You Have a Match
Author: Emma Lord
Narrator: Eva Kaminsky
Publication Date: 12 January 2021
Genre: YA – Contemporary
Length: 320 pages (8 hours 56 minutes)
Publisher: Wednesday Books (Macmillan Audio)
From the beloved author of Tweet Cute comes Emma Lord’s You Have a Match, a YA novel of family, friendship, romance and sisterhood…
When Abby signs up for a DNA service, it’s mainly to give her friend and secret love interest, Leo, a nudge. After all, she knows who she is already: Avid photographer. Injury-prone tree climber. Best friend to Leo and Connie…although ever since the B.E.I. (Big Embarrassing Incident) with Leo, things have been awkward on that front.
But she didn’t know she’s a younger sister.
When the DNA service reveals Abby has a secret sister, shimmery-haired Instagram star Savannah Tully, it’s hard to believe they’re from the same planet, never mind the same parents—especially considering Savannah, queen of green smoothies, is only a year and a half older than Abby herself.
The logical course of action? Meet up at summer camp (obviously) and figure out why Abby’s parents gave Savvy up for adoption. But there are complications: Savvy is a rigid rule-follower and total narc. Leo is the camp’s co-chef, putting Abby’s growing feelings for him on blast. And her parents have a secret that threatens to unravel everything.
But part of life is showing up, leaning in, and learning to fit all your awkward pieces together. Because sometimes, the hardest things can also be the best ones.
At the beginning of the year, I had the pleasure of reading Tweet Cute by Emma Lord, which I adored (enemies to lovers and feuding sandwich shops? Yes please!).
As soon as I heard about You Have a Match, I was tripping over myself to get my hands on a copy.
So, what happens when you mix The Parent Trap with 23 and me? You Have a Match.
Our MC Abby is a bit of a mess. Even with all of her over the top tutoring sessions, she has still failed English. She’s secretly in love with her best friend Leo, but the sting of unrequited love burns deep.
After doing a DNA service, Abby finds out she has an older biological sister (Savannah ‘Savvy’ Tully) who is Instagram famous and everything she’s not. Abby and Savvy end up meeting and decide to go to summer camp together to get to the bottom of their wonky situation.
I was initially pretty apprehensive when it came to Abby’s character because I felt that she was your stereotypical, privileged and angsty teenager who wants to fight her parents at every single turn. That being said, Abby’s character arc developed really well throughout the book as we see her navigate through the information of having a biological sister and the implications of what it meant for her parents to have kept her and not Savvy.
As far as the rest of the cast of characters go, I loved that there was a diverse cast and at no point did it feel like they were there for clout. Leo is BIPOC and is grappling with his identity and ancestry. Savvy is openly queer, and we get on page sapphic romance! Leo and Savvy were my favorite characters outside of Abby because of them really shaped and molded the person that Abby became.
Plot wise, the pacing was really great. I really enjoyed the summer camp scenes. As someone who never went to summer camp, the whole idea of summer camp has always fascinated me. I think the tension build up between Abby and Savvy was done really well.
Overall, this was a really enjoyable YA contemporary that dove into some pretty deep concepts while also having a bit of levity.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Wednesday Books for providing a review copy. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.
The Reading Chemist 