Now this was what my heart needed! Checking all of the boxes for a romcom that hit me right in the feels, this is another smash hit for Solomon. I will forever recommend this author and this book to anyone that needs a good love story (especially when it deals with cake!). I will not ever stop singing the praises of Solomon and her books.

Quinn doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life, but she’s knows she doesn’t want to join her family’s wedding planning business. She knows that love is just a performance, and it’s a performance that doesn’t always pay off. Her grand gesture, an email was as grand as she could get, with Tarek didn’t work out after all. It’s been a year with no response from him, but now he’s back from college on summer vacation His family’s catering business often works the same weddings as her family, so they can’t ignore each other. Solomon has created another couple for readers to fall in love with in this friends to lovers romance. More than that though, Solomon has created families with rich back stories, and the relationships between Quinn and her sister and her best friend are just as exciting as with her love interest. Fans of Solomon will devour this new novel.

I ENJOYED…
☂️
I fell for Rachel Lynn Solomon’s work years ago with Our Year of Maybe and haven’t stopped adding all of her books to my favorites’ list since then. We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This was no exception.
This story is about Quinn, on her last summer before she leaves to college, helping out her parents, as always, with the wedding planning family business. She’s terrified of telling her parents she might not want to follow the already-paved-for-her path into the family business. Tarek, her unrequited crush’s return from his first year of university isn’t too welcome, either. Not especially after she poured her feelings into an email to him that was left unanswered.
I always end up falling for Rachel Lynn Solomon’s characters and Quinn was no exception. She’s so passionate, she’s a little bit untrusty, she doesn’t quite believe in love anymore. I really loved following her journey as she slowly but surely learned to follow her heart, to open herself up to possibilities and more. She felt so realistic.
Of course, this book has a big place for romance. I loved how wonderful it was. It’s a sort of friends to lovers romance, it slowly blooms and grows and it’s absolutely swoon worthy and sex positive and everything I wanted it to be. I loved how they completed each other and took care of each other overall. Plus, Tarek’s just such a kind sweetheart of a human being that bakes and I really liked him ahhh. He was so wonderful.

I really appreciated the place mental health took in this story, something I didn’t expect. Quinn deals with OCD and it’s just a part of her life, she’s taking medication, she has a therapist. Tarek, on the other hand, struggles with depression. I appreciated the conversations they had around mental health and slowly learning to open up about it a little more, as well.
That’s another great thing with this book: while having an adorable romance you’ll swoon for at its heart, it also deals with important, deeper topics. Mental health, as I mentioned before, but also parents’ expectations, the future, religion, parental separation and more. I loved that so much.
OVERALL
☂️
If you’re looking for a well-rounded young adult contemporary read, pick up We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This. Quinn’s journey as she figures out what she wants out of her future, the adorable romance… Rachel Lynn Solomon nails messy, complex but very real teenagers’ feels about everything and I always love her work. 200% recommending this book!

Another great read by Rachel Lynn Solomon! She does a nice job creating realistic and believable teenage characters. I found the story to keep my interest and I appreciated the way she dealt with mental health. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This is a cute story about two people who work in the wedding planning business. Quinn doesn’t believe in big declarations of love. Tarek does.

Quinn was a pretty unlikable character for me. I appreciated the anxiety rep in the story. The rom com element felt as if it needed to be turned up a bit. There could have been more wedding snafus that the two dealt with throughout the story. I was thrown off by the pacing in this story. It was a little weird at times.

Thank you to NetGalley and SimonTeen for providing me with a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This, by Rachel Lynn Solomon is a young adult contemporary romance about Quinn, an teenager who’s sworn off love, and Tarek, the most hopelessly romantic character you’ll ever meet, who loves grand gestures. Quinn’s parents are the owners of a wedding planning business, and Tarek’s parents own Mansours, a catering business. The two families often work together, and Quinn and Tarek are in for a summer of weddings.

From the moment I started reading the book, I had to know what happened next. The romance was fun, and the characters were loveable. However, there was also a perfect balance of more serious topics mixed in.

