A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB YA PICK A new love, a secret sister, and a summer she’ll never forget.From the beloved author of Tweet Cute comes Emma Lord’s You Have a Match, a hilarious and heartfelt novel of romance, sisterhood, and friendship…When Abby signs up for a DNA service, it’s mainly to give her friend and secret love interest, Leo, a nudge. After all, she knows … friend and secret love interest, Leo, a nudge. After all, she knows who she is already: Avid photographer. Injury-prone tree climber. Best friend to Leo and Connie…although ever since the B.E.I. (Big Embarrassing Incident) with Leo, things have been awkward on that front.
But she didn’t know she’s a younger sister.
When the DNA service reveals Abby has a secret sister, shimmery-haired Instagram star Savannah Tully, it’s hard to believe they’re from the same planet, never mind the same parents — especially considering Savannah, queen of green smoothies, is only a year and a half older than Abby herself.
The logical course of action? Meet up at summer camp (obviously) and figure out why Abby’s parents gave Savvy up for adoption. But there are complications: Savvy is a rigid rule-follower and total narc. Leo is the camp’s co-chef, putting Abby’s growing feelings for him on blast. And her parents have a secret that threatens to unravel everything.
But part of life is showing up, leaning in, and learning to fit all your awkward pieces together. Because sometimes, the hardest things can also be the best ones.
“A YA contemporary set at summer camp? Count us in.” —BuzzFeed
“Heartfelt and engaging, You Have a Match is a masterclass on love in all its forms.” —Sophie Gonzales, author of Only Mostly Devastated and Perfect on Paper
“A bright summer tale of connection and self-discovery.” —Booklist
“A cute, feel-good coming-of-age story.” —Kirkus
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Emma Lord is a one-click author for me! This book was utterly charming and very enjoyable. I love her voice and characters, and I’m a sucker for found family.
A brilliant follow up to Tweet Cute!
The happiest book of the summer! I adored this modern-day PARENT TRAP story by the witty Emma Lord. Truly one of my favorite books I’ve read this year!
This book has everything I like most about a YA: romance, journey of growth and self discovery, secrets, relationship with parents. All well-dosed and with a beautiful closure, without affectation and with a lot of sweetness. It became one of my favorites of the year, so much so that I finished reading it and just couldn’t review it because I didn’t have the words to express all my love.
Abby, Leo, Savvy and Mickey create many interesting situations at camp, make new friends and live the typical teenage adventures with conflicts, doubts and bombastic revelations. Each character has its own drama and decision to make and receives the necessary support at the right time.
I loved the way the writer builds their whole story bit by bit creating the right tension for the reader to get stuck in the pages, connect with the characters and root for them a lot.o
Ok guys, You Have a Match by Emma Lord gave me all the feels and it was just as cute as her debut, Tweet Cute. I have been seeing and loving DNA testing as an aspect in books lately, and I loved where Lord took this story with Abby finding out she has a sister she didn’t know about. Better yet she ends up at a summer camp with her, and a lot of drama ensues both with Savvy and her friend/crush Leo. This is full of teenage angst and summer vibes, and I thought the setting of the summer camp was so perfect. Abby seems to be good at being a rebel though, and of course, she gets in trouble and doesn’t want to stick to the rules while she is there. Oh, and did I mention she should have been in summer school instead of at camp? I also loved all of the Parent Trap vibes I got from this one and you can’t beat a book about twins! I really liked the way Lord unraveled the mystery with their parents as well, and how it came to be that they had been separated.
The audiobook is narrated by Eva Kaminsky and this is definitely not her first rodeo. I really enjoyed having her as the narrator for You Have a Match and I think she made me love it even more than if I would have just read it. Even though she is an adult, I loved her voice for Abby, and she didn’t sound too old for the part which I really appreciated. I thought the romance between Abby and Leo ended up being pretty adorable, and that coupled with the friendships and Abby’s love and shyness with her photography, made this a really heartwarming and feel-good read overall. I also loved the emphasis on family and I honestly wouldn’t expect anything less from this author. Lord is a star at contemporary young adult, and if you haven’t read a book by her yet you are missing out! I can’t wait to see what her next novel will be.
