[Asis’ Review] We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon

We Can't Keep Meeting Like This
by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Pages: 336
Published by Simon & Schuster
Release Date: June 8th 2021
Genres: Contemporary Romance, YA
Source: Publisher
Format Read: ARC, eBook
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A wedding harpist disillusioned with love and a hopeless romantic cater-waiter flirt and fight their way through a summer of weddings in this effervescent romantic comedy from the acclaimed author of Today Tonight Tomorrow.

Quinn Berkowitz and Tarek Mansour’s families have been in business together for years: Quinn’s parents are wedding planners, and Tarek’s own a catering company. At the end of last summer, Quinn confessed her crush on him in the form of a rambling email—and then he left for college without a response.

Quinn has been dreading seeing him again almost as much as she dreads another summer playing the harp for her parents’ weddings. When he shows up at the first wedding of the summer, looking cuter than ever after a year apart, they clash immediately. Tarek’s always loved the grand gestures in weddings—the flashier, the better—while Quinn can’t see them as anything but fake. Even as they can’t seem to have one civil conversation, Quinn’s thrown together with Tarek wedding after wedding, from performing a daring cake rescue to filling in for a missing bridesmaid and groomsman.

Quinn can’t deny her feelings for him are still there, especially after she learns the truth about his silence, opens up about her own fears, and begins learning the art of harp-making from an enigmatic teacher.

Maybe love isn’t the enemy after all—and maybe allowing herself to fall is the most honest thing Quinn’s ever done.

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book was refreshingly cute to read. A light read that, while somewhat predictable, felt so relatable to me it immediately took a very special place in my heart.

Both characters were so realistic, they felt like actual teens, and the way mental health was treated in this book, the way it normalized it and tackled it straight on took me completely by surprise and made these two characters so much more relatable.

I loved Quinn’s journey to find and own her own thing and step away from the life her family wanted her to have. It was very frustrating to see her accept it and not fight at the beginning, but it was very rewarding to read her finally breaking free from them. Her family annoyed me a lot but I think it was very realistic to show them that way and to make us see how even with the problems, it was a family full of love that always came through for each other.

I thought the relationship and the nods to romcoms was very sweet, and the lessons both characters learned were important and relatable, both of them had their own misbeliefs that they needed to deal with and seeing that happen was very satisfying.

The only thing I found a bit dumb and even ridiculous was Quinn being so in shock over the fact that harpists could play something other than classical music when she has played harp forever and self taught herself to get better thanks to YouTube. If you’re seeing videos of harpists on YouTube, you cannot tell me you’ve never come across videos of them playing something different, but nice try.

I still love that special interest of hers and how all the secondary characters played a big part of her story and internal journey. All of them brought something different to it, were quite unique and felt very well constructed, from the parents, her sister, to Tarek’s family, to the professional harpist who was probably my favorite side character. I totally recommend this book.