Book Review | Return to Me by Justina Chen

Nothing is going as planned for Rebecca Muir. She's weeks away from starting college--at a school chosen specifically to put a few thousand miles of freedom between Reb and her parents. But her dad's last-minute job opportunity has her entire family moving all those miles with her! And then there's the matter of her unexpected, amazing boyfriend, Jackson, who is staying behind on the exact opposite coast.
And if that isn't enough to deal with, mere days after moving cross-country, Reb's dad drops shocking, life-changing news. With her mother and brother overwhelmed and confused, Reb is left alone to pick up the pieces of her former life. But how can she do that when everything can change in an instant? How can she trust her "perfect" boyfriend when her own dad let her down? Reb started the year knowing exactly what her future would hold, but now that her world has turned upside down, will she discover what she really wants?
Justina Chen, the acclaimed author of North of Beautiful, has created a moving and powerful novel about the struggles that arise from betrayal, the uncertainty of life after high school, and the joy that ultimately comes from discovering what's truly in your heart. 

Review

Do you ever have those books, that you go in expecting to completely love them? It might be that you've read something by the author before, and loved it. You may have heard nothing but good things about it. 

Or maybe you just loved the sound of the book from the synopsis.

This was one of those books for me. I'd read North of Beautiful before reading this book, and I went into that one not really expecting that much, though I'm still not sure why. By the end, I was in love with the book, it was an amazing read, and I loved Justina Chen's writing style.

Naturally, when I heard about this book, I was more than a little excited. So I went into it, fully expecting it to be another loved book. I honestly liked the idea of the story, and I already liked the author. Win, win. Right?

Not quite the case.

I did enjoy this book, just not quite to the extent I was hoping I'd enjoy it. There was something off base about this book for me, and I think a large part of that, is simply that I didn't like Reb all that much. She wasn't a bad character, but I just couldn't connect with her, and for that reason, I couldn't really get into the story.

I found myself a little uninterested in the story, and that's not something I was expecting. Having said that, there were some really nice moments, and though in parts I found it repetitive, it was a good read in a lot of ways.