Thank you to NetGalley for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
When Leo suggests that he and his friends have their DNA tested, Abby never expects to find out she has a full blooded sister. When she meets Savvy, she realizes their parents knew each other. In an attempt to get to know Savvy better and to find out why she never knew about her, Abby joins Savvy at camp.
When she gets there though, Abby us a camper and Savvy and Leo are staffers. Abby is forced to find her own way and is not too happy with Savvy. Add in that she is secretly in love with Leo who doesn’t seem to return the feelings and Abby is not happy at camp.
Opinion
This is a super cute book that reminds me of the movie The Parent Trap. There are certainly enough elements to make it different than the movie (the girls aren’t twins for starters.) I loved trying to figure out what went on with Savvy being given up for adoption and Abby trying to figure out her life.
The characters were fun and quirky. The plot would make a great summer read for teens (adults too.) There was enough going on that my mind was kept spinning with questions and enthralled with the book.
Many thanks to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book.
This was so cute. I really enjoyed this parent trap-ish story. Abby finds out she has a sister by taking a DNA test and takes a chance and meets up with Savvy trying to figure out what happened 18 years ago. They both attend summer camp and learn more and more about each other and become inseparable. Then, their parents come and things blow up. I loved how they were strong enough to bring these people who were so close before, back together and work out their issues. The budding best friend romance with Leo was just enough to keep me hooked on that end too. This was less of a romance and more of a family drama, with each character learning more about themselves and growing, but I still loved Leo. You could see how much he cared for Abby from the start and true to YA fashion, it was chalked with misunderstandings and a bit of drama but all is right in the end.
Not my favorite YA romance, but absolutely a high ranking book! Abby’s trials were very different from other YA coming of age books. I also loved the various characters who are struggling with wide ranging young adult issues, they were very appropriately dealt with.
Book 61 towards my goal of 275! 5/5 stars for this YA Contemporary read. What happens when you do a DNA test to support your best friend….. and you find a secret sister? You go to summer camp with her of course! Definite Parent Trap vibes! Loved this one, can’t recommend it enough!
A delightful coming of age tale! Who knew a DNA test could reveal a family secret so big that nobody will be the same afterwards? When Abby discovers she has a sister that was given up for adoption before she was born, she’s determined to not only know more about Savvy, but the reasons behind the lies. I enjoyed watching this story unfold, and was kept guessing what truly happened to cause the rift between families. Side note: I’m in a similar position and scared/excited to take the test, but this definitely gave the courage to move forward instead of always wondering “what if.”
You Have a Match
By Emma Lord
I ABSOLUTELY ADORED this book! I had been a fan of Emma Lord since reading Tweet Cute last year and this was even better.
This YA contemporary read stole my heart and warmed my soul. I thought this was an endearing story about families and friendships that is endearing, fun and light-hearted. I related so well because I myself discovered that I have a half – sibling and having a filipino character in the story always delights me (I am married to one and lived there for many years).
I loved the whole premise of the story and meeting up at a summer camp. The characters and their relationships, dialogue, and cute romance was all a delight to read for me. This was pure joy for me.
Emma Lord is seriously becoming one of my favorite authors. I really end with a smile when I read her words. I fell in love with her writing with Tweet Cute and I did not think she could top that cute story. I was mistaken because You Have a Match has really moved to my favorite of Ms. Lord’s stories. This is definitely a must read and will leave you hugging your e-reader/book when when you finish.
An interesting take on two high schoolers finding out they have a sister match on their DNA test. This story had some Parent Trap vibes as they use summer camp to get to the bottom of the mystery. I enjoyed the focus on the sister relationships, although high school romances weren’t too far behind. I was also really driven to find out the mystery too.
Lord has delivered another gem of a story. I’m now confident that she’ll be an autoread author for me.
Her characters are imperfectly perfect to the point that you want to reach in and give them all a hug, a mug of cocoa and be best friends with them all.
If you follow Lord on any form of social media (especially Twitter) you know her trademark easy humour. All of that humour oozes into every crevice of her storytelling and becomes vivid as well as giggle inducing.
I absolutely adored Emma Lord’s debut, Tweet Cute so when I saw that she had another YA Rom-Com, I knew I had to have it on my list. Her characters are well-developed and the swoon factor is off the charts.
