Review: You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour & David Levithan

You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour & David Levithan

Blurb from Goodreads:

Who knows you well? Your best friend? Your boyfriend or girlfriend? A stranger you meet on a crazy night? No one, really?

Mark and Kate have sat next to each other for an entire year, but have never spoken. For whatever reason, their paths outside of class have never crossed.

That is until Kate spots Mark miles away from home, out in the city for a wild, unexpected night. Kate is lost, having just run away from a chance to finally meet the girl she has been in love with from afar. Mark, meanwhile, is in love with his best friend Ryan, who may or may not feel the same way.

When Kate and Mark meet up, little do they know how important they will become to each other -- and how, in a very short time, they will know each other better than any of the people who are supposed to know them more.

My Review:
Effortless is the first word that comes to mind when thinking about this book.  It took me no time at all to get into this and, before I knew it, I had finished it and loved it.  This is a book about the last days of high school, about falling in love with your best friend and how it feels when they don't love you back, about those moments when you realize you've moved on from a friend and, also, about the premise that you can trust your teenage heart -- that maybe it knows something true and real even if you're supposed to believe otherwise.  This book takes place over the course of the week and I loved the pacing.  The alternating POV between Kate and Mark were so well done, too -- completely seamless but each with their own voice.  The only thing I didn't like about this book was a scene toward the end that was supposed to be a sort of cataclysm of all the feelings and emotions running throughout the book up until that point; I'm not sure the scene was necessary or, really, that emotional compared to other genuine interactions.  All I know is that I would love to be friends with both Kate and Mark!  I've seen a lot of negative reviews of this one but I really liked it and know that I will read it again.  These two authors have yet to disappoint me in anything I've read by either of them and are quickly becoming must buys for me.

You Know Me Well is scheduled to be released today June 7, 2016, you can purchase HERE, and I loved it and definitely recommend to YA contemporary fans!

"Would you really fight for him?" I nod.   

But the nod isn't enough, so I go on.   

"In fact, I would tear through rubble with my bare hands to get to him.  I would lift cars.  I would wrestle down anyone who said we shouldn't be together.  I would stare down life and kick it in the ass if I had to.  Because if you want to know the truth -- if you really want to know the truth -- none of that could be nearly as hard as being in love with him and not being able to tell anyone about it.  Including him.  I have this thing inside me, and it's angry and it's scared and it's uncertain and most of all it's so completely in love with him, and it would do anything to keep him, even if it means things staying the way they are now."