Quinn’s parents expected her to join the family business, and work for B & B, but a life of wedding planning isn’t exactly what Quinn wants. She struggles with wanting to tell her parents, and not wanting to dissapoint them and worries that her leaving would tear her family apart.

I also loved Quinn’s relationship with her best friend, Julia.

"It freaked me out, so I told him we had to stop seeing each other. The guy you broke up with because he made you feel an emotion is how Julia refers to him, which is not only an attack but also false. If it was an emotion, it was frustration with myself for not ending the relationship earlier."

Quinn’s friendship with Julia is so important, and is so well written. They don’t get along perfectly, but who does? Rachel Lynn Solomon does an excelent job portraying the ups and downs of the friendship, when they aren’t always as close as possible, and also when they are.

Quinn’s relationship with her sister is also so wonderful. They are seven years apart, but Quinn really admires her older sister, Asher. Asher is getting married over the summer, but that is a bit hard for Quinn to adjust to, and the book talks about that a little.

"“Is it okay to eat in here?” Tarek sits down on my bed next to Edith, who takes a tentative step into his lap. He scratches her head, behind her ears. “You’re asking the girl who hoards boxes of processed microwavable desserts in her room. Yes, it’s okay.”"

The writing in We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This was so fun to read, and really engaging. I also loved all of the sarcastic comments from Quinn, the protagonist. Though Quinn could sometimes be a little annoying to have to listen to, her narration is so fun!!

"Noelle nods like talking about therapy is the most normal thing in the world, and it should be. “Me too!” And she holds her hand out for some kind of therapy high-five."

There is a lot of mental health rep in this book; the main character, Quinn, has OCD which is talked about a lot. Tarek, the love interest had clinical depression and his diagnosis process and how he handles and treats it is talked about a lot as well.

"We sip cups of cider and eat our fruit and bread and cheese in silence for a while, until Julia, who’s been gazing at Noelle with doe eyes, blurts out, “So what do you think about Kristen Stewart?” I choke on my cider. Julia throws me a panicked look like she can’t believe what she said either. Noelle’s brow furrows like she’s seriously considering the question. “Love her transformation. Respect her artistic choices.” “And she has great hair,” I put in, trying to be helpful, and Julia kicks me under the table. “She does.” Noelle looks right at Julia. “Although your hair is pretty great too.” Julia looks like she might combust. “Mm-hmm,” she squeaks out, and it’s impossible for me to miss the subtle way they lean closer together in their chairs."

I talked about her a little before, but I love Julia so much!! Julia, Quinn’s best friend, wasn’t the main character of the book, but I’d 100% read a spinoff about her!! Rachel Lynn Solomon does an amazing job really making the side characters have so much depth and each had an amazing story of their own.

"“Quinn, how’s your summer?” Deb Kirschbaum asks. “We haven’t seen your parents at temple lately.” Ugh, Jewish guilt. “Busy!” I chirp back. “Shockingly, a lot of people like getting married when it’s nice out.”"

It was so nice to just read a book with Jewish characters. A lot of the time, it’s hard to find a book with Jewish characters outside of historical fiction, and while I love historical fiction, it’s so nice to see a Jewish teen in a book!

Quinn talked about doing BBYO, going to temple really only on high holidays, and overall, just was Jewish. That meant so much to read, and I really loved it!!

"But after a while you grow weary of beautiful."

Music is a huge part of the book. Quinn plays the harp at a lot of the weddings, but since her grandmother died its felt like more of a chore for her. In We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This, we get to watch her discover the harp in a new way, and without spoiling anything I have to say it’s absolutely beautifully done!!

We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This, by Rachel Lynn Solomon, is an amazing book, and has become one of my favorite contemporaries! With an adorable romance, amazing representation, and hilarious and beautiful writing, I definitely recommend the book to fans of YA contemporary.

(all quotes were taken from an early copy of the book)

I honestly would read Rachel’s grocery list, she’s that great of a writer. Her stories are intricate and heartfelt, the romance absolutely swoon worthy. I always leave her stories with a smile on my face.

