Such a cute premise!! But I felt like every time I thought something would happen, nothing happened. It was cute in theory but fell a little flat and I felt like there was much more the write could have done.

3.5 stars rounded up

So, the thing is this book is about a girl, named Charlie Owens who has a participates in an Uber like service in her small town. She ends up getting in an accident with a guy named Andre. She agrees to give him drives everywhere in order for her not to have to pay for the damage. This had SO much potential, but I was left disappointed. There were a lot of opportunities to have cute moments between Charlie and Andre but they rarely happened. It was a slow burn without having that anticipation I usually crave in slow burns.

Honestly, I expected a little more from this book. I found the main character to be kind of boring. I also found the romance in the book to be very forced and lacked chemistry. Overall, it was a quick and easy read, just not for me.

This was so incredibly boring. The characters felt one-dimensional and the couple had no chemistry. The main character also annoyed me quite a bit.

I was so excited to dig into Ride With Me, I mean I’ve always thought being a taxi driver (or rideshare app driver) was such a cool way to meet people and get to listen to interesting stories about them so I was more than up to the task of reading about Charlie’s adventures. And I really liked her, she is a total artist yet she is definitely the quiet, introverted type that would much rather ride in silence (insert dead emoji here because I did not expect that) thankfully for me (and sadly for her) she ends up responsible for a minor car crash that gets her stuck with a constant passenger.

Enter Andre, the towns party-boy and overall much-loved extroverted person who sends Charlie’s nerves on fire. So while these two learn to walk in each other’s shoes we are treated to an all around wholesome and entertaining ride of self discovery and first love.

What else can you ask for in a summer novel, amirite?

I read this book a couple of months ago now and I still think about it almost on a daily basis. I loved everything about it, the plot, easy to read and interesting, and the lovable characters. I will never stop recommending this book to anyone who wants a cute YA romance. Also, you may want to go on a road trip after reading this book, I definitely want to.

I was unable to finish before the publication date; however, this title was purchased by my library and 9 others in the consortia.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. Ride With Me is a delightful YA romcom that, while predictable, was a fun and light read. The characters were enjoyable and it was nice to see the male characters being the more emotional ones in the relationships. While overall this was a lighter read, there were heavy topics discussed that gave some meat to the book that elevated the narrative a little bit. This was fun and light and a nice summer read.

Charlie may only be 17, but she has big dreams and she’s rapidly outgrowing her small town of Chester Falls, Massachusetts. She takes pride in being a driver for Backseat, a ride share app designed to serve the teenagers of Chester Falls, and if she can keep her perfect driving rating, she might be able to drive right out of town one day soon.
However, all Charlie’s plans crumble when she hears the crunch of her car backing into local playboy Andre’s car as they’re leaving a party. Now Andre’s car is out of commission, so Charlie has a new permanent driver.
As Charlie and Andre drive around town with a constantly changing set of additional riders, they are forced to see one another more clearly, and each of them learn there is more in their companion than meets the eye.

Charlie has big dreams of being an architect and hopes her ambitions help her get farther than either of her artistic parents chose to go, and Charlie dreams of keeping everything the same since his mom has just recovered from cancer and life os feeling normal again. As Charlie learns to accept the beauty of the present and Andre learns that stepping out of his comfort zone might bring more joy than he believed, they both learn that love might just be found in the most unexpected places.

I adored “Ride With Me” by Lucy Keating so much that I couldn’t put it down and read it in a day!

Charlie Owens is on the precipice of the great unknown: her future self and life after high school. She feels restless and is itching to get out of her small town life and away from her awkward & often frustrating parents. She has a plan and doesn’t want to deviate from “the plan.” Andre crashes into her life (well, maybe vice versa) & starts to upend her thinking and planning.

I loved that this YA novel has an innocence to it yet also speaks truthfully to the teenage experience. As a 41 year old mother, I still could appreciate and relate to this story about finding your own path and stepping into who YOU want to be. I’d recommend this to anyone but especially the teen readers in my life!

Thanks to #NetGalley for this advanced copy. All opinions are of course, my own.

My students will love this book!!! It has everything that high schoolers will want to read it as soon as possible. Not only will this book let them know that growth is a good thing when finding colleges after high school, but also that it's ok to have differences with your parents. No one is ever alone when going through adolescence. Ride with Me was not only a romance, but it also teachers you about the importance of dreaming for bigger things but also that it's ok to say no to something you don't think is right and to stand up for.

DNF @ 41%

I really wanted to love this book, and I had high hopes for it because I haven't seen many books out there about rideshare drivers. Unfortunately, I'm struggling to connect with the main character, and the book as a whole feels flat to me. I'm almost halfway through, and I feel like nothing major has happened. I'm finding myself bored with the plot and the characters, so I'm going to set this one aside.

