Rowena’s reivew of The Night We Said Yes by Lauren Gibaldi.

A fun, romantic read, perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen and Susane Colasanti!

Before Matt, Ella had a plan. Get over a no-good ex-boyfriend. Graduate from high school without any more distractions. Move away from Orlando, Florida, where she’s lived her entire life.

But Matt—the cute, shy, bespectacled bass player who just moved to town—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.

Then Matt abruptly left town, and he broke not only Ella’s heart but those of their best friends, too. So when he shows up a year later with a plan of his own—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.

In alternating then and now chapters, debut author Lauren Gibaldi crafts a charming, romantic story of first loves, lifelong friendships, uncovered secrets, and, ultimately, finding out how to be brave.

This was a really quick read so I wondered if that played a key in me not being able to connect with any of the characters. The main focus is on Ella and Matt. These two dated for a little bit and then Matt disappears. He moves to Texas and just dropped out of Ella’s life, breaking her heart in the process. Now it’s six months later and Matt is back and wants to reconnect with Ella by recreating the most memorable night from their past. The night they said yes to everything. Every idea. Every suggestion of what to do, they said yes and did it. Matt is trying to recreate the perfectness of that night and it doesn’t work out the way he hoped. There was too much unresolved business and resentment to make that happen.

I’m not really sure what to say about this book. It wasn’t a long story but it was slow going for most of it. At first, I was interested in what happened between Matt and Ella, hell even Meg and Jake but as I kept reading, I kept thinking, “Who cares?” Meg and Jake are on a never ending emotional rollercoaster of a relationship that isn’t healthy at all but she keeps taking him back and my first thought? “Meh”. Matt’s back in town and we’re finally getting some answers and once we get them, I think, “Meh”.

I didn’t understand the characters and the further I got into the story, the more I didn’t care to understand them. These were the things that stood out to me while I was reading the book.

• Matt didn’t have his wallet at Wing King to pay for the food there….but at their next stop, the liquor store, he found his fake ID in his car and went into the store to buy their alcohol. What did he use to pay for the drinks? His fake ID?

• Matt’s been gone for six months and is back. Ella goes with him to get some answers and they play truth or dare but only do dares so they don’t have to do what they were supposed to do all along and TALK? Hmm.

• Everyone yells a lot. Mostly Meg and Ella though. Meg’s yelling is low-key annoying.

• Matt’s reasons for disappearing didn’t make sense. I get that something huge went down in his family and it was embarrassing. He didn’t want to involve Ella in his family drama but how could she have been involved from Florida? How would telling Ella the truth about what was going on have involved her in the whole thing? Would the Texas cops think that she was what? Hiding more drugs in Florida? Make sense Matt!

• I can’t even with Matt. WTF? Instead of just telling Ella what happened, give her some closure, he just kept giving her trash? Seriously, WTF?

When the story finally ended, I was glad. Now I can move on to the next book and put this one behind me. Nothing in this entire book worked for me. Oh, well. You win some, you lose some.

Grade: 1 out of 5

This book is available from Harper Teen. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.