Review: You Have a Match by Emma Lord

*We received this book in exchange for an honest review.*

Abby Day only signed up for the DNA service to support her friend Leo, who has always wondered about his birth parents. Little did she expect that her results would be more shocking than his. Her life has been normal: two parents and three younger brothers. Then how can her parents explain that she has an older sister?

Savannah “Savvy” Tully messages Abby about the fact that they are full siblings. Savvy always knew she was adopted, but her parents never told her the truth. Abby questions why they gave up a girl 1 1/2 years older than her.

The girls devise a plan: spend the summer together and find out the truth. This means Abby has to go away to the summer camp that Savvy works at. But things aren’t so simple and Abby and Savvy have a lot of differences. Maybe this whole plan was a mistake…

We enjoyed Lord’s sophomore novel a lot more than her first. Tweet Cute was a little too cheesy for our taste. We felt You Have a Match was a lot more exciting and had a better romance! Plus, the premise of having a secret sister hooked us right away.

The summer camp setting had Christy nostalgic for those days. A lot can happen without parental supervision. Abby was a lot of fun and relatable. Sometimes she got into trouble, but she always put her friends first. We had a harder time warming up to Savvy because she felt robotic at first, but we realized it was a bit of a defense mechanism. 

The family secrets aspect kept us guessing. These parents should have been honest from the beginning with their children! But the pacing of when Lord revealed everything was perfect. The book didn’t have too much filler chapters. And the parents had their moments of redemption, especially at the very end.

Then, the romance! Both Abby and Savvy had a love interest at the camp. Without spoiling anything, it worked out the way we wanted! They were both sweet and slow burn. Time away from the real world gave them both perspective and the guts to go after what they wanted.

The only thing we wished was that Lord developed the minor characters, like Abby’s bunkmates at camp. We found ourselves confused which was which because they didn’t have distinct personalities. Seriously, we barely remember any of them.

Overall, You Have a Match made us excited for what Lord will write in the future. Pick up this one when it is released in January 2021!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️