I've been a fan of Sonnenblick for a while now so I was on board to read this one. I have to say, it wasn't my favorite of his books. While the characters are realistic and relatable, their poor decision making makes for a stressful read. While COVID adds a relatable wrinkle, it was a little irritating.

Jesse, Chloe, and Ava have been best friends for as long as they can remember: their families rent neighboring houses each summer. And Jesse is in love with both Chloe and Ava . . . at least when the book opens.

Jesse quickly develops romantic feelings for Chloe while realizing his attraction to Ava is just physical, but as he and Chloe spend more time together, the trio’s dynamic shifts, and Jesse is afraid their friendship won’t survive.

On top of the changing relationship dynamics, the three friends have a lot to deal with outside of their idyllic summers. Chloe is trying to help her family start a business, Ava’s mother is dying of cancer, and Jesse’s parents are on the verge of divorce. When summer ends and they’re all forced to return to the “real world,” they have a lot to work through.

To make a challenging year even worse, the COVID pandemic hits in March, and the families find themselves quarantining at their summer houses to get out of New York City. The pandemic adds even more challenges to an already difficult situation, and Jesse’s not sure any of them will recover.

We really enjoyed this novel—it captures the “escapist” feel of summer, the challenging dynamics of childhood friendships that morph into something more over time, and the painful family conflicts that many of us face, whether it’s in our own families or in those of the friends we support. But the characters learn not to shy away from hard realities and that, perhaps, facing reality can be more rewarding in the long run.

There is some profanity and teen drinking to be aware of when making recommendations to students.

Thank you NetGalley and Scholastic for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

Review will be posted at https://threeheads.works/category/blog/ya-books/ on July 15, 2024.

This coming of age story focuses on several years of a teenaged boy’s life. Centered around a male protagonist, the plot delves into the emotional turmoil of parental divorce, the confusion of teen love, and the early days of Covid-19. Knowing some of Sonnenblick’s prior work, I expected more humor, but perhaps these are such serious subjects that the author felt a more somber tone was needed. I think, though, that this book will ultimately be a hard sell to many of my students. I think they will have a hard time maintaining their interest.

This book started off really strong with characters I felt an immediate connection to. The tone of the book makes it clear that they're going to go through a lot and the book would address several serious topics. While this is true... after a while I really started to struggle to get through this book. There's just no. plot. It is a very, very character-driven story about high school students going through tough times but honestly not doing a lot. That might be the point, and this book might certainly resonate more with readers who can relate to the specific hard times mentioned. But to be honest I got a bit bored and started skimming just to get to the end of the story. Content warnings for death of a parent, death of a grandparent, COVID, and divorce/parental issues.

Jesse lives for summer when he goes to the Pennsylvania house with his two best friends Chloe and Ava. It does hurt (or maybe it does) that he's desperately in love with them both. The Pennsylvania house is the perfect escape from the "real world," especially with his parents' impending divorce. When the Covid-19 pandemic generates chaos for everyone, can the Pennsylvania house still be the refuge it once was?

Sonnenblick is often our go to author for high school humor, although this one has a more serious tone. Definitely belongs in our realistic section despite some light humor. Probably doesn't have widespread boy appeal, although it gives Jared Reck vibes.

Thanks to NetGalley & Scholastic Press for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a rollercoaster of emotions! You think this book would just be about a love triangle but it's more about how messy human connection is. Jess is trying to navigate life, love, and friendship, when everything keeps going wrong.

My favorite part of the book is how involved the adults are in the story and how their mistakes are shown--but they grow and learn from it. They're not one dimensional parents that just ground their kid every five seconds, they're human beings with flaws. The grandparents were really sweet to read about too.

Definitely recommend for anyone interested in realistic fiction with characters who feel as real as you and me.

Stepping Off is a great young adult novel that handles romance, friendships, and family in a very 'real world' way. Sonnenblick's characters are easy to relate to, and the situations they found themselves in were truly realistic. As a reader, I didn't really like when the story line shifted to include covid, but I understood why Sonnenblick included it. Overall, readers will enjoy this addition to the young adult genre.

A sweet coming of age story dealing with friendship, romantic feelings, family, and a world wide pandemic.

