{Review} Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill

Posted by Donna
Release Date: March 23rd, 2013

Finished Date: January 11th, 2015
Publishers: Listening Library
Genre: YA, Contemporary Romance

Source: Bought
Format: Audiobook
Narrated by: Shannon McManus
Listening Time: 9 hrs and 53 mins 

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

Meant to be or not meant to be . . . that is the question. 

It's one thing to fall head over heels into a puddle of hazelnut coffee, and quite another to fall for the—gasp—wrong guy. Straight-A junior Julia may be accident prone, but she's queen of following rules and being prepared. That's why she keeps a pencil sharpener in her purse and a pocket Shakespeare in her, well, pocket. And that's also why she's chosen Mark Bixford, her childhood crush, as her MTB ("meant to be").

But this spring break, Julia's rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she's partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love.

Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be.

The Review: Meant to Be is a cute and enjoyable story and it’s one I’m pleased I’ve finally been able to knock off my TBR pile.

Straight-A student Julia always does the right thing. She never breaks any rules, she always does her homework and she’s always well prepared and she believes that there is one person for her which she labels as Meant to Be (MTB). When Julia goes away on a class trip to London, she’s not prepared to be partnered with Jason; the person that always picks on her in school and calls her names like Booklicker. Soon Julia finds herself breaking all the rules because Jason gives her no other choice – she’s going to parties and getting drunk, pretending to be a super model and, breaking curfew more than once. But when Julia starts receiving text messages from someone, Jason offers to help her track him down but, as Julia and Jason spend more time together, she finds that Jason isn’t as insufferable as she once thought and soon she finds herself enjoying time in his company. But how can Julia have feelings for Jason when she’s meant to be with someone else?

One of my New Year resolutions is to try and listen to more audio books. I probably listen to about 6 a year but I’d like to listen to more. So off to Audible I went and Meant to Be was the first audio book I picked of 2015 and it was such a good choice!

I’d seen quite a few mixed reviews about Meant to Be before starting but it’s one I wanted to experience for myself and I’m glad I did because I really enjoyed Julia’s story. With the story being based in London and the fact that I’m British, I could really connect to Julia in the way she gets excited about visiting some of our most famous sites – because it was exciting for me when I first visited them too.

Julia being paired with Jason is the worst thing in the world for her – she thinks it will ruin her trip and while at first she didn’t enjoy it all that much, she slowly started to change her thoughts on Jason. I loved listening to Julia’s reactions to Jason. He got her into all kinds of trouble and breaking rules and I think it was just what she needed – to let go and live a little and more importantly have fun.  The banter between them was hilarious. There were a few times I found myself chuckling to the things he said to her and vice versa. I just really liked Jason. He was fun and full of energy and I loved how he pushed Julia to do things she wouldn’t have normally done.

There were a few surprises within the plot of the story one with Chris – who is the person texting Julia – which I wasn’t overly thrilled at the outcome. It was something different but still it didn’t feel like it wasn’t really needed. And then there was Marc who Julia thought was her MTB. I wasn’t overly fond of him either and felt the story could have done without him. Otherwise, I really enjoyed Meant to Be and I will definitely be reading or listening to Lauren Morrill’s other book, Being Sloan Jacobs very soon.