I have adored all the books I’ve read by Rachel Lynn Solomon. So why I expected any different from We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This should surprise no one. This second chance romance meets conversations about mental health hit the sweet spot. Keep reading this book review for my full thoughts.
Summary
Quinn Berkowitz and Tarek Mansour’s families have been in business together for years: Quinn’s parents are wedding planners, and Tarek’s own a catering company. At the end of last summer, Quinn confessed her crush on him in the form of a rambling email—and then he left for college without a response.
Quinn has been dreading seeing him again almost as much as she dreads another summer playing the harp for her parents’ weddings. When he shows up at the first wedding of the summer, looking cuter than ever after a year apart, they clash immediately. Tarek’s always loved the grand gestures in weddings—the flashier, the better—while Quinn can’t see them as anything but fake. Even as they can’t seem to have one civil conversation, Quinn’s thrown together with Tarek wedding after wedding, from performing a daring cake rescue to filling in for a missing bridesmaid and groomsman.
Quinn can’t deny her feelings for him are still there, especially after she learns the truth about his silence, opens up about her own fears, and begins learning the art of harp-making from an enigmatic teacher.
Maybe love isn’t the enemy after all—and maybe allowing herself to fall is the most honest thing Quinn’s ever done.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from Netgalley. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
TW: anxiety, OCD, depression
Rachel Lynn Solomon meets wedding planning and second chance romances? Count me in. We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This felt like a page ripped from my own life. Romantic declarations via email which are ignored? Hello? This was me. Because of that, I immediately connected with Quinn. Skeptical of romance, for a family of wedding planners, seems to be bad for business. But Quinn is afraid of the loss, the hurt, the fear. She knows too well the immense amount of pain that love can leave.
In pure Solomon fashion, We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This examines mental health – OCD, anxiety, and depression. I couldn’t stop reading because I was so involved in this story about dreams different than our familial expectations meets cynic love stories. All that with a dose of sister relationships too? We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This seems like it was written for me. The characterization, the emotional high – and low – points delivers something for all readers.
Overall,
If you’ve enjoyed the characters of Solomon’s previous book, We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This delivers. The characters, even the side ones, have these intricate details, layers of intrigue. Quinn’s fear of vulnerability, of getting hurt, felt relatable. The ways she doesn’t want to rock the boat, is worried about tipping the scales of her family. All these different aspects of Quinn just seemed to be torn from my heart. Readers looking for hopeless romantics, romance skeptics, family expectations, should definitely read this one! We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This celebrates finding our voice, mental health awareness, and the things in love that are worth the fear.
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This book sounds so sweet but also so important with the mental health themes it’s exploring!
yes! it was such a great multifaceted story
I liked this one a lot as well! Great review! If you want to read my review, you can go HERE.
Will do, thanks for commenting! Such a fun book!