Book Review: While We're Young by K. L. Walther

 

Filled with fun adventures, romance, forgiveness, and that reckless abandon high school seniors are bound to embrace, While We're Young by K. L. Walther is a young adult romance that is certain to gain legions of fans.

Friends since childhood, Grace, Isa, and Everett were once inseparable. That was until freshman year, when Isa and Everett dated and then broke up. Since then, Grace, who is totally in love with Everett--unbeknownst to him, secretly helps Everett out wth babysitting while supporting her best friend Isa, who she is sure wouldn't understand Grace's commitment to Ev. Meanwhile, Isa and Grace's brother, James, have a secret of their own. Isa has been putting off telling Grace about their blossoming relationship because she's certain Grace won't like them dating. Feeling off-kilter since freshman year, Everett is struggling with demons he hasn't shared. 

Desperate to reunite their trio before they all head off to college, Grace coordinates a senior skip day of epic proportions. She thinks her careful planning is perfect, but when James figures something is afoot, he races to find his sister and uncover her dastardly plot.

Oh, my gosh! I loved everything about While We're Young. Inspired by Ferris Bueller's Day Off, this young adult romance is much deeper and richer than the movie. Freshman year changed the three-way friendship among Grace, Isa, and Everett. Since that time, Grace has felt that she has to pretend to keep Ev at arm's length to support Isa, whose parents are determined only top Ivy League colleges will help her be successful in life. Neither Grace nor Isa realizes how much a family tragedy impacted Everett, and he certainly doesn't grasp the impact it had on his besties. 

James, meanwhile, used to be so close to his sister, but Grace and he are on different roads. She is the senior class president, beloved by the staff, faculty, and the student body, but the only thing James will be known for is detentions. And he really doesn't much care. In a desperate hunt to expose what Grace and her friends are up to, he unfolds one of his infamous plots, bringing humor and antics to an otherwise emotionally tense storyline.

Walther was wise in how she plotted out While We're Young. There are so many intense feelings in what happened in high school for these three friends, that if it wasn't lightened by this unofficial senior skip day and James's pursuit, the novel would have been draining. This story ends on such an amazing note for all four characters that the reader is totally satisfied with the conclusion, even though so much of their lives is left unwritten. 

Funny and romantic, I highly recommend While We're Young. 

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0D22KPSG2
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Delacorte Romance (March 4, 2025)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 4, 2025
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 2.5 MB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

• Print length ‏ : ‎ 376 pages

I received a free digital copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books with Red on the Cover

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  

Welcome back to Tuesday! Here we are heading closer and closer to Independence Day and the 17th blogiversary (or is it blogoversary) of The Book Connection. Little did I know when I embarked upon my writing career that this blog, or any other writing project I undertook, would last so long. It has brought me tremendous joy to express myself here, and I appreciate your loyal readership and all the online friendships blogging has created. 

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is about books with our favorite colors on the cover. Red has been my favorite color since childhood. So today, I share with you my...

Top Ten Books with Red on the Cover

Have you read any of these? Are there any you would like to read? What is your favorite color?

Top Ten Tuesday: The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed from My Shelf

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.    

Welcome back to Tuesday! I hope you're having a fabulous week. I spent yesterday editing and proofreading, then dabbling in real estate. Today, it is back to real estate full time. 

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is so much fun. I used a list randomizer to create a list of the 296 books in my 2023 TBR Pile spreadsheet. These are the first ten in the list in order. 

This is a Christmas devotional. I like its smaller size, so that I can tuck it into a bag and read it when I have a few quiet moments. Because it has such a beautiful cover, I often bring it downstairs during the holidays and display it.

This is Melissa Gilbert's second memoir. In it, Gilbert shares how she and her husband bought a rustic house in the Catskills and how that experience changed her life. I've started reading this book, but haven't gotten too far simply because I have to keep breaking away to read review books. Hopefully, I will read it this summer.

In the early days of returning to the fulltime workforce, I held onto the silly notion that I would read at the same level as I did before. So, I subscribed to Harlequin home shipments. It didn't take me long to realize that even though I love cowboy romances, they aren't the first genre I will choose with my limited reading time. I would still like to read this one.

The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic happened in 2012. As a result, numerous novels using this historic event in some way entered the market. This historical novel had a dual-time plot. Right now, it is sitting in my closet in a box, but I really want to read it because the plot sounds fascinating. 

I think this contemporary romance is also part of a series that I received via mail order. Even now when I read the synopsis, it draws me in. This one makes me think of Hallmark movies.

This young adult historical mystery features a young Emily Dickinson taking a turn at playing sleuth. I've always been a fan of MacColl's books, but I don't read as many as I should.  

I won this murder mystery years ago, along with a bunch of others. Most of them I have never read, which makes me feel like a total jerk, but they are still on my list of books to read. 

I find it interesting that the random list generator chose two books from the same author. These two are from the year I was on Vannetta Chapman's launch team; an experience that made me realize I won't be a good launch team candidate until I am retired. :) Chapman is such a prolific writer that I could never keep up. After the year was over, I didn't even try. 

