being told she needs to go to summer school is only exacerbating it all, so it's perfectly reasonable she has a few dips and out bursts as the story progresses. I really enjoyed her discovering Savvy, and just who she was, and how similar they both were. Savvy's parents are very well off, and she's a instagram influencer, who loves what she does and has so many followers, and is basically the antithesis of Abby. On the surface, they don't really have much in common, but it's what is beneath that's important, and it was perfect how this happened, in my opinion.

There was romance, which I loved too, for both Abby and Savvy. Abby and Leo had a moment during the thanksgiving break, and Abby thought it was unrequited, especially when other best friend, Connie, told her Leo wasn't interested in her that way. She's had months to try and get other the feelings, but it's a right struggle, and being at Camp Reynold's with Leo makes it worse. There's a little bit of a possible love triangle, with Abby growing close - but platonically - with Finn, which sort of pushes Leo forward a little, but all in all, I loved them together, and they were so right for each other. Savvy also has romance too. She's being dating a girl, long distance, for some time, but they're not right for each other, and it seems to be more hard work than it's worth. Savvy's best friend, Mickey, has a crush on her, and it's clear too that Savvy likes her back, and it's very much a will they, won't they sort of situation, but it turned out perfectly in the end. I can't wait to read what Emma writes next!

This was a very sweet YA novel. There is romance, but it takes a backseat to the other plot points for most of the story. Truthfully, I would have liked for the romance aspect to have been explored more, but I understand why it wasn’t the main focus. I was very intrigued by the premise that a DNA test could lead to unexpected places and people. In You Have a Match, these results reveal long buried secrets and upend both Abby and Savannah’s lives. I appreciated how the story showcased the importance of families (both by choice and blood) and also friendships. I liked that the sisterhood developed at its own pace and didn’t just magically come together for Abby and Savannah. There is some typical YA drama (miscommunications and assumptions galore) that made the pacing feel a little slow and repetitive, but overall this was an entertaining and heartfelt novel.

Audiobook Review
Overall 4 stars
Performance 4.5 stars
Story 3.5 stars

I enjoyed the narration by Eva Kaminsky and I thought she did a wonderful job voicing all of the characters uniquely. I didn’t have a problem differentiating between characters and her performance was fresh and also conveyed a lot of emotion.

*I voluntarily read and listened to an advance review copy of this book*

This book seems very relatable to the current times. Almost too on the nose with the trendy themes. But, as you continue to read you see the human condition. The layers of each of the characters. Emma Lord is good at bringing her characters to life. I enjoyed watching Abby and Savvy grow into themselves while learning to also grow as friends and sisters. Cute lite read but with a heavyish topic. My takeaway is: Life starts where you find yourself.

I was unable to review this book due to a downloading/ corrupted file error which is a shame because I was so looking forward to this read.

It was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021! I will be reviewing it once my physical copy arrives in the mail and have given it a read upon its publication date.

I hope to be considered for future arcs from this author, thank you for your time.

This was super sweet, and even though the storyline is completely different, it gave me Parent Trap vibes. I loved the family & friend dynamics, as well as the fact that the characters are diverse. This is my second book by EL, and I look forward to more!