Going the distance by Beth Reekles

The Kissing Booth 2. Penguin, 2020. ISBN: 9780241413227. 368pp.
(Age: 15+) Noah has left for college while his girlfriend Elle and brother Lee navigate senior year in his shadow. Lee made the football team, but he's not quite the player Noah was, meaning Elle doesn't get much sympathy from Lee as she yearns for Noah. Lee is consolidating his romance with Rachel more and more, which means Elle becomes more and more friendly with the new boy to the group. Levi is cute if not a tad maudlin having been dumped by his girlfriend, since moving interstate.
Tension builds as Noah is pictured on social media, enjoying frat parties and meeting pretty college girls. High School rumours precipitate a showdown between Noah and Elle. Will their relationship survive or are new love interests the natural outcome of trying to sustain a long distance relationship?
Acclaimed adolescent author, Beth Reekles is on a winning YA formula with the success of her Kissing Booth series. Both manuscripts so far have been adapted for Netflix. The cliched romantic plot shies away from any number of modern, familial or social themes. Interesting that this volume in depicting the obligatory obsession of adolescents with romance is, according to the author, somewhat improved in the television manuscript. The comparison just may be a boost to both readership and views but certainly won't condemn the reality of peer pressure in the manner of the best of jarring and jolting YA literature.
Deborah Robins