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May 13, 2011

(Actual Rating: 3.5 stars)

(Note: I hate to do it, but my review will be riddled a bit with some spoilers. Peruse this review with caution if you intend to read this book.)

I will say it right now: anyone who loves clean romance reads will love this book while readers who love passion and romance will find this book very wanting.

Me? I fall somewhere in the middle. I love romance in the sense of passion and great feelings of love -- but I don't need to read ab More...

6 comments like (10 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2011

Kelly rated it:

Joy needed some hobbies. I think there were a lot of issues at play here, and none of them were as developed as I would have liked them to be. I get she needs to latch on to someone when she's in a new place but to this point of obsession? I don't think so. I don't believe that about her character for a second.

I have a lot to say about this, but with the caveat that this is a really clean, sweet read for teens who like that kind of book.

Full review here: http://stackedbooks.blogspot.com/2011/04... More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 28, 2011

Sara rated it:

3.5 stars. Joy is a Utah high school senior who's brokenhearted since her boyfriend, Zan, suddenly got his GED and left for college in California a year early without warning and without a word. Unable to get in touch with him and not understanding why he left, Joy decides she needs closure, which involves a road trip to the college over a long weekend with Noah, Zan's best friend who also hasn't heard from him.

The book is told both in the present and in a few flashbacks, showing w More...

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Oct 25, 2011

Rachel rated it:

Back When You were Easier to Love by Emily Wing Smith is the story of Joy who is spending her last two years of high school in Haven, Utah. She longs to be back in Claremont, California where she had lived her whole life. Although she has made new friends, she misses her old ones. She also misses Zan, her boyfriend who left early for college without a word. Joy and Noah, Zan's previous best friend go on a road trip to the college seeking closure. Why did Zan leave without saying goodbye? And why More...

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May 28, 2011

Joy rated it:

This had a totally different twist on obsession- turned it all around. Joy (protagonist) has been unceremoniously dumped by Zan. His friend Noah keeps coming around trying to befriend Joy but she only has eyes for Zan - despite the fact that he is gone. He has gotten his GED and left for college.
In the meantime, she's living a half-life in the town of Haven, UT a mormon town.
Joy's obsession is total. She thinks only of him, dreams nightly of him, and simply wants to get back to be More...

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Apr 30, 2011

Eden rated it:

The cover:

These kinds of kissing covers where the actual kissing is hidden are driving me crazy -- they're so unsubtle I want to punch a hole through them. The drawn, cartoony-cute feel is also at complete odds with the story's moody and meditative atmosphere. This cover gets a honking F.

The book:

While the reader is prepared for flashbacks from the back blurb, the number of them accompanied by the shortness of the chapters is simply migraine-inducing. Fortunat More...

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Apr 28, 2011

Kelly rated it:

Joy isn't doing well. Her boyfriend Zan has left town for college (a year early) and hasn't given her his email or new number or anything. There's been no contact at all, actually. And she's not entirely sure what that means, but she does NOT like it. So she takes a road trip to California, where he's going to school to find out exactly what's going on. And she goes with his best friend.

I really enjoyed this book, mostly because of Joy. She's so smart and sweet and book-obsesse More...

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Apr 16, 2011

Kristin (Beneath Shining Stars, I Read) rated it:

I don't like Zan. Yes, that was my first thought upon finishing Back When You Were Easier to Love. Why? Because there's the version of Zan that Joy fell in love with and then there's the real Zan--who is not a nice person. But it's the idealized Zan that Joy is in love with and when he leaves her in the dust to head to California, she can't come to terms with it. After all, he's left without saying a word to her and he's left her no way to get in contact with him. Joy is sure that if she goes to More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 30, 2010

Sarah rated it:

Back When You Were Easier to Love by Emily Wing Smith is a book I went to with several assumptions already in place. I knew this was going to be a story of a girl who was desperate to get back her boyfriend who suddenly deserted her. I also knew this boyfriend was going to be a total asshat (totally right on that, by the way.) What I didn't know was would Joy come out of this stronger as a person, as her own person?

Synopsis: WHO ZAN IS: Blow-your-mind brilliant. Stop-your-heart go More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 15, 2011

Chucha rated it:

Back When You Were Easier to Love is a clean romance read. When I say clean it means that it doesn’t involve any sex, drugs, and booze (not directly anyway). Written in the first person, the narration volleyed between the past and the present things that are happening to our protagonist. Although I am in search of that one great (even chaste) kiss – it never came! I would’ve given it a 4 if ever. I mean, a good love story between two awesome people deserve an itty-bitty intimacy.