Cute story with a ride share premise. Not as much romance as i was hoping, but a cute read. Likeable characters as well. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really enjoyed this cute, cozy story of friendship, romance, and self-discovery. I liked the setting of the Berkshires -- it made me want to visit again! -- and how it portrayed high school relationships in a realistic way. They're sweet! They're scary! They're dramatic! They're confusing! I enjoyed the premise of the ride share app and the ratings were a cute bumper at the ends of some chapters. Overall, a fun read that was a nice escape from the current terrors of everyday life!

Charlie has definite plans for her future, ones that don’t include accidentally backing her car into Andre’s while she’s working for Backseat, a high school version of Uber, and making his semi-roadworthy Saab not so roadworthy. In order to keep driving and earning money, she begins to drive Andre to where he would normally drive himself to. What evolves is that two people learn a lot about each other and change along the way as they see things that they thought they knew (or didn’t know) through each other’s eyes in Lucy Keating’s Ride with Me.

Ride with Me made me happy. I loved being in the company of type A personality Charlie and easy-come, easy-go Andre and seeing them change. For both characters there was so much more beneath the surface and for them to learn. Charlie must wrestle with the idea that ultimately she doesn’t know best and that trying to control everything seldom works.

This was such a feel good book that made me a little sad to read “the end.”

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eArc in exchange for an honest review. This was adorable! Definitely recommend!

Charlie Owens it determined to make enough money using her small towns rideshare app to be able to get out town and do a road trip across the US checking out old buildings architecture since that is her passion. Both of her parents are artists that she thinks are stuck in a rut and not moving forward with anything be it actually defining if they are separated or not as well as making sure the house they live in isn’t falling apart. Since Charlie is on call at all times to pick people up she is neglecting her friends and not living her life now she is just waiting to live her life after she gets out of town. She ends up crashing into Andre while trying to make sure one of her clients doesn’t throw up in her car so he doesn’t report her to the police she agrees to take him around whenever he needs to and to pay for half of the repair of his car. While doing this she ends up getting to know him and of course starting to fall for him and starts to see that her town isn’t so bad after all. Also she finally talks to her parents well more yell to get them to understand how she feels and what she seems as them just wasting their lives but actually helps them start to change and make more of an effort. Just a really cute rom com and I love the renovation she does of her friend’s barn while the sprucing up of her mom’s studio was very much not what her mom wanted and too much like her favorite Instagram designer. This was a really fun read.

Thanks Clarion Books and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc of "Ride with Me" by Lucy Keating.

Charlie wants nothing more than to leave her home town of Chester Falls. Saving money by driving for her towns equivalent of Uber everything is going as planned until the day Charlie backs into Andre's, the local wild boy, car. Now stuck with not wanting to get another strike on her account and effectively be banned from driving Charlie is eager to make a deal with Andre to keep him from reporting her. What comes from this is Charlie being Andre's driver until his car is fixed. The more that Charlie and Andre spend time together the more they realize that they both have problems they need to face about growing up and the more something starts to grow between them.

This was a good story, it wasn't anything unexpected (except perhaps the Uber style app) but it was well done. Andre and Charlie were enjoyable to read about and while Charlie's friends didn't really add much to the story, she even says that she has basically been ignoring them for a while at the end of the book, they did make alright background characters.

Nothing stood out as particularly bad about this story but nothing was particularly spectacular either. It was an enjoyable summer read. I gave it three stars.

Charlie was a young girl trying to save up money to go to school to become an architect. I feel like however she was made to be to much for a high school student. She tried so hard to get away and only be about art that it seemed forced. She never lived in the now. She didn’t even seem to like her friends. Charlie and Andre did not make sense. It seemed like it was trying to hard to show opposites attract but it definitely was an odd mix… This was an okay YA read but all in all the characters were a bit bland and tried to hard to be a specific type.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for a review!

Charlie has her mind focused on where to go to get away from her hometown. She's not sure where to go but she knows Chester Falls is not it. To fund her escape, she has been driving people around town on am Uber-like service. When she has a run in with Andre, an agreement is made for Charlie to drive him wherever he needs until his car is fixed. The problem is they don't really like each other. However, after spending so much time together in the car, feelings start to change.
Opinion
This is a sweet coming of age novel that romanticizes small town life. With realistic experiences, it is easy to relate to. The story is told through Charlie's point of view and it is easy to see her longing for something to hold on to. The reader can work through what they would have done while seeing what Charlie chooses.
The book itself is innocent enough for a younger teen. The book epitomizes the small town life with its slow build but heart warming feel.
Many thanks to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book.