--I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my thoughts on this book in any way.--
Let’s just get this out of the way before the rest of the review: the amount of typos, punctuational and grammatical errors in this book is HUGE. I get that this is an ARC and such things are regular, but this book had me so frustrated with a typo on every second page. Please. This needs some really heavy editing before publication.
The concept of the book sounded beautiful, which was the main reason for me to pick this up. Marly refuses to confront her grief at her parents’ loss and continues to act sucky sucky until her family pushes her to go on a road trip across the country in her mother’s renovated vintage VW bus. I wanted to see more Marly and her family’s relations, considering how they rarely communicated and Marly’s behavior. But at that point, the plot was rushed, as if the author was impatient to get Marly on the bus and get on with the rest of the story.
This rushed pace continued until Marly met Dylan, after which it slowed to an inexplicably monotonous one. The plot after that basically depended on Marly feeling insecure or having panic attacks and Dylan helping her calm down. I did not appreciate the fact that the author was using Marly’s low moods to portray Dylan as the good guy whom Marly needed in her life to help her feel good.
I was excited to read a coming-of-age story, but honestly, Marly felt a lot younger and immature than the age she was supposed to be. This was another one of those books where authors try to write young characters and fail miserably. They either completely confuse the age or make the characters how adults portray them. This book was both.
The writing at first felt fine, though the rushed plot did little to improve my experience. When Marly began her trip, the typos almost seemed worth the writing. But sadly, I was proved wrong. As the story progressed, the writing began to grow repetitive and sounded like it was trying too hard to impress. It wasn’t long before I grew disinterested.
One of my major issues with this book was the semi-toxic relationships. Almost every side character had Marly doing something against her will because they only wanted “what’s best for her”.
Also, none of the characters had any depth to them?? I felt like knew nothing whatsoever about any side characters when I finished the book. Lori was the (clichéd) bubbly best friend, who seemed so shallow and lowkey scary because who stalks their own fricking best friend on facebook?? Same goes for Dylan, who had me annoyed throughout the book, and Stacey and Ethan and like EVERYONE.
However, on a good note, the descriptions of outdoors were actually refreshing to my lockdown tired brain! This honestly made me a bit nostalgic because I used to go with my family on hikes sometimes too and I miss that.
--OVERALL--
I feel like this book is perfect for beginners in search of a contemporary novel!

Thank you to Netgalley, publishers and the author for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This review is very different to any others I’ve had to do through Netgalley, but unfortunately I dnf’d this book.

The concept of this book sounds good and what I did read, the mental health and grief seems to be represented well but, I couldn’t fully get into the story due to the abundance of typos and sentences that didn’t make sense and seem to cut off half way.

This can be easily fixed and I hope this doesn’t effect the story for future readers of this book, because otherwise I think this book could have been good but I just couldn’t carry on due to the grammar.

This book was an excellent read! I loved every minute of it. I connected with the characters and imagined myself in the book, hanging out with them and being a new version of myself. I think I was my best self when I read this book. I am so excited to have a physical copy of this book in my home library and I have recommended it to so many of my friends already.

Okay, this was so sweet, yet also entirely heart-breaking.
19 year old Marly is still grappling with her grief and what life looks like for her nine months after losing both of her parents in a car accident. She’s forced to face her emotions when given the opportunity to drive her mom’s renovated 1978 VW bus from Washington to New Hampshire.

Any traveler, adventurist, or hiking enthusiast will love the healing property of nature and travel utilized throughout this book. The romance aspect in this novel is also tastefully done; it does not take away from Marly’s journey and, I thought, was a great example of how you can walk alongside someone in their grief.
The author also provides links to all hikes mentioned throughout the story at the end of the book, which was a nice touch.

I was happy to see there would be a sequel to this story, and I look forward to reading more.

I have FEELINGS about this book, and they’re not romantic. (To be fair, they’re not all bad either.)

I have read many books about mountains and climbers, but none of them have been YA fiction. I was eager to see what this niche would deliver. (Are we still using the label “New Adult”? Because I do feel that this book could be better categorised as NA.)

The author, Mandi Lynn, must surely be a mountain climber. Only someone who has climbed could convey the crispness of the mountains at dawn, and the sense of singularity when faced with the enormity of a mountain to be scaled.