Never More...

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Oct 11, 2011

Louisa rated it:

Sooo...in truly, nerdy librarian form, I love creating new shelves on Good Reads and Emily Wing Smith's (love her name!) "Back When You Were Easier to Love" did allow me to do that. The truth is I grew up with Mormons. I like them--even counting some as relations. The thing is, I even like Joy. She's neurotic, odd and just plain twitchy in a way I normally find very endearing. The thing is, I wasn't even bothered about her caffeine-free chastity or the caffeine-free chastity of No More...

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Dec 10, 2010

Melanie added it

When Joy’s family relocates from Claremont, CA to Haven, UT, she is forced to leave everything behind: her friends, her future plans, her sense of self. Joy discovers a new town in which religion becomes culture, and most guys aren’t interested in dating because they have to leave on missions after high school. Many of the people in Haven have their lives mapped out; they know what they need to do to be popular and succeed. They fill their time with “beverage nights” and Disney movies, and the s More...

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Nov 08, 2011

Carly rated it:

Not your typical LDS YA novel. Very refreshing. Loved the author's voice. This was a really great story about a young girl who is so wrapped up in her relationship with her boyfriend that she lets it define her and loses track of who she really is. I would definitely recommend it to the young women I know. It was really enjoyable to read and easily relatable. I could especially relate having grown up in an area where Mormons were a minority, then went to school where they weren't. Even bei More...

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Jun 28, 2011

Rosalyn rated it:

I thought this was a rather charming book. The main character, Joy, is in mourning because her boyfriend, Zan, took off high school a year early to go to a small liberal arts college in CA, leaving their relationship status murky. Joy always felt like their relationship made her special--lifted her above the conformity of the rest of the student body in small-town Haven, Utah. She convinces Noah, Zan's former best friend, to take a road trip with her to CA to find Zan. While the plot is pretty s More...

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Jan 17, 2011

Christie rated it:

Back When You Were Easier to Love follows Joy's quest for closure. Her boyfriend Zan has left their small Mormon community to attend college in California. Joy places blame on the lame kids in her school because Zahn was so different. More mature, intelligent, good looking. You name it Zahn was better. Of course he’d have no choice but to leave for bigger and better things. This has her heading out on a road trip with Zahn's best friend and the hope she can find the closure she so desperately ne More...

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Mar 25, 2011

Jess rated it:

BACK WHEN YOU WERE EASIER TO LOVE, by Emily Wing Smith is a fast paced novel all about love and loss, and a determination controlled by the heart. I was easily hooked from beginning to end.

I started this book with certain predictions of the typical girl gets dumped and can't move on, but I was surprised with a few different twists that don't appear often. Joy is so obviously in love with Zan but my first impression of him was, "This kid is such a jerk!". While Joy is so despe More...

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Oct 14, 2011

J.Elle rated it:

Joy’s boyfriend, Zan, left for college without any ado. He didn’t leave Joy any contact information, he made no proper goodbye, and he didn’t even have the decency to break up with her. Joy cannot move on. She tells herself she’s still desperately in love with him and she needs closure. So, together with Zan’s ex-best friend, Noah, she sets off on a road trip to find the closure she’s looking for. This book was disappointing.

And now because I just learned it was possible to hi More...

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Jul 07, 2011

kim rated it:

Ack! I feel so deceived! First of all, that library scene on the cover? Like two seconds of the story is in a library. Secondly, it starts normal, but the further you get into it, the more Mormon/God/preachy it got! The 'bad' guy drank coffee and went to a college with coed dorms, GASP! There's a scene where a guy/girl has to share a hotel room, and it's like a crisis situation. Then they can't go to church the next morning because they don't have their church clothes! Okay, so I realize this is More...

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Apr 28, 2011

Jennifer added it

If I had to describe this book in three words, they would be: quirky and charming, with just a touch of madcap.*
Joy has no joy. She had an identity -- as the daughter of a California philosophy professor. Now she's just another Mormon in a small Utah town and, as a result, she's feeling a little unhinged. Zan (Alexander) seems like just what she needs: a boy who embodies all she left behind. Or does he? And then there's Noah, who seems to be everywhere (and also is definitely everything she More...

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Jul 18, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

Back When You Were Easier to Love

What I liked...
- The cute cover is what initially drew me to the book.
- It is well written and is quite a sweet and relatively innocent book about first love.
- I loved some of the quotes: "People ask me what I miss most about California, and what I miss most is what I never had", "I wasn't myself with him, I was better than myself - Joy 2.0...my jokes were funnier, my mind was sharper..."