With Match, Lord explored the family aspect a lot more, when Abby and Leo sent off a DNA kit in hopes for find more information about Leo’s biological family. Abby is knocked off her feet when she discovers that she has a match, a sister that no one in her family has ever talked about. Abby and the sister, Savannah make plans for her to attend a summer camp where Savvy (and Leo) will be working.
This isn’t strictly a story about family as Leo, who is Abby’s best friend, is also the object of her unrequited love. She is hoping this time at camp will give her a chance to explore her feelings for him and either move on or finally find the nerve to tell him how she feels.
You Have a Match is full of the typical YA ups and downs and misunderstandings and the camp ensures that the parents have very little interference. However, Abby’s parents discover that she lied about failing a class at school and make a trip to the camp there they run into Savannah and her adopted parents, their one-time close friends.
The story is cute and I loved exploring the family drama, but there were several times of suspended belief. Of course, this is something that occurs often in fiction, it just seemed a little larger with this story. Also, the very beginning of the book seems separate from the rest of the story. I know there had to be a setup, some background info, but the tone is totally different, and felt disconnected.
Overall, You Have a Match was a cute, fun story and a quick read. I laughed, I swooned, I re-evaluated my relationship with my family. Definitely add this one to your TBR.
Spanish & English Opinion :: 4
ESP ::
Es el segundo libro de la autora y me considero fan. Me encanta que escribe sensaciones y sentimientos de adolescentes totalmente reales y en un contexto creíble. Las redes sociales y la tecnología han jugado un papel súper importante en las historias y crean la atmósfera perfecta.
Abby encuentra a su Match perfecto y justo la historia es cómo ese match perfecto es totalmente distinto pero sigue siendo el ideal para ella.
La parte de la relación con Leo la sentí como historia secundaria, pues lo principal era la conexión con Savvy y el cambio que implicaba esa nueva relación. ¡Me encantó!
ENG ::
Two books and I’m a huge fan of this author she writes real feelings that teenagers experiment and in a very real way. Social media is absolutely present in the stories and it blends perfectly.
Abby finds her perfect match. We all asume what this match can be about, but the matter is a totally different one. This match is just the thing she needs, even though is totally her opposite.
Her interaction with Leo is a secondary one, because I felt that the main thing was Savvy and her.
I really liked it!
You Have a Match is a bit of a modern take on The Parent Trap with a little romance mixed in.
Abby finds out through a DNA test that she has an older sister and tries to find out what secrets her parents have been keeping.
“My eyes are on her and around her, everywhere and nowhere at once. The me and the not-me of her. I can’t decide what’s weirder, the parts of her I recognize or the parts that I don’t.”
Both Abby and Savvy find out more about each other and about themselves while at a summer camp. The story is a sweet coming of age and self discovery story. I really enjoyed this story and loved the little bit of romance in the storyline.
-4.5 Stars!-
At the beginning of the year, I had the pleasure of reading Tweet Cute by Emma Lord, which I adored (enemies to lovers and feuding sandwich shops? Yes please!).
As soon as I heard about You Have a Match, I was tripping over myself to get my hands on a copy.
So, what happens when you mix The Parent Trap with 23 and me? You Have a Match.
Our MC Abby is a bit of a mess. Even with all of her over the top tutoring sessions, she has still failed English. She’s secretly in love with her best friend Leo, but the sting of unrequited love burns deep.
After doing a DNA service, Abby finds out she has an older biological sister (Savannah ‘Savvy’ Tully) who is Instagram famous and everything she’s not. Abby and Savvy end up meeting and decide to go to summer camp together to get to the bottom of their wonky situation.
I was initially pretty apprehensive when it came to Abby’s character because I felt that she was your stereotypical, privileged and angsty teenager who wants to fight her parents at every single turn. That being said, Abby’s character arc developed really well throughout the book as we see her navigate through the information of having a biological sister and the implications of what it meant for her parents to have kept her and not Savvy.
As far as the rest of the cast of characters go, I loved that there was a diverse cast and at no point did it feel like they were there for clout. Leo is BIPOC and is grappling with his identity and ancestry. Savvy is openly queer, and we get on page sapphic romance! Leo and Savvy were my favorite characters outside of Abby because of them really shaped and molded the person that Abby became.
