Meant To Be by Lauren Morrill

5/5 Stars

Mean To Be by Lauren Morrill
Publisher: Delacorte 
Publication Date: November 13, 2012

Review:

I think I am slowly being won over by the contemporary genre. I used to start every contemporary review with the fact that I’m not a fan to justify my mediocre ratings but after reading Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry and now Meant To Be and giving both of them 5 stars I think I was just reading the wrong contemporary novels and that I actually do like contemporaries! There I said it, now let’s move on.

Meant To Be follows Julia our straight-A, everything must be perfect, kind of neurotic, main character as she goes on a class trip with 19 other students to London. Because of a scheduling conflict Julia’s BFF isn’t able to make the trip and so Julia gets paired with Jason. Jason is your typical class-clown, party guy and he is Julia’s personal nemesis. After sneaking out of the hotel on their first night in London (which Julia did not want to do) she starts receiving mysterious texts on her phone and reluctantly enlists Jason’s help in wooing the mysterious texter. Thus begins the cutest love story I have read in a long time.  

Julia at first was a tad bit annoying. She was too obsessed with the rules and being good she was everything I never was in High School. I had a hard time relating to her at first but after the first few chapters I got used to her voice and actually started rooting for her. I wanted Julia to get out there and grow and find her MTB (Meant To Be). By the end of the story the Julia we meet in the first few chapters isn’t the same character at all. I feel like she does a ton of changing in this story and I loved watching her.

I also loved the slow growing relationship between Julia and Jason. You could telegraph the plot of this book. It is your quintessential chick-flick but getting to the end was so much fun! I literally did not want to put this book down. I read it in a day and a half. I think the reason for this was because Julia and Jason is a couple you can root for. Julia hates him in the beginning of the book and is mortified when they are paired together but as she actually gets to know him she finds they have more in common then she thought, and maybe there is more to Jason then she imagined.

The descriptions Morrill gives are also very vivid and match the storyline and pacing well. I really felt like I was on the school trip and visiting all the spots in London right along with the characters. The English town were Shakespeare was born was especially well described and when it started raining I knew that exact feeling. Needless to say I will definitely be checking out more books by this author!

Overall, Meant To Be was a very cute contemporary read that plastered a dopey smile on my face the entire time I was reading. If you need a good pick-me-up novel to make you feel good this is definitely one to check out!

Thank you Netgalley and Delacorte Books for allowing me to read an Advanced Readers copy of this novel.

      

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Meant To Be by Lauren Morrill