The Distance From A to Z by Natalie Blitt

The Distance from A to Z by Natalie Blitt
Series: No
Publisher: Epic Reads Impulse
Publication Date: January 12th 2016
Source: Received from publisher (Edelweiss)

Seventeen-year old Abby has only one goal for her summer: to make sure she is fluent in French—well, that, and to get as far away from baseball and her Cubs-obsessed family as possible. A summer of culture and language, with no sports in sight.

That turns out to be impossible, though, because her French partner is the exact kind of boy she was hoping to avoid. Eight weeks. 120 hours of class. 80 hours of conversation practice with someone who seems to exclusively wear baseball caps and jerseys.

But Zeke in French is a different person than Zeke in English. And Abby can’t help but fall for him, hard. As Abby begins to suspect that Zeke is hiding something, she has to decide if bridging the gap between the distance between who she is and who he is, is worth the risk.

My first read of 2016 and it was a super cute and adorable read. The Distance from A to Z follows seventeen year old Abby who has to decided to spend her summer at school learning to be fluent in French so she doesn't have to be around her baseball obsessed family. And then Zeke meets Abby who is everything she's been trying to avoid. It turns out Zeke is also at school to take French and he and Abby end up partners. Abby and Zeke hit it off, but Abby soon notices that French Zeke is completely different to English Zeke. Abby finds herself falling for Zeke, but she's convinced he's keeping something from her and she has to decide whether his secret is worth the risk, or does she throw everything away?

Like I said, The Distance from A to Z is a super adorable read. It's light and fluffy and exactly what I needed to kick off my year. The characters aren't anything special, but I did really like them. Abby is really funny and she's constantly translating everything into French. Zeke is charming and funny, but he's also hiding something that causes him to close himself off from Abby. Abby's room-mate Alice was a brilliant character. She's anxious and has panic attacks when she's around large groups of people, and while she wasn't the main character, I think Blitt did a pretty good job with Alice. 

The storyline was light and fluffy and also slightly predictable. Abby and Zeke are thrown together for 8 weeks and the can't deny the chemistry between them for long. They were super adorable together and I loved their conversations in French. The one thing I didn't enjoy was the premature mention of 'the L word'. They'd know each other for 8 weeks and 'the L word' comes into play? Really? No thanks. The other thing with their relationship was Zeke's secret which was very predictable. I saw it coming a mile off and I actually can't believe Abby didn't put two and two together.

However, The Distance from A to Z was still a really enjoyable and light book that I managed to read in a few hours and it did leave me with a smile on my face. It's definitely something I'd recommend if you're in the mood for an adorable and cutesy contemporary.