Review: Everything Leads To You by Nina LaCour

Author: Nina LaCour

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Page Count:  307 pages, Hardback
Date Published: May 15th 2014
Find it on Goodreads: Everything Leads to You
Source: Purchased eBook

A love letter to the craft and romance of film and fate in front of—and behind—the camera from the award-winning author of Hold Still.

A wunderkind young set designer, Emi has already started to find her way in the competitive Hollywood film world.

Emi is a film buff and a true romantic, but her real-life relationships are a mess. She has desperately gone back to the same girl too many times to mention. But then a mysterious letter from a silver screen legend leads Emi to Ava. Ava is unlike anyone Emi has ever met. She has a tumultuous, not-so-glamorous past, and lives an unconventional life. She’s enigmatic…. She’s beautiful. And she is about to expand Emi’s understanding of family, acceptance, and true romance.

Nina LaCour wowed me with The Disenchantments but this book completely blew me away. Definitely in my top 3 favourites this year so far, Everything Leads to You was touching and magical and real and all of these things at once. The imagery was phenomenal. LaCour painted perfect pictures in my mind and I could see exactly what Emi was envisioning; everything was so vivid. I've always loved set design and how one piece of furniture can change the mood, so it was interesting reading about a character so passionate about this. There was also a really great girl friendship in this between Emi and her best friend which is always awesome! There wasn't any pointless girl drama, just two best friends who loved each other dearly and helped each other every day.

I loved that this book wasn't a coming out story... Emi already knew her sexuality and so did Ava, so it didn't focus on the fact that they were two girls. It was about two people falling in love. And yes, this book is fluffy and crazy romantic and all that, but it was also more. Emi and Ava's love story was beautiful, but it was also filled with painful truths, realizations about the meaning of family, and the fact that real life is a little less dramatic than the movies, but doesn't have to be any less magical. While a quick read and probably really light for a lot of people, this book got to me in a lot of ways that are maybe too personal at the moment, but I appreciated reading nonetheless. My heart is smiling but also is sad and I just loved loved loved this book more than I can describe. Absolutely a new favourite of mine and one I would recommend to anyone looking for a sweet romance with awesome female characters.