Back When You Were Easier To Love by Emily Wing Smith

Back When You Were Easier To Love by Emily Wing Smith
Release Date: April 28, 2011
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 304











Summary:WHO ZAN IS: Blow-your-mind brilliant. Stop-your-heart gorgeous. Hold-your-breath clever. WHO ZAN WAS: Joy’s boyfriend. WHY JOY NEEDS HIM BACK: So she can breathe again. WHAT THAT MEANS: An elaborate road trip involving a SAAB 900, Sprite, and Barry Manilow. Oh, and Noah, Zan’s irritating-but-almost-charming ex-best friend. Original and insightful, quirky and crushing, Joy’s story is told in surprising and artfully shifting flashbacks between her life then and her life now. Exquisite craft and wry, relatable humor signal the arrival of Emily Wing Smith as a breakout talent. 

My Thoughts: This book is very hard to describe or even put into words! We are introduced to Joy and her life. She moved to this new little town less than a year ago and she instantly connected with Zan. Zan is the love of her life (or so she thinks) and he means everything to Joy. Zan all of a sudden leaves and thats where the book starts.We also met Zan's best friend Noah who Joy doesn't really know very well and she doesn't want to get to know him either. What's the point? She figures he's too popular and she doesn't give him much thought. Joy thinks she can't exist without Zan and she must find out why he left town and why he thought he needed more, or something bigger.  

This book was very hard to get into at first. I kept putting it down, picking it back up, reading a few sentences, and putting it back down again. I just had a hard time connecting at first. I think it was because I didn't really like Joy's connection to Zan and I didn't feel much emotion towards him. It was a bit predictable that we would come to the conclusion that he thought he was "better" than everyone in their town. Most of the people around are Mormon. Honestly, I don't know much about Mormon faith and the small details really surprised me and were interesting.  

Joy thinks she needs to find Zan to get closure; to ask him why he left and why he left her. So she gets this idea about going to find him with the help of Noah and they go on a road trip.  

Joy and Noah set off to find him and this is where the real story starts to unfold. I loved the road trip and how Noah and Joy started to get to know each other. I loved the scene that involved finding out about her mystery birthday present and all the little moments and small talks between Noah and Joy. Once, the story got going I really enjoyed this story and Joy grew on me. At times, I thought she was a bit stalkerish and needy. I'm glad she grew as a person and started to realize that she could be dependent on herself. 

Overall: This is a story of self discovery and a story to show us that there is more to the world than whats on the outside. As someone looking from the outside, I could tell there was more to Noah than meets the eye and that he had more feelings than Joy originally thought. Overall, I really enjoyed Back When You Were Easier To Love and can't wait to see what Emily has in store for us with her next novel. 

Cover: The cover is so cute even if it looks half cartoonish. hehe. Its really cute though.

What I'd Give It: