Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Release Date: May 2014
Synopsis: A wunderkind young set designer, Emi has already started to find her way in the competitive Hollywood film world.
Emi is a film buff and a true romantic, but her real-life relationships are a mess. She has desperately gone back to the same girl too many times to mention. But then a mysterious letter from a silver screen legend leads Emi to Ava. Ava is unlike anyone Emi has ever met. She has a tumultuous, not-so-glamorous past, and lives an unconventional life. She’s enigmatic…. She’s beautiful. And she is about to expand Emi’s understanding of family, acceptance, and true romance.
Comments: Not for me. I did not hate it, but I didn’t particurarly enjoy it. I liked Emi – for the most part. She starts off kind of annoying because she’s hung up on her ex at the beginning, but still tries to convince herself to get over her ex… so I can appreciate that. Plus, her ex treated her poorly relationship wise (though the ex did treat her like a human being, just was a bad significant other, lover, partner, etc.). Ava… her story is super interesting and I think that’s what kept me reading towards the end. To see how her story unfolds… because once the ground work for her to appear in th book began, I started reading with more interest. However, the book just didn’t speak to me. I couldn’t relate to the characters intimately enough, I didn’t feel Emi’s yearning, even though it was there… But, Emi’s passion about movies and set making is apparent and it was great to read her when she get’s excited in these moments – that made her a very real person.
This is not a coming out story. Emi’s already established and I liked that. Though I do believe coming out stories are needed (despite what some nay-sayers argues… in their disillusioned beliefs), it is also nice to have stories where the character is already comfortable with herself and everyone around her is too.
And yet, somehow with these perks… I just found myself not liking the book enough. The book was not bad, so it wasn’t just for me.
Read-A-Likes
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills
Why the Recommendation: The two characters in both books have a passion they both live for. Emi has her set design and movies while Gabe, in Beautiful, has music and radio. These artistic factors of their love and personality greatly influence what they do and their daily lives. And as a lame throw in: both can be classified as LGBTQ…. Boo! I know…
The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes
Why the Recommendation: Both protagonists in both books starts off with being freshly broken up with their significant other. Though Lainey portrays a straight relationship, the sentiment and feelings are similar to that of Emi’s in Everything. Both still yearn for their ex’s in some way and both feels their ex makes them better in other ways, making the act of letting their ex’s go hard.
The Young Adult Book Guide 
I’m interested that you weren’t so into it. I haven’t read Everything Leads To You yet, but before now I had heard mostly positive things.
The young set designer thing amuses me. How young? It doesn’t sound like the synopsis of a YA, lol. Does how that’s all happened make any sense?
I’m sorry I did not see your comment until today! I’ve been quite busy with life stuff. To answer your questions, from what I remember Emi is about 17 or 18… on the cusp of considering college – a topic she touches upon very briefly. Part of the reason why the book didn’t work for me is the fact that Emi has a very high rank in terms of her job – she is given set designs to design and be in charge of… I come from an art background, and while this isn’t impossible – it’s highly unlikely. Very unlikely. After some thoughts, the books asks readers to suspend a little bit of disbelief – something I couldn’t do because of the serious nature and tone of the book. If it was somewhat campy (think Disney Channel shows) I would allow myself to do so… However with this book, the subject matter is serious and the delivery is serious and the characters are written being very real… it makes certain circumstances hard to accept. At least, for me. Thank you for leaving a comment – please continue to do so if you have any more comments or questions.
Thanks for such a well thought out reply! It always helps me decide what I’m going to read next 🙂