I think Emma Lord is starting to become a hit or miss for me. While this is cute, it's just doesn't spark with me. I enjoyed her earlier books, but now I just feel like her styles isn't hitting for me anymore. Maybe I've just grown out of YA novels.

I thought this book was absolutely precious. It gave everything you want in an easy going beach read. I found myself early on in the reading getting invested in the characters and their story. I will definitely be recommending this book to all of my friends and family for the spring break/summer season. This book will be a hit!

While I generally love Emma Lord's books, this one missed the mark a smidgen for me. Don't get me wrong...I still really enjoyed it. I loved the story and my heart went out to Riley. 18 is such an awkward stage where you want to be treated like an adult but the adults still see you like a kid. As a parent I couldn't imagine having to navigate that. And Emma captured it so beautifully. I do wish we would have gotten to see more of Tom and his mom as I feel like the struggle between parents and kids was such a prominent part of this story and there struggles were mentioned so much it would have been nice to get that closure?

The friendship between Riley and Tom was so well done. I loved how no matter where they were or what they were going through that they were able to be there for each other. Add Jesse, Luca and Mariella, and we wwere able to cover alot of stories, but still be kept engaged.

All in all it was a really wonderful story. Very nostalgic.

The Getaway List
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Author: Emma Lord

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: When Riley graduates high school with a rearview of shenanigans but an empty road for a future, she does what they all say to do—pack her bags and head for New York. Her plan is a little loose, but her main goal is to find Tom—her childhood best friend and co-creator of The Getaway List. Years ago, they made a list of all the adventures they wanted to do together, but Tom has been increasingly distant ever since he moved to New York with his famous scriptwriter mom four years ago.

When Riley arrives in New York, her reconnection with Tom is as effortless as it was when they were young—except with one, unexpected complication that will pull Riley’s feelings in a direction she didn’t know they could take. As she, Tom, and their newfound friends work their way through the items on The Getaway List, Riley learns that sometimes the biggest adventure is not one you take, but one you feel in your heart.

My Thoughts: Here lately, YA has not been appealing to me, unless Emma Lord writes it, then I am all over it! Lord writes with such an artistic craft, you cannot help but to fall in love with her stories. This particular couple has to be one of the sweetest set of characters I have seen from Lord. The story opens with Riley at graduation, truly missing her best friend, Tom, that moved to New York a few years ago. Riley and Tom made a “getaway list” a few years ago, of all of the adventures they wanted to take together. Riley makes a decision to visit Tom in NY, initially just for the weekend. As soon as they reconnect, it was effortless, like they were never apart. Riley decides to spend the summer in NY with Tom and some of Tom’s closest friends while doing the getaway adventures. Will they connect more during these adventures? Will feelings beyond a friendship bloom? This follows the tropes of childhood best friend, friends to lovers, second chance romance, and young adult love.

Riley and Tom, through their new adventures, both are having their feelings evolve for one another in unexpected ways, and neither is honest about those feelings. While this is a romance, we really get to see Riley grow immensely throughout these adventures, really standing in her truth, and transforming into a beautiful woman. Then you see the relationship between Riley and her mother, Tom and his mother, really evolve over the story. The characters were developed well with depth, were endearing, had witty banter, great chemistry, and were intriguing. The supporting characters of Mariela and Luca really elevates the storyline to another level. The author’s writing style was complex, heartfelt, closed door, funny, connective, and just brilliant for a YA novel. Lord is such a master with words that really capture the essence of being young with the accompanied feelings during that time in your life, and that romance is not the whole story, but an element to the story captured with wonderful characters that you love and root for.

I had the wonderful pleasure of having both the digital and audio ARC versions. This was a lighthearted, heartwarming, fun romance, that I really enjoyed. I am an Emma Lord fan and will always read her books. I highly recommend this one.

This was such a delight! Set in one of my favorite cities, I loved the characters, the storyline, and the twists and turns that took me on a wild ride. Despite being far from my teenage years, this book felt relatable. Five stars!

Thank you to #netgalley and #wednesdaybooks for an advanced copy of The Getaway List by @dilemmalord! Emma is an auto-buy author for me, so I was so STOKED to received an arc!

This story is SO SWEET and SO CUTE. I read a blurb somewhere that said it’s a “love letter to New York” and that’s absolutely true. The picture Emma paints of NYC makes you want to move there immediately and experiences all of the possibilities.

While my favorite trope is enemies-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers is a close second. I loved the friendship between Riley and Tom. I appreciated that the inevitable conflict felt genuine and not forced. And of course, I loved the HEA although Emma did a good job making me wonder if it was a book with a HEA and also making me feel like I’d be OK with it if it wasn’t.