Deep Shadows is a Christian dystopian novel, the first in The Remnant series. 

Sarah's Orphans is an Amish romance. It is the third book in her Plain and Simple Miracles series. I read the first two books and thoroughly enjoyed them. 

No matter how hard I try, I can't place how I came to own this book. My best guess is I found it on sale at Walmart. This Christian living title has been in print since 1983. 

Have you read any of these books? If you did, what were your thoughts? 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - May 1

Welcome to It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday.   

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.       

Welcome to May! The closer to spring we get, you would think the better the weather, but it has been rainy and cold here. I hope it warms up soon.

This weekend was the annual Run for Rick's Place. I helped out, but didn't walk or run, though I bought a sign for Memory Lane. 

Husband took photos at the event

Dave from PeoplesBank, who was one of our sponsors

Countdown to the start

Reading has been coming along nicely lately, but I am still three books behind my Goodreads goal. 

If you missed my review of this Gothic suspense novel, you can find it here.

This young adult thriller I read on NetGalley. It comes out May 9. You can read my review here.

My review of this humorous sci-fi adventure appears at my children's book blog today.

My review of this one will appear at The Children's and Teens' Book Connection on May 29. 

I also started this one on NetGalley.

I've been carrying this in my work bag. It will also come with me when we fly to North Carolina this weekend to pack up the Lil' Princess' dorm. She is coming home for the summer next week!  

Upcoming virtual book tours:

• The Not So True Adventures of Brandon, Josh and Adam by Barry M. Fellinger - May 1 (review at TC&TBC)
• Blake's Folly Romance Trilogy by J. Arlene Culiner - May 3 (guest post)
• Crossing A Fine Line by W. L. Brooks - May 9
• The Ghost Hunters Series Spotlight - May 22
• The Giving Back Tree by Tarky Lee - May 29 (review at TC&TBC)
• Ravage & Son by Jerome Charyn - Aug 21 (review)

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

No new books this week, but I just signed on to Jerome Charyn's next virtual book tour for Ravage & Son in August. 

A master storyteller’s novel of crime, corruption, and antisemitism in early 20th-century Manhattan Ravage & Son reflects the lost world of Manhattan’s Lower East Side—the cradle of Jewish immigration during the first years of the twentieth century—in a dark mirror. Abraham Cahan, editor of the Jewish Daily Forward , serves as the conscience of the Jewish ghetto teeming with rogue cops and swindlers. He rescues Ben Ravage, an orphan, from a trade school and sends him off to Harvard to earn a law degree. But upon his return, Ben rejects the chance to escape his gritty origins and instead becomes a detective for the Kehilla, a quixotic gang backed by wealthy uptown patrons to help the police rid the Lower East Side of criminals. Charged with rooting out the Jewish “Mr. Hyde,” a half-mad villain who attacks the prostitutes of Allen Street, Ben discovers that his fate is irrevocably tied to that of this violent, sinister man. A lurid tale of revenge, this wildly evocative, suspenseful noir is vintage Jerome Charyn.

That's it for me today. Hope you have a great week!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Apr 24

Welcome to It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday.   

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit and comment, and er... add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.      

Welcome to the last full week of April. I am typing this from the passenger seat of my car in Springfield, VA. We are on our way to Mount Holly, NJ, where we will spend the night before making it the rest of the way home. I will share pictures next week. 

We enjoyed our time with the Lil' Princess and enjoyed watching her dance again. We also connected with good friends of ours who live in Wilmington, NC now. 

Traveling is often good for reading time, but even before we left I had finished this book. Look for my review today.

I didn't read from this book during the week, as I've been spending more time in prayer. 

I finished this book the first day of our trip. I highly recommend it. Look for my review coming soon.

There is an e-book giveaway that runs through April 27th for a copy of An Accomplished Woman by Suzan Lauder. Please leave a comment here for your chance to enter and win. 

I need to start these two this week for my May 1 and May 29 reviews. 

Upcoming virtual book tours:

• The Vanishing at Castle Moreau by Jamie Jo Wright - Apr 24 (review)
• The Shade Under the Mango Tree by Evy Journey - Apr 27
• The Not So True Adventures of Brandon, Josh and Adam by Barry M. Fellinger - May 1 (review at TC&TBC)
• Crossing A Fine Line by W. L. Brooks - May 9
• The Giving Back Tree by Tarky Lee - May 29 (review at TC&TBC)

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

On Saturday, we visited Pomegranate Books in Wilmington. I grabbed two birthday cards and these two books.

That's it for me today. I might not check in until later because I will be driving. Hope you enjoy your week.

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Books on My Spring 2023 To-Read List

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.    

Welcome to Tuesday! It has been a few weeks since I participated in Top Ten Tuesday. I haven't felt very inspired lately. But editing other books always inspires me, so here I am sharing my...

Top Ten Books on My Spring 2023 To-Read List

Coming out in July, but I should get an early copy because I read all of her books

It is not likely I will get to all of these, but one can hope. What's on your spring 2023 reading list?