Love, Life and the List is a YA contemporary that delivers exactly what it says it will.
The story is pretty straightforward. Abby wants to paint. She thinks she has talent, and wants to get a place on an art workshop. She also has a huge crush on her best friend, Cooper. She told him about it and was rebuffed, so has spent the last year pretending she was joking. They pretty much do everything together and it sounds like the kind of situation that could have drifted on and on.
Naturally, they need a bit of a kick in the right direction.
This comes when Abby’s boss tells her he won’t let her show her artwork because it lacks heart. Determined to work out what she should be doing differently, Abby starts off a summer of challenges. Each of these challenges is meant to show her the way forward, and help her to find something to inject some heart into her artwork.
From the outset we assume this will only go one way. There’s a few proverbial spanners in the work, but it’s all done in a very light-hearted way so you never feel like anyone is going to have their life destroyed.
Abby needs to learn a few things about herself in order to get to the right place for things to move forward. Those around her also have to change a few things…