Book Review: You, Me, and Our Heartstrings (releasing August 2nd)
[ID: A light blue book with an illustration of two teens on the subway. The girl is sitting down with a violin case and the boy is standing with a cello and a bouquet of pink flowers. He wears glasses. Over the top of the subway car says “Melissa See” in cursive.” The book is held by a white hand in front of a pink rose bush with bright pink flowers.]
“We don’t need to apologize for ourselves. Especially not to each other.”
YOU, ME, AND OUR HEARTSTRINGS (releasing August 2nd) is one of my most anticipated releases of 2022 so I was overjoyed when I was accepted onto the Heartstrings street team and the publishers sent me an ARC! I was so excited for this book I went ahead and preordered both the US and UK version (pictured here)…
Synopsis:
“Daisy and Noah have the same plan: use the holiday concert to land a Julliard audition. But when they're chosen to play a duet for the concert, they worry that their differences will sink their chances.
Noah, a cello prodigy from a long line of musicians, wants to stick to tradition. Daisy, a fiercely independent disabled violinist, is used to fighting for what she wants and likes to take risks. But the two surprise each other when they play. They fall perfectly in tune.
After their performance goes viral, the rest of the country falls for them just as surely as they're falling for each other. But viral fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. No one seems to care about their talent or their music at all. People have rewritten their love story into one where Daisy is an inspiration for overcoming her cerebral palsy and Noah is a saint for seeing past it.
Daisy is tired of her disability being the only thing people see about her, and all of the attention sends Noah’s anxiety disorder into high speed. They can see their dream coming closer than it’s ever been before. But is the cost suddenly too high?”
My review:
YOU, ME, AND OUR HEARTSTRINGS was an absolute gem! The first 3/4s of this book were just pure sunshine. It really felt like a warm hug. I loved seeing Daisy and Noah get to know each other, develop their relationship, and create music together. The final act conflict came right for my heart and put me through an entire roller coaster of emotion. I could not put it down!
This is a preciously sweet romance but it also covers serious subjects like ableism, violence against disabled people, and even ableism within religion. It made me think deeply on these subjects and I felt like it could be an excellent book club read (hint hint). I wonder what teens will take away from it. As a disabled woman, I identified with the issues it brought up but I wonder if it would’ve hit home for me without that personal knowledge. I really hope it will help teens and all readers understand these important issues…
Although it ended well, I really wanted the book to be longer so the conflicts could’ve been wrapped up with more depth, especially with Daisy’s family. It felt way too fast and I wanted more. Nevertheless, this is definitely a book that’s going to be on my mind for a long time and I treasure it.
Content/trigger warnings: ableism including violence and the r word, on page panic attacks, discussions about sex.
(Please note I read an ARC so the quote might be different in the final version.)