Title: We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This

Author: Rachel Lynn Solomon

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: June 8, 2021

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

A wedding harpist disillusioned with love and a hopeless romantic cater-waiter flirt and fight their way through a summer of weddings in this effervescent romantic comedy from the acclaimed author of Today Tonight Tomorrow.

Quinn Berkowitz and Tarek Mansour’s families have been in business together for years: Quinn’s parents are wedding planners, and Tarek’s own a catering company. At the end of last summer, Quinn confessed her crush on him in the form of a rambling email—and then he left for college without a response.

Quinn has been dreading seeing him again almost as much as she dreads another summer playing the harp for her parents’ weddings. When he shows up at the first wedding of the summer, looking cuter than ever after a year apart, they clash immediately. Tarek’s always loved the grand gestures in weddings—the flashier, the better—while Quinn can’t see them as anything but fake. Even as they can’t seem to have one civil conversation, Quinn’s thrown together with Tarek wedding after wedding, from performing a daring cake rescue to filling in for a missing bridesmaid and groomsman.

Quinn can’t deny her feelings for him are still there, especially after she learns the truth about his silence, opens up about her own fears, and begins learning the art of harp-making from an enigmatic teacher.

Maybe love isn’t the enemy after all—and maybe allowing herself to fall is the most honest thing Quinn’s ever done.

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My Review

We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This is one of those books that surprises you in the best way possible. I knew I was going to fall in love with these characters, but I was not anticipating falling in love with them as much as I did, and that was an absolutely wonderful surprise. Rachel Lynn Solomon has written a contemporary masterpiece, one that is important just as much as it is cute and heartfelt. This book is easily every emotion wrapped up in an amazing little bow. 

I have to say, I loved Today Tonight Tomorrow, but I loved We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This even more. Both are perfectly well-written and described and sex positive books, but We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This just captured a bigger piece of my heart. But one of the great parts of this book was that beautiful, unexpected easter egg from Today Tonight Tomorrow. Just literally everything about Solomon’s new book is perfectly imperfect in every way. 

Quinn was the character I have been waiting to read about in a contemporary. Quinn has OCD and social anxiety, something I can relate to personally. She has this feeling that she doesn’t want a real relationship, especially when she feels her parents’ may be superficial based on past turmoil. And she wants the real thing, but is completely unsure of taking those next steps into a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. It’s not just her anxiety, but also that’s she’s scared. And let me tell you, I can almost bet that every reader will be able to relate to Quinn on some level. For me, I could relate to her on almost every level, and that was extremely important to me. Her journey was a personal one, and seeing her make mistakes and learn from those mistakes was every bit as important as every other scene.

Quinn also feels pressure from her parents to stay in the family business. And though she loves her family and likes the business, it’s not what she wants to do with her life. Her sister wants the business, but Quinn wants more, something that is completely, wholeheartedly her. But she doesn’t quite know how to break that to her parents when all they can talk about is her working for the business during and after college. And she’s not entirely sure what she wants her future to look like, but she knows it does not involve the family business 24/7. 

I loved that Tarek was this all-out romantic. That aspect alone made him my favorite character – it’s not every day you see a male love interest be the one with all these outrageous, romantic gestures. I loved how he wasn’t a quitter and refused to give up, even when his depression makes every day that much harder. Tarek is everything I love seeing in a character. For many contemporaries, you get the bad boy or the boy with a jaded past, and so on. But not Tarek. He was honest and romantic and constantly sweet. He was battling depression and, like Quinn, that was wonderfully illustrated. Solomon portrays mental health so well in both characters and in such a positive manner. 

Their relationship is real and imperfect, with bumps in the road. It’s like any real relationship, and I loved that nothing felt superficial or forced in their relationship. Solomon knows how to write these types of relationships and lives and she can easily bring them to life in her writing. She captures all the messy bits of life so perfectly that it was difficult to see this story as anything other than real. 

Solomon’s writing is just as surreal and meaningful as her previous books. I love how her writing captures these beautiful moments and makes them so exquisite and full of emotion. She knows how to write a contemporary and flawed characters. Solomon just knows how to write a book that really connects with its readers; a story that provides insight to a journey that may be similar to yours. And it was a beautifully messy journey to read, and it felt so real.

Overall, Rachel Lynn Solomon has written another beautiful, heartfelt, and real contemporary story. It’s another one of her books that provides a real and deep connection with her characters. And if you are like me and hug those special books to your chest after finishing them, then trust me that We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This will be one of those books! We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This comes out June 8, and you can preorder now!

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars