3.5 Stars
Jessica Joyce knows how to write an ending. And, as special writerly skills go, this is a powerful one to have. YOU, WITH A VIEW is her debut novel, which published last summer. Her second book, THE EX-VOWS, was an instant favorite of mine, and so of course I had to grab her first to see what I had missed! And while I thought THE EX-VOWS was superior (which, sidenote, it’s no shade if your second book is actually BETTER than the first), the one thing both books have in common are amazing endings. The endings are cinematic, romantic, and surprising–they leave you with a good feeling about the book and help supersede any other less than stellar opinions you may have had throughout. For this alone, Joyce deserves a TON of credit.
YOU, WITH A VIEW (love this title, by the way) follows Noelle, who has been laid off from her job as a photographer’s assistant and also lost her grandmother, Kathleen, in the last few months. When she discovers a picture of Kathleen with a man she never knew of, Noelle is curious about his identity and posts the photo to TikTok asking if anyone recognizes him. Someone does–as it turns out, the man in the photo is the beloved grandfather of Noelle’s high school rival, Theo. She meets them both and Paul, the grandfather, tells her that he and Noelle’s grandmother were planning to elope because her family did not approve of him–they even had a honeymoon road trip planned. The marriage never happened, and both parties moved on. Noelle immediately thinks it would be a good idea to take the road trip herself, and to her dismay, both Theo and his grandfather tell her they will go with her. The three set out on the journey, which Noelle is documenting all along on TikTok, and Noelle and Theo have to put their rivalry aside for the sake of a two week trip in a tiny car.
So right off the bat, the premise of this feels a little wonky–Noelle’s grandmother and Theo’s grandfather were in love and went their separate ways but ended up living in the same town for the rest of their lives–and Noelle never heard anything about it. It feels a little convenient, but I was willing to go along with it. What I think is a bit more challenging is that I never really understood the point of going on the road trip. I think Noelle wanted to go on the road trip to feel closer to her grandmother, but this was a trip her grandmother never took and we don’t really know if her grandmother had any affinity for any stop of it. The author tries to build the why now of it by having Paul share letters from Kathleen every step of the way, but the letters are basically telling the same story we already know. There’s no surprise to it, no mystery, nothing to learn. This made the plot and the road trip itself feel flat.
I’d also say, in terms of the road trip itself, that for a book about traveling, the traveling itself took such a back seat to the romance that it didn’t register. I would have enjoyed more of a feeling like I was traveling with Noelle, Paul, and Theo–like I was seeing these places and their magic with them. Instead, Noelle and Theo most were hiking in most of the locations, so the road trip stops felt like they blended together and were indistinguishable. The traveling lacked specificity, and I was hoping for something that felt more exciting in the travel (THE GUNCLE ABROAD comes to mind, which makes you feel like a passenger on Patrick’s trip around Europe with his nephew and niece).
Noelle and Theo do have great banter throughout the book, and I liked their sort of antagonistic one-upmanship, which comes out at unexpected moments–it was really cute. But I felt like the pacing of their relationship felt off–as soon as they started on the trip, any animosity they might have for the other totally fell away. So much of their relationship is rooted in the past and what happened in high school, but in general they just wanted to out shine the other in school. I think if they had been nemeses for a more specific reason or incident, it would have given them more to overcome on their journey to romance.
I think there are things here that romance lovers will enjoy (only one bed, enemies to lovers, and Noelle’s emotional journey is relatable) and I think that Jessica Joyce is extremely promising–I love her voice, and her endings honestly do stick with you in a way that matters. But this one ended up feeling a bit surface for me in too many aspects.
Synopsis (from Amazon):
Two high school enemies must reunite for a road trip inspired by their grandparents’ broken engagement in this electric debut romance.
Noelle Shepard is unemployed, living with her parents, and grieving the loss of her beloved grandmother when she discovers decades-old photos of Gram and a smitten man, tucked alongside a love letter. She creates a TikTok to search for the mystery man, which goes viral, and she’s shocked when his grandson responds—a man who happens to be her high school nemesis, Theo Spencer.
Noelle refuses to let Theo’s annoying accomplishments in adulthood—or his sexy smirk—stand in the way of meeting his grandfather and unlocking the secrets he knew about her gram as a young woman. When she learns that their plans to elope were thwarted, Noelle decides to take the honeymoon road trip they planned but never got to carry out. There’s a catch, though: Paul, Theo’s grandfather, asks to come with her, and he insists that Theo join them.
It’ll be a miracle if they make it through the trip without Noelle throwing Theo out of the moving car—or the bed they end up sharing. As the miles tick by, the tension simmers hotter between them…until she discovers that Theo’s hiding a secret that could cause their tenuous relationship to end before it can restart.
