Trust and self-acceptance get mixed into a wild goose chase around NYC

     After the success of her first novel, I Wanna Be Where You Are, Kristina Forest has returned to the YA contemporary scene with a new book about finding yourself and trusting others while navigating fame. In Now That I’ve Found You, which comes out August 25th, is a story that has all of the summer vibes your TBR might be missing.
    Following in the footsteps of her überfamous grandma, eighteen-year-old Evie Jones is poised to be Hollywood’s next big star. That is until a close friend’s betrayal leads to her being blacklisted. Fortunately, Evie knows just the thing to save her floundering career: a public appearance with America’s most beloved actress—her grandma Gigi, aka the Evelyn Conaway. The only problem? Gigi is a recluse who’s been out of the limelight for almost twenty years. Days before Evie plans to present her grandma with an honorary award in front of Hollywood’s elite, Gigi does the unthinkable: she disappears. With time running out and her comeback on the line, Evie reluctantly enlists the help of the last person to see Gigi before she vanished: Milo Williams, a cute musician Evie isn’t sure she can trust. As Evie and Milo conduct a wild manhunt across New York City, romance and adventure abound while Evie makes some surprising discoveries about her grandma—and herself.
     This book was a quick and fun read! The whole mystery behind Gigi’s disappearance makes for an engaging storyline, but there wasn’t really anything that made me absolutely fall in love with it. I really liked the end, but Evie was a hard character to love in the beginning of the book for me, which might’ve been the reason for my hesitancy about this book.
     The message of accepting yourself and ignoring what others think of you translates well to readers, despite the protagonist being a celebrity and dealing with issues many average people wouldn’t have to. The romance between Evie and Milo is sweet and adds a little bit more to this YA book about figuring your life out, but I was hoping for a bit more swoon-worthy scenes. Instead, it was a lot of Milo being super sweet and kind and Evie forcing herself not to accept his help and then accepting it anyway. However, I still liked their little romance and how it paralleled Gigi’s first romance movie.
​     While I enjoyed this book and think it’s a great YA story, it just felt like it was missing that one thing to fully take it over the edge. That being said, I would still recommend this book to others and would definitely check out more of Forest’s books in the future.

*Special thank you to Fierce Reads for the giveaway win!

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