{Review} Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill

Meant to Be

Lauren Morrill

Pages: 304
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover

Source: Library

Age Group: YA

Date Published: November 13, 2012

Meant to be or not meant to be . . . that is the question.
It's one thing to fall head over heels into a puddle of hazelnut coffee, and quite another to fall for the—gasp—wrong guy. Straight-A junior Julia may be accident prone, but she's queen of following rules and being prepared. That's why she keeps a pencil sharpener in her purse and a pocket Shakespeare in her, well, pocket. And that's also why she's chosen Mark Bixford, her childhood crush, as her MTB ("meant to be").
But this spring break, Julia's rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she's partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love.
Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be.

I think I really like "Fall in love in Europe" books. First Anna and the French Kiss in France, now Meant to Be in England. Maybe I need one for every country. Let's go. Anyways, Meant to Be was super cute. Julia is such a dork, and she believes in this whole "Meant to Be" concept. She's always got her nose in a book, which is cool, except she misses out on the world around her. Jason challenges that when they end up buddied together on their class trip to England. 

I knew from the beginning that Julia and Jason would be together. That's just how these books go. Their journey there is so cute, though. He's a goofball, a prankster, who makes Julia wildly uncomfortable with his extroverted ways. He's loud and funny and irritating, and I thought he was adorable. Julia's obsession with her Meant to Be, Mark, is basically the only thing standing between them dating. 

I had some problems with the book, though. Like, Jason makes everyone think they had sex on the airplane and Julia doesn't even get that mad. She forgives him really quickly for it. He screws up a lot, and she just lets it go really easily. Considering her character and how she acts for most of the book, it felt weird to me when she did that. Also, there's some serious deus ex machina near the middleish. I don't want to spoil anything, but some stuff that happened was just like "Oh hey. Okay that doesn't really make sense but cool it's part of the plot." It wasn't so bad that it made me dislike the book, though.

In all, Meant to Be was really run of the mill contemporary. I enjoyed it, but I have no desire to buy it and read it again, ya feel me?