Plot wise, the pacing was really great. I really enjoyed the summer camp scenes. As someone who never went to summer camp, the whole idea of summer camp has always fascinated me. I think the tension build up between Abby and Savvy was done really well.
Overall, this was a really enjoyable YA contemporary that dove into some pretty deep concepts while also having a bit of levity.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Wednesday Books for providing a review copy. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.
I had a great time with this book. After enjoying Emma Lord’s first book Tweet Cute, I was eager to give her work another try. I loved the description of this book so I had pretty high hopes going into this story. I was not disappointed and ended up finding this book to be very entertaining.
Abby signs up for a DNA service along with her friend. Abby does not expect to learn that she has a sister out in the world that she has never heard about before. When Abby meets her sister, Savannah, they make a plan to go to camp together so they can piece together the secret behind Savannah’s adoption. It turns out that she is going to the same camp as her crush and best friend, Leo, so she might actually figure out what is going on between the two of them.
I liked Abby a lot. She wasn’t perfect and she is dealing with a lot of things over the course of the story. I think that she handled things really well and she showed a lot of growth over the course of the story. Savannah is an Instagram star and seemed to be picture perfect at the start of the story. As the book progressed, we get to see the real Savannah and her flaws and she really started to grow on me. I loved all of the secondary characters that spent time with Abby and Savannah at camp. I think that they each added an important element to the story.
I really liked seeing everything come together in this story. Abby and Savannah both learn a lot about themselves and their family over the course of this story. I thought that the bond that they developed felt very authentic. There was a bit of romance worked into the story which I thought added a wonderful element to the story. Each of the characters was dealing with their own issues and I thought that together this was a perfectly layered story.
I would recommend this story to others. I thought that this was a fantastic story filled with wonderful characters, a focus on relationships, and a lot of heart. I wouldn’t hesitate to read more of Emma Lord’s work in the future.
I received a digital review copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press – Wednesday Books via NetGalley.
A PG, YA homage to Disney’s 1961 children’s movie, The Parent Trap
Abby, Leo, and Connie have been a trio of BFFs since early childhood. While the three of them are taking an anthropology course together toward the end of Abby and Connie’s junior year and Leo’s senior year, they jointly sign up with a DNA service as part of a class project which involves each student tracing their family tree. Nothing much turns up of interest for Leo or Connie, but a world-changing event happens to Abby. She discovers she has a sister whose name is Savannah (Savvy), who is only 18 months older than Abby and lives within relatively close driving distance. Abby is appalled. Why in the world would her parents give up their first child for adoption when they were married at the time, stayed married, and subsequently had four more children together, including Abby?
Without informing her parents she knows their deep, dark secret, Abby contacts Savvy, who is equally shocked to learn that she has a sister and three young brothers. She suggests that Abby spend six weeks with her at a summer camp not far from where they both live so that they can get to know each other. Soon after this invitation, Abby is amazed to discover that Leo actually knows and is good friends with Savvy, because for quite a few years he has been attending the same summer camp that Savvy has invited Abby to. Unfortunately, rather than having lots of bonding time at camp with Savvy, Abby’s sister turns out to be a very busy junior counselor at the camp and an obnoxious enforcer of what Abby considers to be far too many stupid, oppressive rules. In addition, Leo—whom she wishes were much more than just a platonic friend—is so busy working as a cook in the camp kitchen, he can’t do much to cushion the blow of Abby’s disappointment about Savvy.
You Have a Match (YHAM) is a PG-rated, YA novel which is an obvious homage to Disney’s 1961, G-rated, children’s film, The Parent Trap (TPT), and its Disney remake by the same title from 1998. I had assumed before reading this book that, because the fabulous debut novel by this author, Tweet Cute (TC), is a G-rated, romantic-comedy, YA homage to the adult, romantic-comedy movie, You’ve Got Mail, that this book would also be a G-rated, romantic-comedy, YA homage to another, famous, adult, romantic-comedy movie. It is not. Though there is a romance plot between Abby and Leo, it is a relatively small part of the book, and it is not comedic. Instead, the book is a combination of comedy of errors and family drama, what I’d call a “dramedy.” The vast majority of the book is dedicated to the budding, sister relationship between Abby and Savvy. So it is a love story of the “buddy movie” variety, rather than a love story in the vein of romance. Anyone who enjoys buddy-love stories will definitely enjoy this book.
