ARC Review – Where It All Lands by Jennie Wexler

Title: Where It All Lands

Author: Jennie Wexler

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Publication date: July 6th, 2021

352 pages

4/5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis

Stevie Rosenstein has never made a true friend. Never fallen in love. Moved from city to city by her father’s unrelenting job, it’s too hard to care for someone. Trust in anything. The pain of leaving always hurts too much. But she’ll soon learn to trust, to love.

Twice.

Drew and Shane have been best friends through everything. The painful death of Shane’s dad. The bitter separation of Drew’s parents. Through sleepaway camps and family heartache, basketball games and immeasurable loss, they’ve always been there for each other.

When Stevie meets Drew and Shane, life should go on as normal.

But a simple coin toss alters the course of their year in profound and unexpected ways.

Told in dual timelines, debut author Jennie Wexler delivers a heartbreaking and hopeful novel about missed opportunities, second chances, and all the paths that lead us to where we are.

Review

Where It All Lands presents how life could go if one decision you make is changed. Told in dual timelines, three high school students – Stevie, Drew, and Shane – collide and their lives will never be the same. Shane and Drew have been best friends for years and Stevie is the new girl that they both are interested in. A coin flip decides who gets to ask her out, and the dual timelines reflect what would happen if Shane won the coin flip vs Drew winning. It poses an interesting question about how one decision can change everything.

This is really an emotional story. You’re not sure who to root for in this situation as you begin to feel for all three of the characters and their lives and stories change from timeline to timeline. Each character has a personal story explored through each timeline that deals with romantic, family, and platonic relationships. I found myself relating to each character separately and couldn’t see how the ending would go.

Be prepared for the ride of your life with this book. It is beautifully written and well paced. The timeline switches are not distracting or confusing, they are interspersed well throughout the story and continues to support the plot line.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Happy reading, folks!