What I could More...

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Jul 29, 2011

Mlpmom rated it:

3.5 Stars. This was an interesting story about a girl who maybe becomes a little obsessive about a lost love only to learn later that nothing was really what it appeared to be and that maybe, just maybe it was her all along that needed to change and look at things differently.
I really did enjoy this read, it was somewhat comical and yet serious all at once. The writing was great, it flowed really well but the main character was a little hard to relate to at times and her obsession was a li More...

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Aug 29, 2011

Danylle rated it:

Oh Ms Smith you sure know who to reach into the "Teenage girl in love" psyche. While at times this book was a bit predictable, I couldn't help but say to myself "ugh this is so true" I remember being this way, I remember feeling all those emotions, I remember the end all be all of highschool romances. And yet I would HIGHLY recommend this to all my young women friends. Why? because your true love is not always who you think he his; most of the time it's because you are not wh More...

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Jun 20, 2011

Liesl rated it:

First off I think there is a serious under-appreciation for YA contemporary, and particularly CLEAN YA contemporary. This was a squeaky clean, sweet, and engaging YA contemporary story. I think I connected mostly with the small Mormon town, being a Utah-raised-Mormon myself. But then having spent several years outside of Utah and then going back, I could totally connect with the main character's displacement and identity issues. And I had to laugh at a lot of it.

But beyond that I love More...

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Jun 21, 2011

Christiana rated it:

I was so pleasantly surprised by this one! This is a great realistic fiction look at what it's like to be Mormon. Not in a "here's what we believe" way, but more in a "this is my life and here's how my religion plays into it". It was also a great road trip story (I love road trip stories) and I lol'd a couple times reading it!

You could give this to Christian fic people OR just girls who like a good realistic fiction/light romance read. And while we're talking More...

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May 28, 2011

John rated it:

Really cute read. I think the ending disappointed me a little too much to be a Best-of for this year, though. I enjoyed the chaste romance and felt like it was a really strong look at how you can be faithful without flaunting your faith to a major extent. I'm not a Mormon, though, so I do admit that I think the heroine's acceptance of her new town of Haven is a little too good to be true, because it is there was honesty in what she said at the beginning of the book. I did enjoy the nod to so More...

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Nov 04, 2011

Tesia rated it:

In the beginning, the story was a little slow and the protagonist leaning towards the irritating side of the scale. After two chapters, however, I was HOOKED. First of all, I did not expect the book to be about Mormons. Well, it's not the main point but the characters are clearly Mormon. I love how Emily Wing Smith portrayed these teenage Mormons the way they really are: normal and just as fun as the next non-member. The story was original with lovable characters and hey, it made me LOL--literal More...

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Oct 17, 2011

Katie rated it:

I will admit that I initially chose this book because it had a library scene on the front cover. It's a really attractive cover, even if it doesn't exactly sell what's in the book. But I could never have imagined the depth of the story, or the unique turns of phrase and quotable lines that made reading this book such an enjoyable experience. It reminded me of a few other YA novels I've read in the past couple of years, including Paper Towns by John Green, which also includes a road trip and a qu More...

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Jul 07, 2011

Jenny rated it:

First off, and I only mention this because it surprised me, this is LDS (Morman) fiction. I couldn't help but wonder if all the religious references, no matter how well they were explained, would make sense to a non LDS person. That aside, this is not a story about religion, per say, but about the pain of a confusing breakup and about the things we all obsess about. By the time Noah and Joy were on their road trip, all the previous questions and annoyances I had about Joy's obsessive behavior we More...

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Sep 16, 2011

Michelle rated it:

I am not sure why I read this book. I am not sure why I requested it form another library to be sent to me. All I know is that I really needed to read something so I read this. Two of my favorite authors had glowing things to say. I must have read a good review somewhere but can't find it know.

Not a bad book, just not a good book. Very predictable and slow moving. Could have been a 20 short story.

Why did I read it? I wanted to read and it was there. I kept reading b More...

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Jan 24, 2012

Heather rated it:

I’m on the fence about this read, hence my delay in reviewing, well, that and I have become very lazy in my reviewing of books as of late. But I digress.

This read was not at all what I was expecting. The religious undertone often drowned out the otherwise universal story. I consider this fact a detriment, thus my three star rating. Nevertheless, I did enjoy the book overall.

Joy is consumed by her relationship with Zan; it is how she defines herself. When Zan leaves with More...

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