Publisher: Swoon Reads

I received this book for free from Swoon Reads in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A bad storm, two canceled flights, stuck in an airport with a hot stranger and the guy who broke her heart... what could go wrong?

After Sari caught her boyfriend Zev cheating on her, their romantic Florida vacation was ruined. She can't get back to NYC soon enough. Unfortunately, mother nature may have different plans. A huge storm is brewing in the Northeast, and flights all over the country are getting canceled—including Sari's. She winds up stuck at the airport for hours. With Zev!

When another stranded passenger (a hot NYU guy) suggests a connecting flight to Boston, Sari jumps at the chance. But when her mom freaks out about her traveling alone, she has no choice—she has to include Zev, and somehow survive being trapped with the guy who broke her heart!

I love a good travel story. I specifically love a good travel story involving airports and things going horribly wrong. Partially because I travel relatively often and because I have a couple of bad travel stories in my own pocket. I don’t think this is really a trend in YA though and it NEEDS TO BE. Jessica Brody’s The Chaos of Standing Still was basically everything I wanted in such a story and I was hoping Airports, Exes and Other Things I am Over would deliver on a similar scale. It didn’t.

The book feels like it’s missing something honestly. It starts with Sari walking in on her boyfriend and his ex kissing. She runs away, doesn’t talk to him and spends an entire week and a half brooding over him while not giving him a chance to explain. I mean, again, I firmly believe that no one is owed a chance to explain in such a situation but I also felt that within the context of the plot, it was to obvious that there was more to the story. Sari also started the book extremely confident in their relationship and trusted Zev completely. If she had truly trusted him in the first place, she would have at least given him the chance to explain instead of running away and avoiding him altogether on a trip they had planned to take together.

Also, like. The book’s story arc felt like it could have been better?? The book starts with her going to Florida to hang with her grandma, she spends the week there and about 25% of the book there. During this time, we meet the ‘other’ guy, her grandma and spend not much time with either of this characters to be honest. It just felt like words? Anyway, then drama strikes on the return trip. It would have been MUCH more satisfying, I think, if the travel issues had taken up the first part of the book and allowed us actual time getting to know the stranger boy from NYU and her ex. It is a truth universally acknowledged YOU BOND WITH PEOPLE OVER BAD TRAVEL EXPERIENCES.

A minor thing I also wanted to point out was that there was an instance where a character was described as ‘Asian’ and clearly the author meant “Chinese.” Honestly, I am over people using Asian to describe characters when they clearly are thinking East-Asian. Let me remind everyone again that the Asian identity is not a monolith and accompasses an INCREDIBLY large group of people. SO. Just do the bare fucking minimum and assign the character you want to describe as Asian an actual ethnic identity because Asian ain’t one.

Having said all this, I don’t think Airports, Exes and Other Things I Am Over is inherently a bad book and I didn’t regret having read it. It was entertaining and enjoyable even if Sari made it INCREDIBLY frustrating. Sari’s relationship with her best friend was probably the best thing about this book though and I really enjoyed how consistently Trina was part of this trip even though she wasn’t actually on it.

Overall though, the book was lackluster and had nothing special going for it. I’d recommend reading it as a poolside read to flip through real quick but not if you’re looking for a substantial summer read.

2 Hot Espressos