Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour

3.75 stars

Emi loves film. She’s set designer and she loves her job, but her relationship life is rocky and it only makes it worse that she works with the girl who keeps breaking her heart. After finding a letter from her favorite actor she decides to track down the person the letter was intended for. Her brother told her she could live in his apartment as long as she does something great. Emi’s about to embark on adventure where she does the greatest thing of all… she falls in love along with some other pretty awesome things. This book is fun! I never intended to read it because it didn’t really sound like this novel would be my kind of thing. But the opportunity to request this book arose and I took it. I was lucky enough to be accepted for my request and I’m so happy I read this. I don’t read of LGBTQ it’s not really my thing and I’ve had conflicts with a few LGBTQ books in the past and it makes me hesitant, but after reading Everything Leads to You I think I’ll try to give more books like this a chance. This book was pretty great! There were flaws but it was a fun novel. It was serious and thoughtful, but not serious in the way that depresses the reader. I’ve read LaCour only once before and it was some time ago. I wasn’t all that impressed with it, but I did enjoy it. LaCour’s writing has really blossomed. She does a fabulous job of invoking images of a film set and creating the love for something normally overlooked in the film industry.


The main female character is Emi. Emi is pretty cool. She can be annoying… Even that doesn’t really describe her. There are times when I liked her a lot but didn’t like her at all. As a person/ character, Emi is very down to earth with a brilliant artistic mind. I would definitely want to be her friend in real life.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 8

The other main female character is Ava. Ava is a pretty enigmatic character. I’m not sure how to describe her because she is such a mystery. But she’s not a mystery like Alaska Young. We find things out about Ava and she doesn’t remain this cloud of wonder that the reader tries to reach out to but nothing is learned. I like a mysterious character that can stay mysterious but also give answers to their life.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 8

I need say that I really like how the romance was done. It wasn’t rushed and they became friends before anything happened. It felt like a real relationship.


The other characters in this novel were phenomenal. I know there are quite a few times I say this, but the other characters made this novel. Emi and Ava were the central focus, but the characters they interacted with helped build it into something great. Charlotte was my favorite character. It was so refreshing to see such a strong lifelong friendship in a YA novel. I feel like YA authors have strayed from close friendships and write about characters who are lonely and don’t fit in. In reality, teenagers have friends. Even people who feel alone have one friend out there who they probably don’t think is a friend but are. It’s great to see a teenager with friends especially a good, close friend like Charlotte. I would talk about the other characters, but that would give away what great things happen to Emi. I don’t want to spoil that.


Character Scale: 9

Now, the reason why I’m only giving this book 3.75 is because towards the end the book fell a bit, but picked itself up and kept going. The snag was really hard to keep reading through, but it wasn’t a huge handicap to the book. My favorite things about this book are the brief little road trips, the Yes & Yes script, and the movies! So many fun things in this novel! I highly recommend it.

Cover Thoughts: The cover is beautiful but Emi has some black in her so why is this girl your average white girl sporting a messy bun? Still beautiful though.



ANNOUNCEMENT!! I'm going to be attending the RT NEW ORLEANS BOOK FAIR! THIS SATURDAY, IF YOU ARE GOING LET ME KNOW AND I HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!