Title: What To Say Next
Author: Julie Buxbaum
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance
First published: July 11th 2017
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Finished reading: June 27th 2017
Pages: 272
“There’s a famous expression that if you’ve met one person with autism, then… you’ve met one person with autism.
So you met me.
Just me.
Not a diagnosis.”
*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Delacorte Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***
Forget the fact that the whole contemporary romance genre and me normally don’t get along. Forget the fact that normally I’m almost allergic to anything that can be possibly considered as cheesy. Forget the fact that I’m never a big fan of high school cliches in the first place. Because Julie Buxbaum has done it again and has proven to me I can actually absolutely love a slightly cheesy contemporary romance novel! I already had high hopes after falling in love with Tell Me Three Things last year and What To Say Next has only enhanced that love for her books. I do love it whenever an author is able to make me enjoy a genre that normally isn’t a right fit… What To Say Next is possibly even better than her previous story. Why? A very easy answer: because this story has David. Basically David won over my heart right from the very first chapter and he is without doubt one of my new all time favorite characters. He is just so unique, adorable and his character is extremely well developed! There aren’t all that many books out there with an autistic main character and Julie Buxbaum did a brilliant job portraying him realistically. Then again, the main characters were well developed in general and I really liked Kit’s character as well. The writing style is very enjoyable to read and the story is told in alternating chapters switching between David and Kit’s POV. Both storylines are interesting for completely different reasons, because this story isn’t just about David and his uniqueness. It’s also about Kit and how the sudden death of her father affects her, something that was again portrayed very realistically. I honestly couldn’t find anything negative to say about What To Say Next even though it has a few cheesy moments and high school cliches… Let’s just say that having a character like David makes you feel very forgiving.
David Drucker and Kit Lowell don’t really know each other that well. Kit is relatively popular and has her own group of friends, while David is basically socially isolated and a loner. Then one day Kit decides to sit with David at lunch, unable to keep faking her feelings with her friends… Her dad has recently died in a car accident and she just can’t handle the reactions anymore. David seemed like a safe bet since he normally doesn’t really talk to others, but somehow the two connect anyway. But will this unlikely friendship last?
Even though this normally isn’t my genre, I ended up absolutely loving What To Say Next. This story has once again proven to me Julie Buxbaum is an exception to my rule and I will be looking forward to her future books. Her writing style is very enjoyable to read and she is a master in creating the most wonderful characters. David is basically what makes this story into something special and he will stay with me for a long time, although it was really easy to connect to the characters and story in general. In short I can highly recommend What To Say Next!
You can also find me at Goodreads. Twitter. Instagram. Facebook. Bloglovin’.
Great review!! I’m so glad to see you loved this one – I’m super excited to read it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did! I’m still so glad I saw your Tell Me Three Things review last year and decided to give her books a go… Best decision ever. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
This sounds absolutely lovely. I’m also not a huge fan of YA contemporary romance, but you loved this so much, I might just have to give it a try! Great review, thanks for sharing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
What To Say Next is definitely worth giving a go even if you are not really into the genre… I guess it can go either way, but David is a very easy character to like. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
OMG I don’t like heavy romance, I stay away from cheesy, I hate high school stories, but if it worked on you, it has a chance to work on me! It’s fantastic that you loved it so much!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha that pretty much describes me as well, but it’s always great to find an exception to the rule. I LOVE her books! ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right… well… you’ve managed to get me all interested in this one now! 😀 First I saw the genre… was slightly surprised… then I saw the rating and was like- oh, okay, this is gonna be good! And your review.. let’s just say, it’s going straight to the tbr pile! Job done! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Trust me, I was surprised as well when I first hesitantly picked up her other book Tell Me Three Things last year, but Julie Buxbaum has proven to be an exception to my contemporary romance aversion. 😉 Her characters are simply brilliant! I hope you will end up enjoying it if you do decide to read it; I don’t want to feel guilty haha.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No need to feel guilty even if I don’t enjoy it… you know, the characters already sound interesting… Have added to my TBR now and hopefully manage to read soon 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
She definitely did an excellent job with David and describing his autism without it becoming a cliche. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person