While We're Young by K L Walther - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my turn on the tour for While We're Young by K L Walther! I am so happy to welcome you here. Please do click around and have a read of some of my other reviews! 

When I read the premise of this book I was really intrigued by it so signed up for the tour. I was lucky enough to receive a paper copy of the book which I've really enjoyed reading and which I will probably keep. This is a really good book and deserves to go viral and have some buzz around it when it's published because it's the cutest type of Young Adult novel. The premise also promised that it's kind of a modern update to the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off which is one of my favourite films, so I was really intrigued to read this! As I type, I am about 80% of the way through so I don't know how the book will end, but I am enjoying it so far and am excited to see what happens at the end. 

There are four protagonists in the book so it is quite complex as they all have a lot going on. They are all seniors in high school. Grace is class president and she's pretty preppy and a good girl .That's why when she fakes illness to skip school one day in her last May of high school, neither of her parents really bats an eyelid. They both have important meetings so they're busy anyway, so they're happy to leave Grace at home. Grace then persuades her best friend Isa to skip school too. She wants to go on a road trip with her. They get Isa out of school and then they turn their attention to Everett. They basically kidnap him from school and the three of them set off to Philadelphia. 

Isa is very popular and very clever and she's headed to Brown University. However her parents really want her to go to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, so they're actually a bit disappointed. Everett is the eldest of three siblings and his dad has died recently, so the whole family is struggling to learn to deal with his loss. Isa and Everett used to go out, but when they broke up they stopped being friends too, putting Grace in the middle. Part of her plan for the day is to get Isa and Everett back to being friends, basically because she misses that but also because she and Everett kind of have feelings for each other and she doesn't want to go behind Isa's back. 

Then there's James. James and Grace are siblings and are in the same year at school as there's only about ten months between them. In the past they were very close, but a few things have got between them and now they just wind each other up. James and Isa have kind of started a relationship but they know this won't go down well with Grace so they've cooled off a bit until Grace knows. James is a bit of a troublemaker at school and starts his day with a meeting with the principal. She is less than impressed with him but James does start his day. But then he realises that Grace, Isa, and Everett are all missing from school, so he skips out and goes home, and obviously finds Grace isn't there. 

Because she's in Philadelphia, trying to have a fun day like they all used to go on with Everett's dad. But of course there are so many obstacles in the way... 

I loved all four teens and the very real and many problems that they are dealing with. I won't give spoilers for these but there's lots, but they all felt very realistic. I liked all four of their personalities too, but I especially liked Grace. I had sympathy for all of them. I also loved all the nods to Ferris Bueller's Day Off - like Grace and Isa take one of Isa's parents' cars, and there's a bit where someone appears on the TV, and the local news reporters are called Ferris and Cameron. The school goes wild over the idea that Grace is ill and there's a hashtag very quickly - #SavingGrace. I would recommend seeing the film if you haven't because there were so many little nods which felt like the author paying tribute to a film.

As I said, I haven't quite finished the book but I've really enjoyed it so far and am giving it four out of five. I would definitely read something else by the same author, too!