The View from Here
By Kasie West
I haven’t read young adult fiction in a while, and The View from Here was a perfect way to get back into the genre. It reminded me of reading The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants when Lena goes to Greece or Love and Gelato and adventures in Italy. If you like either of those books/series, you will definitely enjoy The View from Here, which will be released on Jan 5, 2027.
When Tate Hall goes on a 55-plus Mediterranean Cruise with her grandmother and her best friends, the Coven, Tate doesn’t expect to meet anyone her age. She just needs a break from her life, the internship application that’s giving her anxiety, and her mom’s inflexible plans for her, which include becoming a doctor at all costs.
Tate hopes to see the world and figure out what to do next and how to talk to her mom about her doubts about becoming a doctor. What she doesn’t expect is to make new friends while also seeing Athens, Mykonos, Sicily, Corsica, and Barcelona, among other beautiful places. Going to all of these places alongside Tate’s character was really fun as a reader, because I added places to my bucket list and learned about some fun activities for each one, like hiking Mt. Etna in Sicily or visiting the windmills in Mykonos and attempting the many stairs in the Cinque Terre, in coastal Italy.
On her first day on the boat, Tate recognizes a familiar face: Luca Park, who she used to follow on a family travelogue social media channel. She meets Luca and his sister Evie, and right away, Evie suggests that Tate helps Luca out with filming. He is launching a new channel without his parents’ permission. They shut down the family channel years ago, but Luca will be 18 in a few months and wants to start his new career. While he is a good writer and ideas guy, his filming skills aren’t creative.
Tate finds out she has new creative talents when she films a few videos for Luca, so they make a deal. She helps him film, while he helps her finish her internship application, which is giving her writer’s block.
Yet as they share their hopes and fears, chemistry simmers and they go from friends who are helping each other out to something more. The Internet sees their chemistry while they are smashing grapes and making wine in Italy, and soon, everyone wants to know who the “mystery girl” in Luca’s videos are.
As Tate’s talents for filming improve, she learns how to see the world from a unique perspective and think beyond becoming a doctor. She wants to take the time to figure out her future for herself, not just follow her mom’s plans for her. This storyline and character arc will be relatable for a lot of teens.
Yet as she learns more about herself, some of their videos go viral. Pretty soon, Tate is getting critiqued and Luca’s parents might find out the truth about his new social media account. Overall, this was a sweet love story with moments for travel, friendship, and thinking about how to become who you want to be.
Thank you to Random House Children's Books and Delacorte Romance and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