Emma Lord serves again. This book was so so good. I will read anything Emma writes, nothing has let me down so far and this book was no exception.

5/5 - This was joyful, delightful and heartwarming read. I didn’t realize it was YA when I requested it, and I don’t have much experience reading the genre as a not-so-young-adult, but this managed to be both wholesome and incredibly insightful. The characters are layered and lovable and their interests and worries all felt extremely mature and relatable. It was interesting to see NYC from the POV of a curious and well-intended teen and her quirky pals - the perspective really made the city shine in all the best ways. It also managed to be romantic without any steam, and focused on so many forms of love. I simply adored Riley’s narration and internal dialogue. I think so many readers of all ages will relate to the big feels and self discovery aspects in the story!

This was a good teen rom-com. It had a lot of adventure and fun throughout the novel. It wasn’t on of my favorites because the plot was a bit slow and unrealistic but it was still a read worth it if you enjoy rom-coms and cute banter.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy to honestly review.

The last third of the book, so much happened in, which I did enjoy. Yet, because so much happened there and the first third dragged a bit and was confusing, I was taken out of the book. It felt like things that could have been spread out throughout the book, or at least a feeling that it was building up to these things.

Emma Lord is a talented writer, don't get me wrong. This book isn't bad. It's just the pacing that is off and way too many conflicts going on at once. That being said, it's still an enjoyable coming of age story and one that definitely got our mind spinning.

To know exactly what is on that getaway list and all of the (and there are a lot) conflicts - well, you're going to have to read to find out.

This book was a little bit of a slow start for me but once I got into it I found it hard to put the book down. I feel like Emma Lord nailed the young adult experience of having no idea what is going on while everyone expects your to have a plan. I loved that, while this was a romance it was more about connection. Each member of the friend group played a crucial part in Riley and Tom figuring out what they are and that it it's okay to not know anything. I loved the way they were allowed to be chaotic and not have their whole futures planned. I loved that they were just having fun instead of stressing about college. I think this book would have made me cry a lot if I had it when I was in college.

I didn't enjoy this one as much as I've enjoyed Emma Lord's previous books, but it was still cute and fun. I think, to me, there was too much going on. It was overwhelming to keep track of everything - the characters and their various problems. It was a lot.

The plot itself was cute, I just wish it had been a bit more simple.

Content: lots of language

First thought: The perfect YA story about what challenges you face in life once you turn 18, graduate high school and have a world of possibilities ahead of you. It’s a love story to finding your authentic self, your people and following your path even if it might be scary.

Riley just graduated high school and unlike all her fellow classmates she doesn’t have a plan for the fall. The last 4 years she has molded herself into the kid she thought her mom wanted her to be and in the process she lost herself. Now she’s 18 and has freedom for the first time, a chance to find herself and who she wants to be.

Is it scary hell, yes it is! Will she have to go against her mom’s wishes to have a summer of adventure, yes she will! But she makes a plan anyways to buy a ticket to NYC to go see her childhood best friend Tom.

Tom moved away because of his mom’s job and every time they have tried to get together to see each other the last 4 years something has gotten in the way. So every activity they missed went on their getaway list, and this will be the summer they reunite and conquer that list.

However being in a big city cutoff from your old life can be adventurous but also scary, it’s a big risk to take a step towards what you want. This is a must read with an amazing message, highly recommend.

Literally Themes you’ll find:

* Childhood Best Friends
* Summer After HS
* Friendships
* Adventures
* Finding Your Path
* Standing on Your Own
* Evolving Relationships

🚲🧭💙🚲🧭💙🚲🧭💙🚲🧭💙🚲

Bright, cheery, and fun. The Getaway List felt positive, uplifting and just utterly cute from start to finish. 4 stars.

What a cute story! I loved the friendship between Tom and Riley that slowly morphed into something more. I loved the little side stories for the supporting characters as well. The storyline with her mom made me nervous at first but it was resolved well and made for a touching narrative about how a parents fear of their past mistakes can hold their child back.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of The Getaway List to review!

The Getaway List follows two best friends, Riley and Tom, that spend the summer after high school graduation together in NYC after spending the majority of their high school years apart. As they grew up together they would add items to a shared "Getaway List" that was like a bucket list full of items they vowed to do together someday in the future. During their summer together, Riley, Tom, and their group of friends agree to complete every item on the Getaway List together before September comes. The Getaway List is a story of finding yourself, the romance between two lifelong friends, and understanding what home means to you.