Best friends Jesse, Chloe and Ava have grown up together as vacation house neighbors, and have seen each other through some really hard times. As this book spans multiple years, we get to see the characters grow up as they work through life situations, including the beginning of the COVID pandemic, death of family members, divorce, and their own complicated love triangle. As can be challenging in a book that covers multiple years, the voice of the characters can tend to stay the same, rather than maturing. Jesse is one such character, who did not seem to come across as a junior in high school towards the end of the story, but rather still read as an immature middle schooler. I also would have liked for this to have been a multiple voice book, so we could have gotten the perspectives of Chloe and Ava. However, despite these issues, Sonnenblick does a good job of describing what life was like as we all went into lockdown for COVID and how we lived during those first few months.

As sixteen-year-old Jesse’s reality becomes increasing fraught, the escapist draw of his favorite place —the lake community in Pennsylvania—becomes ever more powerful. There he can avoid magnet-school pressures and his parent’s failing marriage, but also hang out with his female best friends, who double as crushes. When COVID exacerbates isolation, it becomes clear escapism isn’t working. When everything that can fall apart, does fall apart, Jesse must confront and communicate. A realistically flawed, appealing, and humorous exemplar of awkward heartbreak, Jesse negotiates both serious and ordinary adolescent concerns. Music, summer jobs, and a rich cast of multi-generational characters add interest. Main characters are white and Jewish. Thanks to Scholastic and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an unbiased review. Best for Grades 7-10.

Jesse is living his best summer life with his two best friends Ava and Chloe in Pennsylvania. He's just not too eager to go back to school in New York and face real life. But it seems like his happiness might stop in the Summer of 2019 when he notices his parents are not talking anymore, his best friends are blurring the lines of friendship, and there's more to come as the world shuts down.

Jordan Sonmenblick has done it again! I started reading his books when I was a teen, and my adult self got so excited when he released another YA book.

I read this book not knowing what it's about and I might have been more patient if I have read the book description because this book was so slow in the beginning. It picked up for me a third of the way. But now that I finished the book, I think that was intentional. The way that Jesse was written, I think he's the type of guy who would savor the joy that he has.

Like his other books, this book was full of the realities of life, and heapings of jazz music and bass playing. It's like the author's signature now. And as a long time reader, it's like a welcome back to his books.

Truly. this book touched on so much emotions and feelings and the way it was written was so real. Gentle but would also smack you in the face.

Just a side note: it was a bit funny for me that I wanted to know more about Jesse's parents. LOL! This just shows that I'm an adult myself. But also maybe, I'm more conscious now that parents are people too with problems and feelings that you never thought of as a kid.

Again. an amazing book. I'm happy I got to read another Jordan Sonnenblick YA novel and I'm pretty sure I'll be in line to read the next one (if he ever decides to write another one).

Jesse spends every summer with his family at a summer home on a small Pennsylvania lake. Ava and Chloe also live on the same vacation home cul-de-sac and the three of them have been friends forever. Of course, Jesse's in love with both girls, which is bound to cause problems.

I guess every once in a while I like a nice angsty young adult novel, and this one runneth-over with teen angst. Not only do things blow up in Jesse's face when he messes things up with one of the girls (which of course messes it up with <i>both</i> girls) but his parents aren't speaking to each other. It turns out they're getting a divorce, which is setting in motion other calamities in Jesse's life. But this isn't just a 'summer at the lake' kind of novel, but all this happens the year before Covid-19 shuts down the rest of the world, which adds yet a king-size calamity on top of the rest.

<i>It's hard trying to see your parents as people, because then you might have to realize they are not doing the world's best job of people-ing.</i>

So, yeah, there's a lot going on here (maybe even a kitchen sink or two). But kudos to Jordan Sonnenblick for juggling all these things and making it all work so well. He also mixes in a music theme, which he uses to good effect. And I think teens whose lives were interrupted by Covid will especially appreciate the story (my younger daughter missed her high school graduation because of it and spent her first year of college online). I'm not sure the ending worked out quite the way I wanted it to (I guess I'm not sure what exactly I wanted, however) but I really liked the story and how (mostly) real if felt. I also appreciated that it was basically clean and had minimal profanity. 4.5 stars for me, and I waver between rounding up or down, but for now I'm rounding up. (Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital advance copy.)

