Review: Four Days of You and Me by Miranda Kenneally

Title: Four Days of You and Me
Author: Miranda Kenneally
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release date: May 5th 2020
Pages: 352
Genre: Young Adult contemporary
Source: Purchased
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Every May 7, the students at Coffee County High School take a class trip. And every year, Lulu’s relationship with Alex Rouvelis gets a little more complicated. Freshman year, they went from sworn enemies to more than friends after a close encounter in an escape room. It’s been hard for Lulu to quit Alex ever since. Through breakups, make ups, and dating other people, each year’s class trip brings the pair back together and forces them to confront their undeniable connection. From the science museum to an amusement park, from New York City to London, Lulu learns one thing is for sure: love is the biggest trip of all.

I absolutely love Miranda Kenneally's Hundred Oaks novels; every single book in that companion series is fantastic, and I've gotten used to knowing exactly what to expect when opening a Kenneally novel. So I was excited to see what she would write next, but also a little apprehensive about how this novel wouldn't have some of the elements I've grown to love of the Hundred Oaks novels, like the setting, the sports, and the cameos of previous novels' characters. I'm not sure if it was just because my expectations were so high because of my love for this previous series, but unfortunately I did not enjoy this one as much as the Hundred Oaks series.

I liked the sound of the format of this novel in theory, but I didn't end up being the biggest fan of the execution. In theory, it sounds super cute to follow a couple on just four individual days over four years and to see them grow and change over those years. But the novel actually intersperses the chapters on those four days with chapters about the previous year, so we actually get to read about highlights from the couple's life throughout the whole four years, just with the main emphasis being on their school trips. This isn't necessarily an issue for the story, but it felt a little strange when this book is explicitly presented to just be about four days--I think I would have preferred if the previous year's events had just been included in flashbacks and things like that rather than getting their own chapters and quite this much attention, because it took away from the originality of just narrating these four days. Additionally, this is super nitpicky, but two of the school trips last more than one day, so even just the chapters about the school trips weren't only about four days. And also, more fundamentally, do any high schools really have their students go to both New York City and London for their school trips!?? 

The characters in this novel are alright. They are decent characters, but I didn't love them as much as I loved the Hundred Oaks couples. One of my favorite things about the Hundred Oaks series is reading about each main character's passion for their respective sport and learning so much about their sport and the life of someone who dedicates their childhood to something like that. Lulu is definitely also passionate--she is a very driven graphic novel writer, and she is a vegan who advocates for animal rights--but for some reason I didn't feel her passion as much as I did the Hundred Oaks characters'. Maybe this is just because I always loved learning so much about their respective sports that I usually knew nothing about, while Lulu's passions are ones I am already much more familiar with? But for some reason, I just felt like Lulu wasn't as fleshed-out and didn't have as much personality as Kenneally's previous characters. I did, however, really like the secondary characters, and it was great to see how Lulu's friendships and relationships shifted and solidified over the four years. 

Miranda Kenneally knows how to write some great romance, and the chemistry between her characters was always one of the best things about her Hundred Oaks books. But the chemistry in this one fell flat for me. Other characters in the novel make comments about how it is clear that Lulu and Alex are destined to be together, but I just couldn't see anything like that. I actually feel like we didn't get to know Alex well enough as his own person, and that we didn't get to see enough banter or flirting between Lulu and Alex to really feel their chemistry. Maybe this is just because of the format and because the novel spanned such a long time period (by YA standards) that there wasn't enough space for these every day-types of interactions, but I just felt like something was missing. Lulu and Alex were cute together, sure, but this novel didn't have me as emotionally invested in the protagonists' relationship and rooting for them to be together as much as the Hundred Oaks novels did.

I feel bad for how negative my review sounds since I love this author, and maybe I'm not being fair by comparing this book to the Hundred Oaks novels so much. If I hadn't come in with such high expectations and the hope that this would be similar to the Hundred Oaks novels, I think I would have enjoyed it more; this novel is definitely still a cute romance with a unique format. But because of my love for Kenneally's previous books, this one just wasn't up to par. But of course I'll still read whatever Kenneally writes next, and am hoping I'll connect more with her next book again.