I read Tweet Cute by Emma Lord years ago and I remember enjoying it but I feel like The Getaway List unfortunately just did not have the same spark for me. The premise of Riley basically "running away" from Virginia to New York just kind of rang false for me. If she lived in New Jersey and was taking the bus to New York I would have been on board immediately but Virginia just felt way too far away for her escape to NYC to require so little planning or prep. There were more than a few instances and lines that gave me the impression that this was definitely written by a millennial that doesn't understand how millennial humor differs from Gen-Z humor (and I mean this in the nicest way possible) but they were moments that just threw the whole story to a halt for me that I feel like an editor should've caught them? For the majority of the book I felt like I would read one really strong scene that would hook me but then I would immediately have to muddle through the next 20% of dullness to reach the next strong scene. Overall I also felt like there was just a smidge too much sweetness figuratively and literally (the Milkshake bar just felt like overkill) and these high schoolers felt way too dramatic in some scenes and way too happy-go-lucky in others. These are literally unsupervised 18-year-olds in NYC and the most trouble they are getting into is starting an app?? Are we serious?? One of my favorite aspects of the book was watching Riley and Tom reminisce about their love for the Tides of Time series which I kept equating to Percy Jackson (another super long middle grade series that has a lot of pivotal scenes take place in NYC) and I thought getting to see their love for the series was really cute. Overall, not my favorite read but I also didn't hate it. It definitely had some good moments but I feel there were too many parts that fell flat to me for me to fully enjoy it. (I think I just enjoy it when YA books have a little bit more teenage angst than this one did).

Adore everything Emma Lord writes, and THE GETAWAY LIST is no exception! Filled with humor, heart, friendship, and love.

The Getaway List is what I would refer to as a “*palate cleanser book” for me.
*palate cleanser - a food or drink that removes food residue from the tongue so that one can better assess a new flavor.
So, “palate cleanser” books help remove the unclean feeling that starts to build up after reading so many smut-heavy romantasy and contemporary romance books. Don’t get me wrong, I highly enjoy a well-done sexually explicit, high-energy romance scene, but I just need a light, fluffy, good-natured, down-to-earth young adult rom com to even things out every once in a while. All that being said, Emma Lord’s books fit the bill perfectly for this!
Although, Emma’s debut novel “Tweet Cute” remains my favorite, I highly enjoyed reading this book as well. A perfect read for a young adult who is close to graduating or has just graduated, and is asking “what now?”.
Briefly, it all begins with Riley’s graduation from High School where she finds herself in a bit of an identity crisis. She has spent the last four years of high school trying to please her mom losing sight in the process of herself and what she really wants. Part of her identity was ripped away when her best-friend, Tom, relocated to New York City for his mother’s job. Riley decides this is the opportune time to visit Tom in NYC, finish the list of adventures they planned to do together, and hopefully reconnect with her true self in the process. Riley’s arrival on Tom’s doorstep is a shock to Tom who quickly adjusts as they fall back into their “Tom and Riley” friendship mode. Complicating this rekindled friendship, however, are some new, intense feelings for one another.
It was so much fun to travel all around NYC with Tom, Riley and their new friends as they crossed off items on the “getaway list”!
A perfect coming-of-age story that will leave you ready to chase your own dreams and create your own “getaway” list of adventures!
My sincere thanks to NetGalley for graciously sharing a digital copy of this delightful book with me, in exchange for my honest review.

Again Emma Lord’s writing is spot on! Her stories are always fun to read, but also have some truth and real life situations that grow the characters within the book. I especially liked Riley’s character growth. I found it endearing just how similar her and her mom were. It definitely resonated with me as a parent. You want what’s best for your kids and don’t want them to repeat your mistakes. But you also need to let them experience life or they will resent you. I also loved Tom and Riley’s relationship. Friends since they were little and now young adults, exploring what might be.

Overall I think this book was a great YA read, I really loved all the characters in the book and Emma’s writing is always spot on and top notch!

***Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC copy in return for an honest review***

Firstly, thank you NetGalley and Wednesday Books for giving me this ARC. I'm SOOOO thankful, because WOW Emma!!!

I love diving into Emma's character's world. I've only been to New York once, but this story left me yearning to go back to the oversized rats and hum of the living city. The site silent and watch the hustle of lives lived within it's streets.

Now, to the story! Riley and Tom's coming of age together after having been apart for so long was truly wonderful to see. I loved watching Riley growing and opening up in NYC finding the side of herself she locked away by excavating the old pieces of herself. Her and Tom's bucket list is more like a map of how to find the pieces of your soul you let drift away when you had to "grow up" while falling for the person who wrote it alongside you. I was elated when Riley finally makes a decision for herself even if others wouldn't agree.

This is a book that's easily devoured, an uplifting rom-com that touches on the parent and child relationships, falling in love, and finding yourself.