"Meet Me At The Summit" makes me yearn to climb - and that hurts a little, given that the current state of the world largely prevents it. But this is the primary reason I continued reading: for those moments of being transported to the mountains.

As for the rest, I feel mostly ambivalent. While Marly’s grief is undoubtedly huge, I feel it lacks an element of real-ness. And I know that the author IS able to convey realness, because one of the things I also loved from the beginning is that she portrays the awkwardness of being a not-child, not-adult, so well. That clumsy stage of sharing an apartment with a roomie, and feeling like a complete failure compared to one another - yeah. She gets it. It’s TANGIBLE.

But the grief? It just lacks that texture.

As for the romance - I don’t ship it. I guess partly because I don’t like the guy. But also - I definitely felt vibes between Marly and Dylan’s sister. Actually, Dylan is one of my pet peeves about this book, because it’s full of “knight in shining armour” tropes. Marly gushes about how he has come to make her feel alive again, or is there to keep her safe, and it just does not sit well with me. Yeah, I’m THAT girl. He "empowers" her, but actually he's just pushing her to live out the narrative that he thinks is right for her. Her best friend, Lori, has a nasty habit of doing that too, and it should serve as a warning to anyone who is trying to "help" someone deal with grief. I actually feel that this story could have gone without the romance altogether. There are enough inner conflicts to make a good story, and not every YA (NA?) novel needs romance.

I do so wish Marly's character had a little more agency. I understand that her grief left her largely unmoored and that she needed some pushing, but I actually don’t feel like anybody tried to push her to take charge of her own life. Although she very briefly takes charge near the end of the book, I’m still not convinced that much growth has taken place.

Stylistically, I don’t want to spend a whole page nitpicking, but this in an eARC and I feel that it needs another SOLID round of editing. Besides typos and malapropisms, the most glaring issue is tenses - switching from past to present future within the same event, making sentences unnecessarily clumsy. Please - pick a tense, and then stick to it.

My ultimate verdict: read this if you like climbing, and you like YA-fiction. Slurp that delight from the very bone marrow of the story.

Read this if you yearn to travel, and have a thing for old VW buses.

Read this if you’re a college student with imposter syndrome.

Just don’t expect a treatise on love and grief. And that’s okay.

I NEED THE SEQUEL TO THIS BOOK>>>ASAP!

I absolutely adored Marly's journey in the book, Meet Me at the Summit.

Marly has just lost her parents, and she is lost. She doesn't know where home is or what to even do next. She is lost in the grief that now consumes her entire world. Through the encouragement of her uncle and best friend, Marly takes her mom's old van through a road trip across the country. Throughout her journey, she is taking time to climb the mountains that she and her father were dreaming of doing together one day.

As she completes her trip, Marly must face her grief. However, she meets a handsome young man that may be able to help push her to find herself and her own life once again!

The idea for Meet Me at the Summit was glorious, and it started off strong. I was with Marly from the beginning, on her trip to Washington, and as she made the exciting decision to road trip across the country. I could picture the bus and was excited to explore with her. Unfortunately, the story began to fall short after that. The romance was underdeveloped and/or unnecessary. The typos/errors were abundant and made it impossible to truly escape into the story as I had to continually figure out what was supposed to have been written. There were many tedious details (like that the van was put into drive) that did not matter and slowed things down making it painstaking to finish.

A quick story about a young adult dealing with grief by taking a long road trip? Count me in. I was immediately all in for this book. I knew I would devour it in one sitting. I just KNEW it.
I was worried reading some of the reviews that it was going to fall flat, or be so full of typos that I wouldn't be able to get through. But that wasn't the case. The story moved along at a good pace, and I hardly even noticed the (expected!) errors. I do agree think that some of the depth was missing from Marly and Dylan's relationship, but I guess we will be able to get more into that in book 2!
I felt this really touched on her being able to process her grief, get back into her talent, and really have a good support system to do all of it.. Was the way every single person went about it perfect? No. But did they try the best they knew how? Yep.
That's really all we can ask.

The cover and plot of Meet Me At The Summit really drew me in as I have travelled in a camper before for a few months so wanted to see if this aspect was embraced in the story.

