Back When You Were Easier to Love by Emily Wing Smith

Back When You Were Easier to Love by Emily Wing Smith

Duttons Childrens Books, April 28, 2011

Read for YA Contemps Challenge

Summary from Goodreads:

What's worse than getting dumped? Not even knowing if you've been dumped. Joy got no goodbye, and certainly no explanation when Zan—the love of her life and the only good thing about stifling, backward Haven, Utah—unceremoniously and unexpectedly left for college a year early. Joy needs closure almost as much as she needs Zan, so she heads for California, and Zan, riding shotgun beside Zan's former-best-friend Noah.

I thought this was such a sweet story, and although the premise isn't new--boy breaks girl's heart, girl tries to win by back, third boy enters picture--the details are certainly refreshing, and not quite like anything else I've read before. I've gotta be honest, from the summary I didn't realize that religious viewpoints would factor so heavily in this novel. Honestly, it was nice to read a novel about a girl who's so set in her convictions. Joy is a strong, if slightly misguided, character. We all know, of course, that by leaving the way he did, Zan wants nothing to do with her. She's so naive, though, that we can't help but feel for her, and hope that he's got a good explanation for leaving. Noah is such a sweet soul, and again, readers are led to wonder why Joy is so dense that she can't figure out that he likes her.

Joy's environment is so radically different from any I've ever known, and I enjoyed the story all the more because of that. Back When You Were Easier to Love is a very sweet (but not sugary) story, and I think fans of contemporary fiction will enjoy it.

Borrowed book from the library.


Enjoy your reading!
Christi