I love a good coming to age story and teenage angst. It's been a long time since I've been in my teens and reading about Jesse and the things he experiences day to day was another loud reminder about how old and out of touch I am. But the author perfectly captured the emotions a young persons goes through regardless of age or gender.

Thank you to NetGalley for the E ARC. Every summer for as long as they can remember, Jess, Chloe, and Ava have spent blissful summers at their summer homes in Pennsylvania. This 2019 summer though, things change dramatically. Jess starts to get feelings for both girls, especially Chloe, his parents are having marriage problems, and his dad, a doctor, isn't eating and has lost a ton of weight. Unfortunately, for Jess, his parents head back to New York so his summer is cut short, leaving things open-ended with Chloe and Ava.

What I liked: I loved Jess's relationship (at times laugh out loud awkward) with the two girls, Ava's little sister, Annie, and with his sister Leah who actually was betting on Jess's love life with her boyfriend. Many of my students have dealt with their parents divorcing and will relate to Jess going through this, and there are even funny parts throughout the divorce. The pandemic adds another twist to the story, but the author even manages to find some humor in that.
What I didn't like: Absolutely nothing; this book is fantastic. My only problem, ironically, is that since Covid, my students really aren't drawn to stories like this--they want horror, mystery, romance, and graphic novels. I am going to hand sell this book like crazy though and I'll also recommend this to my 8th grade teachers as a read aloud. This book is just too fantastic for students to miss out on.
CW: death of a parent and grandparent, divorce, the pandemic. There was some kissing and a vague night with Chloe (Did something happen? We'll never know).

This book was wonderful, as was expected from this author!It was really interesting to see how the main character and his relationships were able to grow and develop, even through a really tough situation. I thought the miscommunication between the main character and one of the girls was especially funny. Overall, lovely book, would definitely recommend!

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC of Stepping Off. This is the first Covid related book I've read since the pandemic and no surprise; it was difficult for me to revist that scary time in my life, as I'm sure it will be for others including our students. Luckily, Jordan Sonnenblick has a gift for opening up the exploration of tween/teen emotions through genuine characters and realistic issues in his books. Stepping Off hit so many common problems kids are dealing with such as divorce, grief/death, unrequited love, the friend zone and many others all within the backdrop of Covid 19.

Sonnenblick has a nuanced writing voice that resonates with readers of young adult fiction. Jesse loves his summers at his families vacation home. He gets to hang out with his two best friends and work at the rec center. Until things start changing and Jesse is neither a fan of change or a fan of talking about difficult topics like death, divorce, or picking between his two best friends. Then COVID comes to Jesse's world and he is forced to deal with change. We need more coming of age male narrated stories.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review..

This book is a young adult title suited for young high school aged readers. I guess you can call it a “coming of age” story of sorts. Beyond that I am not sure what the book aims to be.

It’s about a young man, Jesse who is entering his junior year of high school in the Fall of 2019. He spends the summer in a vacation community in Pennsylvania with his two female best friends of whom he has crushes on both of them, not knowing which one he truly likes.

The story goes through his summer with the girls and talks about his parents deteriorating marriage. Other life hiccups take place as well. He starts his Junior year and it takes us to 2020 and the CoVid-19 Pandemic.

The book overall was fine. I liked the fact that it was a teen male protagonist who detailed the ups and downs of being a teen. In that aspect it’s a decent enough story for young men to identify with. The challenge is it doesn’t have enough of a hook or a riveting storyline for said teen to want to connect with it right off.

The biggest issue I had was the retelling of the Covid part of the book. The author rewrote a bit of history in the time line aspect. For instance it was roughly late January or the start of February and Jesse was contemplating shut downs and wanting to visit him grandparents in case he wasnt allowed to. He wanted to get them supplies to know they would be ok. However his feelings didn’t make sense for the timeline of the book. So it took you out of the reality of the story as it appeared that Jesse was a bit clairvoyant to have the thoughts and feelings he did. However, most could probably get past it.

Overall I recommend this book for younger readers as it’s always good to have teen male characters to identify with.

link to goodreads review below

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6275373308