Book Title: Two Like Me and You
Author: Chad Alan Gibbs
Purchase: Amazon
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Description from Goodreads:

Edwin Green's ex-girlfriend is famous. We're talking cover-of-every-tabloid-in-the-grocery-store-line famous. She dumped Edwin one year ago on what he refers to as Black Saturday, and in hopes of winning her back, he's spent the last twelve months trying to become famous himself. It hasn't gone well.

But when a history class assignment pairs Edwin with Parker Haddaway, the mysterious new girl at school, she introduces him to Garland Lenox, a nursing-home-bound World War II veteran who will change Edwin's life forever. 

The three escape to France, in search of the old man's long-lost love, and as word of their adventure spreads, they become media darlings. But when things fall apart, they also become the focus of French authorities. In a race against time, who will find love, and who will only find more heartache?

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars 

Two Like Me and You tells the story of how Edwin Green gets roped into a crazy Paris-bound adventure by new girl Parker Haddaway. The pair meets Garland Leno, a World War II veteran, and together the three venture to France in search of Garland’s long-lost love. Did I enjoy this book? Yes. Did it seem to go a bit off the rails at times? Definitely.

This book definitely has all the things: car chases, escaping from police custody, troubled childhoods, a famous ex-girlfriend, an irate old man who happens to be a pathological liar. It’s an entertaining tale, but sometimes I was left thinking, this is insane. I think we probably could have dialed down some of the craziness.

I wish we had dived a little deeper into Parker’s character. I feel like we get only a superficial view of her. Her character is very manic-pixie-dream-girl-esque, which I isn’t my favorite trope. She has never spoken to Edwin and yet after being assigned a project with him, recruits him to help with the plan to go to France because he can drive and speak French (or so she thinks). Throughout the book, we get to see just how quirky she is. She likes singing random rap lyrics, skips school to hang out at the retirement community, and *spoiler alert* thinks she killed her parents. A lot of the time, her character felt like a plot device designed to help Edwin get over his obsession with his famous ex-girlfriend and realize that there’s more more to life.

Edwin’s ex-girlfriend Sadie is the worst. For the life of me, I could not understand why he was so hung up on her, especially after the way she broke up with him. If someone did that to me, I would want to punch them in the face. I wouldn’t — but I’d want to. I did enjoy seeing Edwin’s view of Sadie change by the end of the story, and could appreciate that he seemed to grow as a person.

And Garland was the absolute best! I loved his insane stories (some true, some bald-faced lies) and how at the end he always goes, “You can’t make this stuff up.” Garland has such a big personality and I love that he’s willing to put everything on the line to find his long-lost love. I also enjoyed how he was willing to give everyone, including police officers, sass. His character really added a fun element to the book. He also made me realize how few characters from an older generation exist in the YA genre. We need more!

This book was a breath of fresh air. The concept was unlike anything I’ve read and I greatly enjoyed the action-packed adventure.