I really enjoyed my second book by this author, although I think I liked Today, Tonight, Tomorrow better. This book was in some ways a typical YA romance, but it tackled a subject I don't often see in romance novels--OCD and clinical depression. I appreciated the author having the two main characters talking about it to each other and learning about how their respective illnesses impacted their daily lives and how they affected their behaviors and choices. But I also liked hearing them talk about how it would always be with them, but they had help from therapists, medication, and understanding friends and family.

I'm not so sure that I liked Quinn all that much, especially at the beginning, but that was the same for me in Today, Tonight, Tomorrow. As Quinn processed through things she was going through, I started to understand how her OCD and anxiety basically led to actions meant to protect her, but instead led to further isolation. I also felt like she was a lot more immature than Tarek, but perhaps that's because he was a year older and he had had a year of therapy to help him put things in better perspective. I did love her exploration of the harp and wood making and loved that she rediscovered her joy in the instrument.

As for Tarek, I found him to be really sweet, if a bit overly patient and a little bit clueless. I loved his love of baking (I mean, who doesn't like a good-looking man who bakes?) and his romantic soul. I'm not sure about him being Muslim because it almost felt like a token character. It didn't really rub me the wrong way, because I'm not Muslim myself, but I'm wondering how Muslims (practicing or otherwise) would feel about his portrayal? Perhaps it's because the author herself is Jewish and not Muslim, but it definitely felt more token than a vital part of who he was. I did love that his love of exploring baking started with his cousin who had to go gluten-free and wanting to learn about allergen-free cooking that still tasted good. If I were to go to culinary school, I would want to study food chemistry and understanding how to use it to create yummy food that is also safe for all food intolerances.

Overall, this was a story that was more about Quinn than about the romance between her and Tarek. It was about her learning to value herself and her desires and also learning to open herself up to those she cares about, allowing in not just the risk of pain, but the potential for love and joy. I enjoyed the story and I loved all the Seatlle references, although there weren't nearly as many as in her other book (which totally made me want to visit Seattle). Interestingly, this is the second book in a week that has used Seattle as the backdrop for a romance novel. I guess Seattle really is the city for romance!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

After really enjoying The Ex Talk, I was excited to pick up this YA with a really endearing premise. It's simply delightful -- everything I would have wanted to read as a high schooler, not just because of the great writing and lovable characters, but also because of the sensitive but realistic way Solomon deals with family issues and mental illness. I loved it.

Today Tonight Tomorrow was one of my favorite books from last year so when WCKMLT was announced, I knew I had to read more from the author. Plus, would you look at that cover??? That pastel is so gorgeous and it's one of my favorite colors too ahh 😍

So, Quinn and Tarek's families have worked together in the wedding biz for years. And Quinn definitely has a crush on Tarek, which the tough-hearted harpist even confesses to the hopeless romantic (you can guess who's who). But then Tarek moves to college without a reply to her confession, and a heartbroken Quinn is left behind to work where her heart doesn't belong. That is until the summer Tarek comes back and both of them are thrown in to work together.

I adore Rachel's writing and how delicately she deals with her characters' arcs. In WCKMLT, she represents OCD, Anxiety and Depression in a very careful and real manner, which arouses empathy for the characters. Apart from this, she also approaches a couple of other important themes in the book too, including race and religion.

I absolutely loved the way Rachel portrayed her characters in the book, including the side characters too. The open discussion of therapy and the struggles of growing up, friendships and sex positivity was so heartwarming to read about. It wasn't preachy in any way.

I adored this book. It has that friends to strangers to lovers trope that I absolutely dig, and something that Rachel did so well. Tarek is an ultimate soft boi and Quinn is the queen and I love them both 👏

However, at times it also felt like the author was trying to tackle too many issues all at once which didn't gve much time space for certain themes to properly develop. One was Quinn and her dilemma being a wedding harpist. I did wish for more scenes with Quinn's harpist and practises and the whole confusion. I loved that aspect of her character and wished that the author had spent more time with that instead of the romance. At times, Quinn's decisions and actions made me slightly mad too, but it was alright at the end. The end was, of course, a bit cliche but uber sweet and laden with enough romance to make you want it too.

And of course, that little cameo. Sweetest cameo that brought the hugest smile on my face. Absolutely adorable. Ahh 😩

A fun summer read with some delicious cake, diverse cast of characters and representation, disasters and romance, We Can't Keep Meeting Like This should definitely be on your summer lists!!

