Review : Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill

Posted by Kay on November 12, 2012 6:44 am in 3.5 stars reads | 7 comments

Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill
Pages : 288
Genre : YA, Contemporary Fiction
Stand alone 
My Rating : 3,5/5

What it’s about :

Julia loves her Shakespeare and her Jane Austen; she’s in love with love and determined to let destiny reunite her with the one she’s meant to be with (a.k.a. Mark, the cute boy next door she’s been crushing on since she was six).

A ten days class trip to London sounds like the perfect occasion to perfect her knowledge of her favorite authors, and to discover the place where her parents fell in love. Her chance turns quickly though when she gets partnered with the class-clown; Jason is rude, immature, and absolutely careless. Julia couldn’t think of someone more annoying to be paired with, and it’s only day one of the trip…

My Thoughts :

Meant to Be turned out to be exactly what it was meant to be : a cute story filled with humor and fluffy romance, an escapist read that took me overseas and made me wish even more than before that I could travel to London.

I’d say the story goes pretty much how you would expect it; Julia and Jason do not see eye to eye, but there is a definite romantic tension between. Jason is constantly teasing Julia in a way that spells L-O-V-E, and Julia is equally annoyed and charmed by him. The author took quite a fun road to reunite the two together, despite Julia’s suddenly very active love life and Jason’s mysterious disappearances.

I will say that, for my personal taste, Jason wasn’t the type of character that would make me swoon. While I’m sure many readers will absolutely adore him, I found him too clownish and, yes, a tad immature. Even sixteen-years-old me wouldn’t have fallen for the guy; our personalities simply wouldn’t mesh well. Jason is over-the-top, a bit loud, and doesn’t care about what anybody else thinks – which doesn’t sound like a bad thing, but comes close to disrespect in public spaces. Or maybe, as he would so gently put it, I just don’t know how to have fun!

This being said, I liked him enough to root for him and Julia and happily read through the story. Meant to Be was exactly what I needed after two weeks of painting, moving, cleaning and unpacking boxes : something light, fun, and heartwarming. Let’s not forget about the setting : London! I have never been (yet!) to London, but I was familiar with many names and places used in the story, which only made me more interested by Julia’s adventure. I would have loved to make such a trip when I was in high school (except for the pairing – I doubt mine would have turned out as lucky as hers!)

I only wish is that secondary characters would have been more developed. Other than Julia and Jason, we get to know very few of them, and what we know of them could fit into the palm of my hand. I would have loved for Julia to get to know her classmates better, so that maybe she could get a little less judgmental about them.

If you are looking for an uncomplicated yet entertaining read, Meant to Be is exactly that. I have no doubts plenty of readers with a weakness for YA romance, funny guys and British settings will enjoy this one.

Similar Reading

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Girl goes overseas and falls for the wrong cute guy in a foreign city? It’s almost impossible to read or review Meant to Be without thinking of Stephanie Perkins’ recent success, Anna and the French Kiss. 

You guys know how much I loved that book (if you haven’t read it yet, you need to do it soon!) While Julia and Jason didn’t make me swoon and sigh like Anna and St-Clair, did, I’m sensing that fans of Perkins’ novel might enjoy Meant to Be (though maybe in a different way).

Thanks to Delacorte for generously providing a digital copy of Meant to Be.