Most of the humor in this book, similar to TPT, involves pranks at a summer camp between two sisters. In the case of TPT, unlike YHAM, the pre-teen girls do not know before they meet that they are twin sisters separated in infancy, and there is no real drama in TPT, with a humorous tone maintained from start to finish. This version of two separated sisters, of necessity, takes a different tack from TPT, because the sisters are not twins, and one is 18, a legal adult, and the other is almost 17, and a rising senior in high school. The role of parents in this story is very different than that of TPT as well. They are not divorced, so there is no comic subplot of the girls playing matchmaker to get their parents back together.
Speaking of parents: one thing I’ve noticed in virtually every YA novel I’ve read (and there have been hundreds over the years), whether indie-published or mainstream, is the tendency of authors to neatly tie up family drama plots. No matter how sordid the circumstances of parents as the main antagonists to the YA protagonist throughout the book, all is ultimately forgiven and forgotten in service of offering an upbeat, HEA ending to the story. This book is no exception to that rule. As a children’s film, TPT lightly slides over the fact that it is utterly despicable that a divorcing couple would split up their infant twin daughters between them, never the twain to meet again, as detachedly as they divide up their linens or furniture, as if their mutual offspring are of no more value than inanimate possessions. The version of this parceling off of a child in this story is no less horrifyingly unethical, and the person who is most at fault, in my view, is let off the hook. In TPT, neither of the divorced parents ever acknowledges they did anything wrong in separating their daughters, so the children who are enjoying that movie, by vicariously living out the fantasy of two clever young sisters’ acting as a team to reunite their divorced parents, are easily distracted from ever contemplating the awfulness of the original separation. In contrast, this book’s tale of older teens pushes the reader to think about what the parents did that caused the girls to be separated. And because it is not glossed over with cute comedy, older teens and adults reading this novel will be unable to avoid examining the original sin of the separation with much more distressing clarity than in TPT. As a result, for me personally, anyway, the HEA resolution of this tragic family secret was unsatisfying. However, I am not grading this book down for that, because the author has stayed true to a common expectation of the YA genre which routinely leads to authors’ creating this type of story resolution. For that reason, very likely most readers of this book won’t be bothered by it.
Though there is no sex or drunken parties in this book, there is an excessive amount of off-color language, including dozens of F-bombs, which is why I consider this book PG.
The fascinating story concept of the reuniting of twins separated at birth got me to wondering how many other movies might have been made over the years with this premise. I researched the subject and made a list. In case fans of this book might be interested in that as well, I have included that list below:
Handsome Siblings, foreign movie, 2020
Twinsters, movie, 2015
The Identical, movie, 2014
Great Queen Seondeok, foreign movie, 2009
Twitches, TV movie, 2005
Attagasam, foreign movie, 2004
Forgotten Twins, foreign movie, 2004
The Legendary Siblings, foreign TV show, 1999
Swear on India, foreign movie, 1999
The Parent Trap, movie remake, 1998
Twins, foreign movie, 1997
Sister, Sister, TV show, 1994-1999
ChaalBaaz, foreign movie, 1989
Twins, movie, 1988
Big Business, movie, 1988
Seeta Aur Geeta, foreign movie, 1972
A Stranger That Night, foreign movie 1972
Start the Revolution without Me, movie, 1970
The Parent Trap, movie, 1961
I rate this book as follows:
Heroine Abby: 4 stars
Subcharacters: 4 stars
Sisters Plot: 4 stars
Family Drama Plot: 3 stars
Romance Plot: 4 stars
Writing: 4 stars
Overall: 4 stars
I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was SO EXCITED to be granted an ARC of You Have a Match! I loved Emma’s first novel, Tweet Cute, so I was so ready to see what she would bring to the table next.
You Have a Match was a unique family drama, with plenty of laughs and love along the way. There were so many twists and turns in such a good way. I could not put it down. This is my 4th book of 2021, and it’s my first 4 star rating!
The characters were all likable and relatable. I feel like i would have acted exactly like they did if I were a teen in their situations. The family dynamics were strong and in your face, which I find refreshing in a YA novel. Not many I have read has had the whole family front and center like this one.
I want everyone to read this now, but it would honestly be a perfect summer read! Definitely recommend!