Everything Leads to You by Nina Lacour (Review)

  Series: Standalone

Genre: Contemporary

Book Length: 307 pages

Publication Date: May 15th, 2014

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Format: Hardcover
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Synopsis:

A love letter to the craft and romance of film and fate in front of—and behind—the camera from the award-winning author of Hold Still.

A wunderkind young set designer, Emi has already started to find her way in the competitive Hollywood film world.

Emi is a film buff and a true romantic, but her real-life relationships are a mess. She has desperately gone back to the same girl too many times to mention. But then a mysterious letter from a silver screen legend leads Emi to Ava. Ava is unlike anyone Emi has ever met. She has a tumultuous, not-so-glamorous past, and lives an unconventional life. She’s enigmatic…. She’s beautiful. And she is about to expand Emi’s understanding of family, acceptance, and true romance.

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I have come to the conclusion that I love this book too much.

That's right, I love this book so much that I don't even start off with my typical 'pre-reading' or praising how much I love it in a single paragraph. I just start with that single sentence because I really love this book so much that it has become one of my, if not my favorite, read of the year so far, and is one of my favorite books of all time. And I am talking about top five or even top 3 favorite book ever.

Now let me elaborate the main reason I think I love this book so much: the fact the main character is part of the film industry. Now, like I mentioned in my TFIOS movie review, I am a huge fan of film; so I naturally want to read like a bajillion YA books where the characters are a part of or like film. Well, there is only a small percentage of that in the Young Adult genre which makes me sad because I love film and drama and acting so much; I probably could go on an entire blog post about how much I love it.

I think that if you go into this book with preconceived love for film and movies or you are curious in the world of film-making, I would not be surprised if you love this as much as I do. I don't think if you didn't like film or you just don't care for it as much as others do, than you probably won't like it much because the whole novel is essentially about love and films.

Anyway, the characters. The characters were just so amazing and they were so distinct in their personalities.

First off, Emi Price, the main character, is a lesbian who is a production designer, so she puts sets together and gets all the little details for a room or a home in a movie. It was so interesting to see how she got all the pieces and bits and everything else that is in a room in a movie. Like getting picture frames at Goodwill or getting the right sofa at an auction, the whole process was so fascinating and it makes me wonder if this is what it's like in the actual world of film-making.

Also, another thing I loved about Emi was that she was a lesbian, and I don't know about you but I love variety in Young Adult literature and I haven't read a book where the main character is gay or lesbian. If you are wondering, she does find someone she loves at the end of the book and I think that she ended up with the person she belongs to.

Charlotte was like the best friend ever and I would want a friend like her because I kind of am a little of an introvert and about half the time I don't know how to talk in a conversation because I am socially awkward. But she was just so awesome and sweet and very helpful through the entire duration of this book. I also liked Morgan, even though we are aware from the beginning of the novel that she and Emi don't have the best histroy in the relationship aspect, and like Emi said later in the book: as two lover they don't work together, but when they work on movies, because Morgan is a supervisor for production design I believe, they work perfectly with each other.

Now let's talk about Ava. I loved Ava so much; she was really sweet and I felt so bad for her as we learned more about her past and how she was treated as a child and what happened to her real mother, it was just so heartbreaking. But Ava was so strong and I am proud of her and she really does have acting blood in her.

Every other character, I really liked and love, with the exception of one but for good reasons, most of the characters were really nice and they had variety to them. They might not have been the most memorable characters, but you definitely do love them.

The relationships between them was sweet and light and fun. In fact, one of the plots of this was basically Emi deciding if she wants to stay with Morgan or not, because again they have a history of breaking up and getting back together. Other than that, there wasn't a whole lot of other romances going on but they were still cute and fun.

Lastly, the writing. I will be honest, Nina Lacour's writing is not the type that would stick out in my mind, but I still loved it. The story wasn't rushed at all, the author took her time with the pacing and made the story flow beautifully. I personally would like a sequel or a novella that tells us what happens a year after the events in this book, but I think I would be fine without one. This is my first Nina Lacour novel, but it definitely is not my last one.

So, I would give Everything Leads to You by Nina Lacour a full 5/5 stars from me. This novel is basically all about love and film; so I think that this would be the perfect summer book that you can spend a whole day reading. The characters and plot are just so beautiful that I think that a whole lot of people would love this; especially if you are a fan of film or you love gay main characters. Like I said, this is probably my favorite read of the year and maybe my favorite book ever.