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Meant to Be Lauren Morrill Books

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Meant to Be Lauren Morrill Books

Once in a while, I need to read a cute quick contemporary read, usually with a fun romance involved, just to alleviate all of the fantasy and sci-fi I normally read. I picked up Meant to Be because I absolutely love hate-to-love stories, and was hoping I would find something to quench my desires. And it was a fun read, that’s for sure, but I don’t think I was an enamored as I wish I could have been.

I thought the writing was pretty good, and kept me involved the whole of the story, with only a few things that irked me – mainly whenever there was a strange and sometimes unnecessary aside from Julia in parentheses. The plot moved decently and kept me constantly engaged and unable to put it down, and while the romance was cute it didn’t feel complete. It felt like Julia’s feelings towards Jason barely appeared until about three-quarters of the way through the book, and Jason seemed so all over the place that I had trouble really feeling like this relationship was going to be a solid one. I liked the idea of Jason helping to loosen Julia’s personality up a bit, but would have liked to seen the opposite happen also – a good relationship is about give-and-take, and while Julia definitely needed to let go of the rules a bit, Jason could have used with some sobering up as well.

The main issue for me comes with Julia. Right off the bat I knew I wasn’t going to be feeling any sort of sympathetic emotions towards her. She is uptight, self-centered, and judgmental. Her introductions to everyone on the field trip paint everyone else in a negative light, all because she only sees their stereotypes and nothing more. A lot of her behavior and descriptions of herself had me wrinkling my nose in distaste. And on the first night of her stay in London, she does a complete one-eighty and decides to break the rules that she has never broken before all to suddenly prove something to herself and to other people. If she was so sure of herself before, why did she need to prove anything to anyone? She does slowly come to understand that there is more to Jason Lippincott that she first assumed there to be, but I would have loved it if she had gotten to know her other classmates better as well, to see that she was a little quick to judge most of them and that maybe she isn’t as perfect as she thinks she is.

Then there is Jason. He comes off as being the complete opposite of Julia, but with some possible hidden depths to explore. And while these parts of him do emerge at times throughout the story, I feel like there could have been a little more. Instead, he would sometimes hint at his feelings for Julia, only to turn right around and either be a complete jerk or just outright ignore her. It was frustrating and made it difficult to get a good grip on his character, making most of the novel feel like one giant see-saw of emotions and character development.

For something that is a supposed to be a romance, the character growth seems very much focused on Julia and even then I didn’t feel like she really came to understand what her flaws were, even when someone (Jason) said it blatantly to her face. Still, there were many moments in the book that had me laughing or smiling, and like I said before, I couldn’t put it down. It was a fun read, and not something I regret picking up, but it also had its flaws that made the romance only so-so.
3.5 stars


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Meant to Be Lauren Morrill Books Reviews

Meant To Be is a sweet story as seen through the eyes of 16 year old Julia. She is an over achiever, straight A student who is not happy unless she has everything planned out and every rule followed. Julia even has true love planned out with her MTB, meant-to-be, childhood crush, Mark, who she has placed high on a pedestal. Much to her dismay, during a high school class trip to London, she is partnered up with Jason who is the class clown and free spirit, not to mention self centered and annoying. Jason shows Julia, who he calls Book Licker because her nose was always buried in a book, a different side of London by taking her to a posh party their first night in town. She gets drunk as a skunk and confidence oozes out of her as she tells the young men she meets she's a model. The next day she receives a text from one of those guys named Chris that he wants to meet up with her. After putting him off a couple times (she texts him she has to go to a photo shoot!) she decides to meet him and with Jason's help they track him down....or do they? This is where things get hilarious and very, very complicated. Julia has her ideal young man Mark who she believes is her meant-to-be, she has this new mystery man Chris begging to see her, and now she's starting to have feelings for Jason, who's nothing like her ideal meant-to-be. I laughed through the book at Julia because she was such a control freak and know-it-all but developed a fondness for her as she struggled through her insecurities. If you're looking for sex, this is definitely not the book for you, and there may have only been a few cuss words, but I enjoyed it, immensely.
OMG, you guys, pardon me while I flail freaking everywhere over how incredibly hilarious and wonderful and perfect for me this book is! Ahhhhh! There are certain authors who are just like made of magic for me, you know? Their every written word speaks to me. They're funny and clever, and say express the things that I think and feel all of the time, and, were I the kind of person to mark up my books, their books would be a mess of notes. Well, Lauren Morrill has just joined that esteemed crew with her debut novel Meant to Be.

I could tell straight off that this novel would be a fantabulous read for me. The book opens with, "There are certain things in life that just suck. Pouring a big bowl of Lucky Charms before realizing the milk is expired, the word 'moist,' falling face-first into the salad bar in front of the entire lacrosse team . . ." It you can make me laugh with the first two sentences, things are looking up. I proceeded to highlight a bunch of quotes that spoke to me and made me laugh. If you go on GR, right now and look up quotes by Lauren Morrill, I added all of them, because I'm a nutter and obsessed.

