Meant to BePublisher: Delacorte, 2012Genre: YA Contemporary
Meant to be or not meant to be . . . that is the question.
It's one thing to fall head over heels into a puddle of hazelnut coffee, and quite another to fall for the—gasp—wrong guy. Straight-A junior Julia may be accident prone, but she's queen of following rules and being prepared. That's why she keeps a pencil sharpener in her purse and a pocket Shakespeare in her, well, pocket. And that's also why she's chosen Mark Bixford, her childhood crush, as her MTB ("meant to be").
But this spring break, Julia's rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she's partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love.
Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be.
Julia is on a class trip to London, the place where her parents met, fell in love, and got married. They were simply “meant to be,” something that Julia desperately believes in. In fact, she already knows who is her MTB. But one week of being partnered with Jason, the class-clown, and Julia’s whole world and carefully laid out plans are thrown out the window. She’s about to learn that perfect doesn’t exist and the most unexpected things can be ‘meant to be.’
Lauren Morrill’s debut novel Meant to Be is the type of story that keeps you laughing and swooning all throughout. I couldn’t get enough of it!
Julia is the shy, nerdy, unpopular girl of her class. She’s never broken the rules, nor does she ever want to, but when Jason Lippincott dares her to have some fun on the class school trip to London Julia can’t back down. She has to prove that cocky bastard that she can have fun too. And have fun she does!
I could be someone cooler, more confident, just for tonight, just for this party. I can be the uber-Julia. The Julia who says witty things and drinks and has boys, sober or otherwise, hanging on her every word.
But what Julia didn’t count on was how tangled the lies would get (oh, dear God, the lies she invents!), how ridiculous her notions really were, and how wrong she could be about people.
Jason a hottie, but he’s the class’s clown and a major jerk. His nickname for Julia is ‘Book Licker’ which not only is gross, but infuriates her to no end. After seeing Julia desperate when she receives the text message from the hot British guy, he offers his expertise in the matter in exchange for her writing all their reflection papers during the trip. You might think his attitude reeks (and it does), but it’s all for the higher purpose. I promise. As his story unfolded I couldn’t help but swoon.
Part of the reason why I loved this book so much is because I identified myself a lot with Julia: her obsession with rules, her feeling apart from every one of her class, her OCD streak of having everything in order, her love of books, and her desire for an MTB. Plus I went on a trip to London, so I totally saw myself in Julia’s shoes! And all the descriptions of the city and the places, God, I would just close my eyes and see it all perfectly. But for those of you who haven’t been to London, don’t despair, because after reading Meant To Be, you will!
*Arc copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley*
Favorite Quotes:
~Pencils VS Pens~
“It broke!” he says.
“You pressed too hard,” I inform him.
“This is why people use pens, Book Licker. Why don’t you have a freaking pen?”
“Pens leak.”
“Pencils break.”
“Yeah, but you can always sharpen them. What do you do with a broken pen?”
“Sharpen them?” Who carries around a pencil sharpener? What is this, 1943?”
I reach into my pencil case and produce a small red pencil sharpener. Then I take the pencil from his hand and, looking him straight in the eye, jam it into the sharpener and give it three hard twists.
“You’re whacked,” he says, snatching the pencil back from me.
