I’m giving Bryant’s second novel 4 stars. I’m loving this author’s quirky yet cool take on young adult romance. She has a fan in me and I can’t wait until her next release.
About:
One True Loves by Elise Bryant is our 2nd read from the author. This story is still within the same universe as Elises’s first novel Happily Ever Afters. This book follows Lorene and her journey of self-discovery and learning more about herself as well as true love. In this book we are confronted with the downsides of Black excellence as the standard and what it means for those who consider a nontraditional path in a traditional family.
Review:
Lorene is an eclectic and artistic young woman. This should not be a surprise considering that Lorene is a graduate of an elite arts high school. However, her family’s expectations weigh on her heavily. She has a lawyer dad and a nonprofit executive mother. More than that she has a genius little sister and an older brother on track to go to law school. Lorene has been accepted to NYU so she is no slacker, however she isn’t sure of her major. This has put her parents in crisis mode, and are demanding that she have a major by the end of the summer.
For the duration of the summer Lorene and her family will be on a European cruise. Tessa, Lorene’s best friend and the main character from Ms. Bryant’s first novel, believes this is Loren’s opportunity to fall in true love (and Tessa has lots of pop culture references to millennial favorite the Lizzie McGuire Movie). However, Lorene is preoccupied with trying to determine what she will do about her college major.
As the story goes along we find Lorene opening herself up to love interest Alex. They had a rocky start and they seem to be polar opposites, in contrast to Lorene’s high level artistry and indecisiveness about her future, Alex is a Pre-Med major with a 5 year plan to follow in his mother’s footsteps to become a doctor. Despite Alex’s seemingly straight and narrow personality, he is the one that makes Lorene realize that her artistic accomplishments is just as valuable as her family and siblings’ academic accomplishments. Lorene opens up more and more to the idea that she can follow her passion for art as well as follow her heart.
In the end, Lorene realizes that the Black excellence standard that her family has upheld, while done out of the belief that this was the way for them to be successful and achieve all that they could out of life – it can be quite damaging. It can cause anxiety and keep one from pursuing a life of their dreams. She learns to no longer be afraid of her passions or her desire to be truly in love.
I continue to love the quirky teenagers that Ms. Bryant writes about. Within each of her novels there has been a message larger than romantic love. These teenagers are learning to fall in love with themselves and to recognize the greatness within themselves outside of what the world describes as “success and achievement”. I suggest this read to anyone who is interested in stories with multi-layered messages and cute romance woven together.
The Bootleg Book Club 