This book was perfection (not that I expected any less). Quinn and Tarek were such incredible MC’s. I loved the friends to enemies to lovers storyline. I loved Quinn’s musings about her relationship to Judaism. I loved the coming-of-age aspects. But mostly I loved the way mental health was discussed.

I have never felt so understood by a book before. I was first diagnosed with GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) when I was 8, and for the past 20 years I’ve been struggling on and off with my mental health. Hearing Quinn’s openness about her struggles with OCD was so gratifying for me because I rarely read characters who so perfectly embody the things that I go through. My GAD often results in OCD-like “checks” and multiple times while reading this book I screamed “YES!!!” as Quinn was describing her symptoms. It was nice to see this huge part of me that I rarely talk about reflected on the page. It was also incredible that therapy and psychiatric medication were normalized in this book. Medication has such a stigma attached, and a book like this would have really helped me as a teen.

This book really had it all. I feel so grateful to have read it!

I'm a total rom-com girl. I like the Happily-Ever-Afters and the roller coaster that is falling in love. And Rachel Lynn Solomon nails another rom-com with this delightful book, We Can't Keep Meeting Like This.

Quinn Berkowitz plays the harp - an unusual instrument for a teenager, but one that works well with the family wedding-planning business - and is disillusioned with love for a myriad of reasons. When her parents seem to be planning out her life, she starts feeling pressured and very unhappy. They've selected her college courses and life path - of COURSE she's coming into the family business - but Quinn doesn't want to be a wedding planner.

Complicating her final summer before college is the return of Tarek Mansour - the son of caterers the Berkowitzes work with often. Quinn had a crush on Tarek, and when she'd confessed via email, he'd never addressed it to the point that they didn't speak for a year. But now he's back for the summer, and Quinn wants to rekindle their friendship. But Tarek wants more.

There's so much to love about this book. The plot is fun and the characters are cool and well developed. I love the casual placement of same-sex weddings as well as the bisexual best friend. I love that Tarek isn't perfect - he suffers from eczema - and that Quinn has OCD. The normalizing of mental illness and LGBQT is awesome. I loved that the Berkowitzes are "high holiday" Jews but that Quinn's sister's fiance keeps kosher.

All in all, this book was a fun read and a great, light book for summer beach reads!

Before re-branding myself as a book blogger, I completely thought that I outgrew YA books and I’m glad that I was wrong because We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This has joined other books in a special place in my heart.

Rachel Lynn Solomon is one of the authors whose books I’ve been meaning to read for so long. See, when I was on hiatus, I never completely left the book community and was still active on Twitter from time to time. I’ve added all her books in my TBR but this was the first one I’ve read. I guess it’s more than safe to say that I fell in love with her writing.

We Can’t Keep Meeting Like this was downright enjoyable, swoon-worthy, and definitely a perfect summer read!

When a book has characters that are complete opposites of each other, there’s a big chance that I’ll pick it up. Bonus points if one of them is a hopeless romantic. Well, folks, Tarek Mansour is a big hopeless romantic. On the other hand, Quinn Berkowitz is more cynical when it comes to love.

From the get-go, I enjoyed Tarek and Quinn’s encounters and their chemistry. And I guess I was rooting for them early on because it wasn’t hard to fall in love with their characters. Although, I have to admit that I related to Tarek more than I did with Quinn. I saw a little bit of me in Quinn, in terms of figuring out her future plans and finding her passion. Meanwhile, Tarek is a food science major like me and he definitely reminded me of my college days. His struggles just felt too close to home and I felt a sense of kinship to him.

While the story was in Quinn’s POV, I love how the author managed to create compelling and layered characters surrounding Quinn. The supporting characters were just as loveable as the main characters. I adored the Mansour’s and Tarek’s parents had the epic love story, which makes perfect sense that Tarek likes grand gestures, and rom-coms so much. I enjoyed Julia, Quinn’s best friend, and Noelle’s romance in the background too!

If anything, I think We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This’ main message is finding yourself and pursuing your passion.