My very favorite aspect of Meant to Be is how well-drawn Julia is. She totally rocks, but which I mean she's kind of awkward and judgmental and anal-retentive. Julia might have more in common with me than any heroine I've ever encountered, with our main differences being her skill as a swimmer and her dedication to homework. Julia, like me, is not a rule-breaker, pretty much as a rule, and, when she does break them, it's this sort of painful mix of fun and fear. She loves reading more than just about anything else and has only one close friend, Phoebe. On top of that, she's introverted and has curly, frizzy hair she cannot figure out what to do with. My advice to her on that last one is confidence; if you pretend it looks awesome, a lot of people will be fooled.

What was most familiar to me about Julia was her perspective. Julia's mental dialog is pretty much exactly what it's like to live in my head, especially my less self-aware high school brain. Despite being incredibly intelligent and witty, Julia, when in a social situation, generally fails to prove herself verbose and lacks witty retorts. Yet, in her head, she has this constant judgmental, snarky commentary running at all times, which, of course, deserts her at times of need. She also has a temper and doesn't realize how harsh or superior she comes off to other people. To me, Julia is one hundred percent realistic, believable and hilarious.

I will say that the only other strongly-developed character is Jason, and even he takes a definite back seat. This is no surprise given how caught up Julia is in her own world and impressions of things and people. Since it's just like my mind, I can tell you right now that she's not the most reliable narrator. Meant to Be is definitely driven by Julia, so I suspect that if you don't like her the book won't be much fun for you.

The romance does not go anywhere surprising, but it's totally one of my favorite formulas. I've always been so weak to the boy and girl who don't like each other at first plotline, because of my love of Pride and Prejudice, which Morrill is obviously a total fangirl about too, based on the numerous references. Shakespeare comes up a lot too, of course, but, if this is actually a retelling of anything (I thought it was a Shakespeare retelling, though I suspect I made that up), it's of P&P.

In Meant to Be, Julia has to deal with a lot of personal issues surrounding her own expectations. She has love built up into this epic construct in her mind, and it's totally messing her up. Again, I relate to this to an insane degree. Her realizations are important ones and I think this sends a great message to teens compared to all of the obnoxious teen love lasts forever stuff. While Jason and Julia do, I think, have amazing chemistry, I also don't know what I see them making a great couple for all time, and I like that.

The last thing I must mention is the setting. Meant to Be takes place during a class trip to London. Julia has signed up with out her best friend and is stuck with a whole bunch of other teens she mostly doesn't like while trying to enjoy herself in a foreign country. Girl, I have been there and it is unfortunate, especially since I didn't have a Jason. Meant to Be is one of those books that makes you feel like you're traveling. I already wanted to go to London so, so much, and now I want to just pack up and go right now, though I'm far too plan-oriented for that, as Julia would understand.

Though I had a couple of small issues with Meant to Be (mostly to do with the cell phones the school provided for them during the trip, which I so do not see happening), I completely adored the whole book and will be devouring everything else Morrill writes as soon as I possibly can.
Once in a while, I need to read a cute quick contemporary read, usually with a fun romance involved, just to alleviate all of the fantasy and sci-fi I normally read. I picked up Meant to Be because I absolutely love hate-to-love stories, and was hoping I would find something to quench my desires. And it was a fun read, that’s for sure, but I don’t think I was an enamored as I wish I could have been.

I thought the writing was pretty good, and kept me involved the whole of the story, with only a few things that irked me – mainly whenever there was a strange and sometimes unnecessary aside from Julia in parentheses. The plot moved decently and kept me constantly engaged and unable to put it down, and while the romance was cute it didn’t feel complete. It felt like Julia’s feelings towards Jason barely appeared until about three-quarters of the way through the book, and Jason seemed so all over the place that I had trouble really feeling like this relationship was going to be a solid one. I liked the idea of Jason helping to loosen Julia’s personality up a bit, but would have liked to seen the opposite happen also – a good relationship is about give-and-take, and while Julia definitely needed to let go of the rules a bit, Jason could have used with some sobering up as well.

The main issue for me comes with Julia. Right off the bat I knew I wasn’t going to be feeling any sort of sympathetic emotions towards her. She is uptight, self-centered, and judgmental. Her introductions to everyone on the field trip paint everyone else in a negative light, all because she only sees their stereotypes and nothing more. A lot of her behavior and descriptions of herself had me wrinkling my nose in distaste. And on the first night of her stay in London, she does a complete one-eighty and decides to break the rules that she has never broken before all to suddenly prove something to herself and to other people. If she was so sure of herself before, why did she need to prove anything to anyone? She does slowly come to understand that there is more to Jason Lippincott that she first assumed there to be, but I would have loved it if she had gotten to know her other classmates better as well, to see that she was a little quick to judge most of them and that maybe she isn’t as perfect as she thinks she is.

Then there is Jason. He comes off as being the complete opposite of Julia, but with some possible hidden depths to explore. And while these parts of him do emerge at times throughout the story, I feel like there could have been a little more. Instead, he would sometimes hint at his feelings for Julia, only to turn right around and either be a complete jerk or just outright ignore her. It was frustrating and made it difficult to get a good grip on his character, making most of the novel feel like one giant see-saw of emotions and character development.

For something that is a supposed to be a romance, the character growth seems very much focused on Julia and even then I didn’t feel like she really came to understand what her flaws were, even when someone (Jason) said it blatantly to her face. Still, there were many moments in the book that had me laughing or smiling, and like I said before, I couldn’t put it down. It was a fun read, and not something I regret picking up, but it also had its flaws that made the romance only so-so.
3.5 stars