Jill's Book Blog

Title: You Can Go You Own Way
Author: Eric Smith
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: November 2, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

No one ever said love would be easy…but did they mention it would be freezing?

Adam Stillwater is in over his head. At least, that’s what his best friend would say. And his mom. And the guy who runs the hardware store down the street. But this pinball arcade is the only piece of his dad that Adam has left, and he’s determined to protect it from Philadelphia’s newest tech mogul, who wants to turn it into another one of his cold, lifeless gaming cafés.

Whitney Mitchell doesn’t know how she got here. Her parents split up. She lost all her friends. Her boyfriend dumped her. And now she’s spending her senior year running social media for her dad’s chain of super successful gaming cafés—which mostly consists of trading insults with that decrepit old pinball arcade across town.

But when a huge snowstorm hits, Adam and Whitney suddenly find themselves trapped inside the arcade. Cut off from their families, their worlds, and their responsibilities, the tension between them seems to melt away, leaving something else in its place. But what happens when the storm stops?

Review:

Adam Stillwater helps his mom run the pinball arcade that his father started. Though pinball isn’t as popular today as it once was, Adam is determined to keep their arcade running, and not sell it to Philadelphia’s newest tech mogul. Whitney Mitchell runs the social media account for her dad’s esport cafe. That job takes up so much of her time that her friends have ditched her and her boyfriend has broken up with her, because she never had time for them. After an accident with Whitney’s brother breaking a pinball machine at the arcade, Whitney and Adam start a social media argument that goes viral. Whitney and Adam used to be best friends, but stopped talking in high school. Then, a huge snowstorm hits, trapping Whitney and Adam together for the night. They have no choice to but to talk about their feelings and figure out where they’re meant to be in life.

There was a lot of 80s and 90s nostalgia in this book. Pinball machines may seem like an ancient technology to young readers today. I loved how passionate Adam was about the pinball machines. He knew every detail of them. Adam also loved the rock bands that his father loved. He wore vintage a lot of band shirts. There were also some more modern references from Whitney, who was from a more modern, high tech background. Adam and Whitney were the best of both worlds.

This book is the perfect winter read. The descriptions of the storm were so evocative that I was actually feeling cold while reading it. I wouldn’t want to be trapped in a cold building during a snow storm, but it’s fun to read about.

You Can Go Your Own Way is a great new contemporary novel!

Thank you Inkyard Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What to read next:

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Have you read You Can Go Your Own Way? What did you think of it?