Publishers Weekly
03/30/2020
The four days of the title are four class trips that high schoolers Lulu Wells and Alex Rouvelis go on each May from freshman to senior year. The first brings them together romantically, despite popular baseball player Alex having beaten out Lulu—a vegan who ran on school sustainability—for class president. By the next year, they’ve broken up, and so it goes, with flashbacks to key moments in their always passionate, if not always happy, relationship. Kenneally (You Make My Heart Race) shows the couple’s feelings, realities, and dreams maturing into something real—Alex has to help out all the time at his family’s Greek restaurant, and he’ll need a scholarship to attend college; Lulu’s working on a graphic novel that she hopes to publish. Though narrator Lulu feels more like a set of traits and hobbies than a flesh-and-blood character, showing Lulu and Alex and their friends growing up and into themselves is a clever way of telescoping the vast development that occurs over the four years of high school. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (May)
From the Publisher
"Endearing." — Kirkus Reviews
"A clever way of telescoping the vast development that occurs over the four years of high school." — Publishers Weekly
"Short chapters and time jumps weave the narrative of Lulu and Alex’s tumultuous relationship over the years and will grab readers and keep them guessing." — School Library Journal
School Library Journal
03/01/2020
Gr 9 Up—Every year on May 7, Coffee County High School students go on an exciting field trip paid for by the school's endowment. Each year Lulu, a vegan, strong-willed, aspiring graphic novelist experiences a major move forward or backward in her relationship with the handsome star baseball player and perpetual class president, Alex Rouvelis. The trips become more elaborate as they inch closer to the end of their high school careers, but will true love keep Lulu and Alex together in the end? Short chapters and time jumps weave the narrative of Lulu and Alex's tumultuous relationship over the years and will grab readers and keep them guessing. Each section is broken up by freshman year at the science museum and ending with their senior year on a trip to London. A huge reveal or fake-out happens at the beginning of each section, with flashbacks filling in the details as the main narrative emerges. It's a little clunky at first, but smooths out by the end of the book. The dialogue sounds authentic, especially when the high schoolers are talking to their friends about relationships. Romantic and familial subtexts are sprinkled throughout the book, such as Lulu's gay best friend finding love, and Alex's best friend dealing with his parent's divorce. However, the sweeping enemies-to-friends love story of Lulu and Alex always takes center stage. VERDICT An additional purchase for high school and public libraries where there is a high demand for romance.—Molly Dettmann, Norman North High School, OK
Kirkus Reviews
2020-02-05
Lulu Wells has wanted to kill Alex Rouvelis for almost as long as she’s wanted to kiss him.
Sparks fly at the beginning of freshman year on election day as they compete for class president. But they become sworn enemies when vegan Lulu gets back at Alex, who won, for refusing to support her cause for a school garden—a moment she regrets when she realizes how much it hurts him. Alex gets his revenge by using presidential privilege to suggest that they go to a science museum for their freshman class field trip, knowing Lulu would hate it. Their romance blooms when they unconvincingly get stuck in the museum escape room and share their first kiss on the same day. From jealousy to first-time sex to respecting each other’s aspirations (Lulu is a graphic novelist, and Alex hopes for a baseball scholarship to avoid working forever in his family’s restaurant), their relationship throughout high school is anything but smooth. The narrative is mostly linear, alternating between four years of annual school field trips and flashback chapters that fill in the gaps. Supporting characters are two-dimensional and conveniently coupled up—the lack of single, independent characters throughout is unfortunate. Lulu is cued as white, and Alex is Greek American; Lulu’s best friend is gay, and there is some ethnic diversity in secondary characters.
Naïve but endearing. (Fiction. 13-16)
