The Night We Said Yes by Lauren Gibaldi Pages: 304
Published by HarperCollins, HarperTeen on June 16, 2015
Genres: contemporary, Friendship, Love & Romance, Young Adult
Source: Paperback ARC from Publisher
A fun, romantic read, perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen and Susane Colasanti! What happens when Matt and Ella reunite one year after their breakup? Are second chances really possible?
Before Matt, Ella had a plan. Get over her ex-boyfriend and graduate high school—simple as that. But Matt—the cute, shy, bespectacled bass player—was never part of that plan. And neither was attending a party that was crashed by the cops just minutes after they arrived. Or spending an entire night saying "yes" to every crazy, fun thing they could think of.
But then Matt leaves town, breaking Ella's heart. And when he shows up a year later—wanting to relive the night that brought them together—Ella isn't sure whether Matt's worth a second chance. Or if re-creating the past can help them create a different future.
The Night We Said Yes is Author Lauren Gibaldi’s debut book. It is a really fun and cute story about a group of friends about to graduate high school. I love the layout and idea behind the story. The Night We Said Yes is told on two parallel timelines, featuring two different nights about a year apart from each other. Each night features the same group of friends, and each night is a night of saying yes. Meaning that whatever any one of the friends suggested doing, they did it. I love the idea of a night where you have to say yes to everything because you have no idea where it is going to lead to. Anything could happen. The Night We Said Yes is told in alternating chapters between the Now night and the Then night from a year prior. it was really cool reading back and forth between the two nights. I think I liked “then” night more, but I was more anxious to read the “now” chapters because I really wanted to know how things were going to turn out between some of characters.
There is a cute romantic element in the Night we Said Yes as well. Ella, the main character and the narrator for the story, met a guy in the “then” night. And sometime after he left town and she basically never heard from him again until he showed up in the now time line. I liked Matt. I liked that he tried to hard to make Ella have fun and to grab back some of their cute moments from before. But I have to say that I didn’t really like the reason he left without a word. I understood where he was coming from, but I still felt like he could have kept in touch. (Side Note: one of the questions from the Q& A with Lauren revealed that she changed the reason that Matt left multiple times. I wonder what some of the other reasons were?)
The Night We Said Yes is such a fun book that made me reminisce about summer breaks after high school and during college. Hanging out with friends during summer did kind of make you feel like anything could happen. This book made me want to go back and relive some of those nights, and maybe grab some friends and have a Night We Say Yes now too! Next, Lauren is coming out with a novella from Matt’s point of view, where we get to see what he was up to in that year that he went away. I think that will be a fun addition to The Night We Said Yes. I think this is a great story of friendship, growing up, and a need to read summer book for anyone. Oh heck, I am going to go for it- Say YES to The Night We Said Yes!
@BookBriefs talks Launch Party, Has a #giveaway & #reviews The Night We Said Yes by @LaurenGibaldi @HarperTeen #YA Click To Tweet
I was super excited to get to meet Lauren Gibaldi at her launch party for The Night We Said Yes! She is so adorable and nice and the Q & A was great! I grabbed some really cool swag for one of my followers and got a signed copy of the book to giveaway. AND I got to meet Sarah from Words with Sarah! It was so much fun to get to meet and hang out with another blogger. I have never done that before because there are almost never bookish events near me.
Bloggers/Authors in or around the Orlando area- I want to meet you! Email me or tweet me and we can plan a meet up
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
kindlemom1
I’m so glad you liked this too. For whatever reason I just devoured this and couldn’t get enough of it!
Michelle @ Book Briefs
Im glad you enjoyed it as well Ali. It was a lot of fun 🙂
Braine Talk Supe
Sigh, to be young and innocent again! This does sounds like a cute Summer read!
Michelle @ Book Briefs
hahah I know, right? it made me want to go back to my undergrad summers.
Linda
The synopsis sounds really good and it does seem like a fun and cute story! definitely putting this in my tbr list!
Michelle @ Book Briefs
This is a perfect book for summer days. I hope you get a chance to read it Linda 🙂
Carol
After your review I’m pretty positive I’m going to buy it for my summer reading list! 😉
Michelle @ Book Briefs
Yay! I hope you enjoy it Carol. It was a fun read
Zoey @ Uncreatively Zoey
I still think it’s such a cool idea to just say yes for an entire night, but I’d definitely be too scared to do it once, let alone twice haha! I’m interested to see what kinds of things they end up doing!
Michelle @ Book Briefs
it is a really cool idea. I think I want to try it, but Im like you. I think I woudl chicken out. haha
Lekeisha
I really have to narrow down my wish list. I added this one months ago after discovering it on Goodreads and immediately had to have it. So glad that I’m seeing positive reviews for it.
Michelle @ Book Briefs
ahh the #1 problem of all book worms. Too many books haha, I feel ya!
Jazmen
I had no idea what this book was about but I’m definitely intrigued. I’m loving the sound of the whole then and now, and the night of yeses. Sounds fun, and thanks for hosting the giveaway!
Michelle @ Book Briefs
yea the then and now nights were well done. I liked how you stayed on basically the same time frame, just one year apart.
Suzi Q, The Book Dame
I wanted to read this over the summer since it has the summer feel, but I am not sure if I will get to it or not. Thank you for your review.
Michelle @ Book Briefs
Yes, this is totally a summer book. I hope you get the chance to read it Suzi 😉
Diane Elizabeth
This sounds like a fun summer read, thanks for posting your review!
Michelle @ Book Briefs
Thanks for stopping by Diane 😉