I Wanna Be Where You Are: YA music/dance/art rom-com

 

I Wanna Be Where You Are is a young adult chapter book by Kristina Forest.  It is a coming-of-age novel that mostly takes place over the course of a week when Chloe schemes with her best friend to sneak out of town to audition for a dance company when her mother forbade her to do that.  When her next-door-neighbor, the annoyingly cute Eli, blackmails her to tag along for the road trip, Chloe is forced to go along with it.  This is when the adventure begins for both of them.  From accidents to romantic tension and snippets about a mysterious history between them, there is a lot to contemplate while enjoying this story.

Chloe's father passed away from a car accident when she was little and she, too, got hit by a car just last year.  Her mother has increased her over-protectiveness of Chloe to the point where Chloe doesn't think she will ever get to leave the house after graduation.  Eli is dealing with his parents' divorce and sister going away to college.  He fell into some self-destructive habits and there is no coming back from deciding to major in art rather than pre-law for college.  Through the story, Chloe and Eli confide with each other on some topics, but not others.  Readers can consider what they would do if they were in Chloe and Eli's shoes.  How would they handle the pressure they are put under by their families.  How are they more alike than they know?

The story goes by quickly and by the end of it the reader has gotten to know these two characters so well that they just want them to be happy.  Are they happier together or having gone through the week supporting each other enough to get them to be honest with their families?  

I enjoyed the banter between the characters, their language, references and musical choices were all authentic.  Readers will also feel comfort in being in Chloe and Eli's world.  Will they commit to their own developing identities or give in to what their parents want for them?  This is an important idea to which teens can relate.

Forest, the author, gave a great interview on the Fierce Reads blog where she gave some background on how she came up with the idea for this book.  Readers will be able to learn more about its origins and read an excerpt from the novel.