Quinn and Tarek’s respective families both run a business. The Berkowitzes run Borrowed + Blue, a wedding planning service; while the Mansours run a catering company so yeah… they kept meeting like that. 😂 Both Quinn and Tarek are working in the family business, but one is less enthusiastic compared to the other. While Tarek pursued his passion for cooking and developing recipes, Quinn felt stuck helping out and playing her harp at weddings. Until she comes across a harpist who helped her find her way back to music.

I love how well-executed this aspect was in the story. Quinn and Tarek both suffer from mental illness: Quinn has OCD, while Tarek was diagnosed with depression. In my opinion, both characters and the depiction of mental health were tackled well in the story. Quinn and Tarek being open with each other helped develop their relationship, despite the rocky start.

As I mentioned earlier, I loved the chemistry between Quinn and Tarek. They have established history together since they were friends until Tarek left for college and Quinn was left hanging after her confession. The pacing of their relationship was so well done too! And I love the subtle and little actions they do for each other. Though, mostly it was Tarek’s doings, despite his love for grand gestures. Gosh, I have a soft spot for hopeless romantics!

Since Quinn doesn’t believe in romance, Tarek had been pretty patient with her. I’m truly a sucker for friends to lovers. Well in this case it was more like friends to friends with benefits to lovers.

Yes, even though I’ve only read one book, I’m now a fan of Rachel Lynn Solomon’s writing. I can’t wait to read her other books soon!

We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This is a beautiful story of second chances, with a well-balanced mix of funny and emotional scenes that will surely hit your heart. It’s full of characters that you’ll surely root for!

The big stand-outs for me are the realistic portrayal of mental illness, as well as the journey of seeking out your passion.

Do I recommend this? Hell yes!

If you like a good friends-to-lovers romance, balanced with flawed and realistic characters, and maybe just weddings and summer romances in general, make sure to pick up this book!

Rachel Lynn Solomon has done it again friends!! This is such a beautiful story between Quinn and Tarek. I loved the mental health representation and also the jewish rep! RLS always portrays both of those so well in her books and I love them all. I have not been let down by one of her books and I don't think I ever will be!! I loved this one and I hope other fans of YA will as well!

I adore Rachel's books and this is no exception - I love reading about Jewish teens and wish her books existed when I was a teen. She has a knack for romcom and I loved how the themes of lasting love vs showy displays were exemplified through the character conflicts and the wedding business background. I also love how sex-positive Rachel's YAs are.

DNF. I really liked the premise but the writing did not work for me at all. It wouldn't be fair to the book if I finished reading and gave it a low rating.

This book was really cute! I really loved how relatable a lot of the book was between the characters and the conflicts. Quinn developed a lot throughout the book and it was such a delight to see. She and Tarek were fun leads and I loved the moments between them. Ranging from frank talks about sex to family drama and wedding drama, this book covers a lot while still maintaining very smooth and consistent pacing. I was hooked throughout the story and found myself laughing at a lot of parts. I'd be interested in reading more from the author based on this book!

This is my second book by Rachel Lynn Solomon, I loved The Ex Talk so I had very high expectations for this.

Unfortunately I read this while in a book slump, it took me forever to finish this book!
I missed out on an author chat because I couldn’t finish it( still sad about it)

Once I finally got through the slump I finished it in one night and did end up loving it!

I really enjoyed the plot, the whole concept of wedding planners was so fun.
The author did a fantastic job portraying OCD and always loving the Jewish rep!

Quinn was not my favorite MC, I found her exhausting at times. I do understand that she was supposed to grow throughout the story and that was written well.
Also I was literally Quinn when I was a teen so maybe that’s why I couldn’t deal with her 😅

Another thing I love about this book is that it was so sex positive! Young adults have sex and it’s something that I think should be added to some YA books.

Overall I really enjoyed this book! I plan to read all of her other books ASAP.

While this is a YA novel, it still has some steam, interfaith romance, depiction of mental health struggles and Jewish representation (by a Jewish author none the less). I have no doubt in my mind that this unique and special book will be one of my favorite reads of 2021

Another great book from this author. She has engaging plots, dialogue and great representation in her characters.