Thank you very much for allowing me to read this title; I am trying to read as widely as possible ahead of the Carnegie/Greenaway nominations and awards for 2018 and your help is much appreciated.
As a Carnegie/Greenaway judge, I'm not allowed to comment about my opinions on specific titles so I can't offer an individual review on any title as I stated on my profile.
Netgalley now requires a star rating so I am giving all titles 5 stars so as not to disadvantage any title but this does not imply any recommendation of the book above any other.

While the idea behind the story had good intentions, the writing was not good enough to carry what were ultimately unlikable characters. The reactions of the secondary characters to the plight of the young couple were not terribly realistic and the main characters were selfish in their own ways. Growth came in leaps that didn't feel genuine and in the end left the characters feeling flat.

Unfortunately this was a DNF at about the 33% mark. I tried really hard to push my way through this one but the writing just wasn't as captivating as the synopsis made it out to be. The basic plot points are there for a YA contemporary (love, sex, teen pregnancy, heartache etc.) but the execution is a little choppy and is not helped by the many third person narratives. I think there is definitely an audience for this book however they just weren't able to find that in me.

Saying goodbye to London - Julie Burtinshaw

DAT COVER ART THO.
This was an ARC downloaded from Netgalley and I selected it entirely on the cover art and the fact that I love London. I need to start reading the blurbs of these things more often! This was about an entirely different London, London in Canada and then London, the person. Am I explaining this properly? Give me a sec.

Francis Sloan is a shy fifteen-year-old boy. When he meets edgy sixteen-year-old Sawyer, sparks fly...and Sawyer becomes pregnant. Their relationship is still so fresh and new, they decide they will put the baby up for adoption. As the story unfolds over the nine months they wait for their baby, London, to be born, Francis and Sawyer grapple with the responsibility of becoming parents and the accelerated path to adulthood they now find themselves on. With the absence of their own fathers in their lives and the evergreen challenges of first love, will they even make it together to the point where they have to say goodbye to London?

So, this is the story of Francis, who is super shy and more into hanging out with his bud Kevin and playing computer games at home than he is anything else. Seeing as he is perhaps one of the worst people I've ever had the mispleasure to read about, maybe he should have stayed in his room and not inspired anyone to write about him. Anyway. Francis goes out one evening with Kevin, who is going through some stuff and deserves way better friends, despite the fact that he is super shy, he manages to talk to, impress, dance with and then make out with a cool older girl, Sawyer. Anyway, he and Sawyer despite not knowing each other all that well, living on opposite ends of the city, not having anything in common and having you know, school and friends and stuff, decide to spend all their time hanging out in Sawyer's room having sex and then being surprised that they've ended up withchild, because apparently, contraception isn't a thing that they've thought about all that much.

Now, I was intrigued by the initial premise of this story, the only other book I've read about teen pregnancy is Trouble by Non Pratt, which was a first person narrative from both the point of view of the mother to be and her friend who was pretending to be the father, so although I picked this thinking it was to do with saying goodbye to London, England, I was a bit excited to read someone else's prospective on the teen pregnancy front. Sadly, there was something about this that I just couldn't get into. I don't know if it was the simplistic narration or just the fact that Francis is by far the most awful, immature person I have ever come across, but I just... I couldn't. This is a boy who can't even say the word condom without getting flustered. Firstly, you are fifteen, wtf is wrong with you? Secondly, all you seem to want to do with Sawyer requires the use of one. Freaking say the word! He came across so terribly, Kevin's storyline was so interesting, he was dealing with the fact that his dad is dying and still managed to be there and support his friend and Francis literally couldn't be even the slightest bit grateful.

The cover art for this is beautiful, the story is an interesting, its just a shame that I didn't click with it better. If anyone else reads this, give me a shout and let me know what you thought! We could swap notes on how awful Francis is!