APRIL 2021 - AudioFile
This is not a typical story of three teenage best friends. It’s way more. Abby is afraid that her unrequited crush on Leo and her B.E.I. (Big Embarrassing Incident) with him will ruin their friendship. Narrator Eva Kaminsky navigates the pitfalls Abby must avoid when she and Leo take a DNA test and Abby finds out that she has an older sister, Instagram star Savannah Tully. Shortly after, Abby, Savannah, and Leo all end up at camp together. Kaminsky captures the emotional drama as the teenagers work to unravel the mystery created by the girls’ parents. The addition of a light romance broadens the appeal for a younger audience. E.J.F. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
"Heartfelt and engaging, You Have a Match is a masterclass on love in all its forms." —Sophie Gonzales, author of Only Mostly Devastated and Perfect on Paper
"A bright summer tale of connection and self-discovery." - Booklist
"I absolutely adored this book!” —Annie Carl, The Neverending Bookshop, Edmonds, WA, ABA Winter Pick
School Library Journal
10/01/2020
Gr 7 Up—Family secrets and self-exploration are at the heart of this novel about Abby, a rising high school senior who finds surprising family news through a mail-order genetic test. After completing tests with her two best friends, Abby is contacted by Savvy, another teenager, who shares that Abby's parents are also Savannah's biological parents. The girls meet and decide to attend camp together to piece together their family history. Throughout the book, characters focus on finding their passions, and Abby and her best friend Leo fall in love. While the camp setting is unrealistic at times, Lord's descriptions of the Pacific Northwest are rich with sensory details. Abby and Leo's romance is tender and sweet, and full of realistic misunderstandings. The topic of adoption is a necessary one in YA literature, but this portrait leaves much to be desired. Abby and Savvy are not the only characters with an adoption story—Leo was adopted from the Philippines by a white family at birth, but his story is given short shrift; his emotions about it are only mentioned periodically and go largely unaddressed by Abby. Lord's juxtaposition of the two adoption stories centers the experience of the white adoptee over the transracial Filipino adoptee and creates an imbalance, rather than a diverse and nuanced story. VERDICT This book serves up intriguing family drama, beautiful sensory details, and a swoony romance, but leaves the reader unsatisfied. Recommended for secondary purchase only.—Susannah Goldstein, The Brearley Sch., New York City
APRIL 2021 - AudioFile
This is not a typical story of three teenage best friends. It’s way more. Abby is afraid that her unrequited crush on Leo and her B.E.I. (Big Embarrassing Incident) with him will ruin their friendship. Narrator Eva Kaminsky navigates the pitfalls Abby must avoid when she and Leo take a DNA test and Abby finds out that she has an older sister, Instagram star Savannah Tully. Shortly after, Abby, Savannah, and Leo all end up at camp together. Kaminsky captures the emotional drama as the teenagers work to unravel the mystery created by the girls’ parents. The addition of a light romance broadens the appeal for a younger audience. E.J.F. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2020-10-22
A DNA test reveals that Abby has a sister she never knew about—and they head off to summer camp together to uncover family secrets.
When 16-year-old Abby’s best friend and secret crush, Leo, asks her to do a mail-in DNA test with him, Abby mostly agrees to give him a little push, as he clearly wants to find out more about his birth family. While the results don’t help Leo, they bring a shocking result for Abby: She has a full-blooded sister, 18-year-old Instagram wellness star Savvy, who lives in another Seattle suburb. After meeting and realizing their respective parents used to be friends, the two girls decide to meet again at summer camp. Unfortunately, camp gets off to a rough start; Savvy is a stickler for rules, Abby didn’t read the rules in the first place, and Leo is a camp chef, which only intensifies Abby’s feelings for him. With a summer full of new friends, hijinks, delicious food, and digging up secrets, Abby has to learn to lean in and own up to the complicated parts of life. This is a heartwarming novel of friendship and family, with a little romance. The story and characters have depth and emotion, touching on topics of broken friendships, losing a loved one, deception, social media, and pursuing what you love. Abby, Savvy, and Leo’s adoptive parents are White; Leo is Filipino.
A cute, feel-good coming-of-age story. (Fiction. 12-16)