The plot revolved around main character Marly, who had been struggling to process the loss of both her mother and father. Her family had surprised her with a converted camper and persuaded her to take a trip across the US. There are some sweet storylines throughout the hook, however I can't say that I was necessarily gripped by the book.

We meet a few new characters along Marlys adventure, one being
a romantically involved character called Dylan. We don't learn a lot about Dylan (or anyone else for that matter), meaning that the developing romance is only focused on Marlys feelings towards him.

It was quite slow placed and easy to read but I can't say I was keen to keep picking it back up unfortunately.

The story did however, take me to back to travelling in a camper and hiking daily! It's a missed hobby, so this book has definitely made me want to get back into it! The writing had a sense of escapism to it and the detail in the actual travelling aspect was covered very well!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of Meet Me at the Summit in exchange for an honest review!

The concept of travelling across the country in a VW bus, exploring different landmarks and mountains in order to come to terms with a devastating tragedy, had promise. I was interested in following along with Marly's journey as she came to terms with the loss of her parents while having the opportunity to continue on with a special tradition that she had with her father of hiking to the summit of these large mountains.

I really tried to enjoy this book, but at times I found this hard to get through. The spelling mistakes and grammar errors took away from the story for me as it isn't as polished as it should be. I do understand it's an ARC,I so I hope that these will be ironed out before publishing. When it seemed that Marly was starting to come to terms with her past and begin to move forward, her panic attacks kicked in, which seemed repetitive to me. I came to terms with the fact that if Marly was headed in the right direction, a panic attack was just around the corner and would reset her progress. This only took away from the story for me.

I did struggle with the romance between Marly and Dylan as well. While I understand that Dylan was there to give Marly a push in the right direction to continue on with her journey, I don't believe that after just meeting someone, they would travel across the country together. There wasn't enough time spent developing Dylan's character and the relationship between the two of them to make me believe that this could be realistic.

One aspect of this book that I did like was the actual hiking experience. I felt like I was there with Marly as she was going on these long hikes to see mountains, waterfalls, lakes, etc. I could visualize the trip to these destinations and the feeling of reaching the top and basking in the view from the highest peak or the beauty of seeing the sunrise. I think the author did a great job in creating a realistic adventure alongside the simple plot of this novel. I am in no way a hiker, but reading this did make me want to get out there and experience the world.

The premise of this book sounded amazing, and perfect for a summer read (if not as light as the stereotypical beach read, of course), but the execution just fell a bit short for me. As other reviewers pointed out, this is somewhat repetitive (and the beginning discussion between the MC and her roommate is incredibly repetitive and didn't do much to help plunge me into the world of the story). Overall, this didn't work for me, though I'm sure it will for others.

The Quick Cut: A teen girl who lost her parents the year prior struggles to continue with life. Her extended family convinces her to take a cross country road trip to find her passion for life again. 
A Real Review:  Thank you to Stone Ridge Books for providing the ARC for an honest review.  
  Extreme loss has a way of permanently changing the way you view your life. Sometimes it makes you realize what truly matters and in other cases it makes you freeze in place. There is no real way to tell what way you will take that until it happens to you. For nineteen year old Marly - she takes the loss of her parents badly as the rest of her life gets put on standstill. 
 A year ago, Marly's life got flipped upside down when her parents died in a car accident. It left Marly frozen, with her in turn dropping out of college and doing nothing but working a dead end job. All of her passion for photography? She leaves it behind as each day is the same as the next. That is, until Marly goes to see her mom's side of the family and they convince her to take a renovated VW bus on a cross country tour. Take the time to do some hiking and find a new path back to truly living life. Will this unexpected road trip help her find her way back to the way she was? Or will it lead her down a new and different path? 
 The overall concept of this book is a great one, but when it came to the actual details - nothing seemed to align right. To have some words misspelled is normal for any book, but there were a lot of places where the wrong word was utilized. It meant that as a reader I got pulled out of the story and ended up trying to figure out what the writer meant. In addition to that, the anxiety that Marly struggles with doesn't really read like a true anxiety issue. Based on the material given, her anxiety feels like PTSD and considering that, I'm kind of surprised that her super supportive family hasn't pointed out how much Marly needs to see a therapist for it yet. She struggles with anxiety, but she also demonstrates isolation behavior, loses interest in her hobbies, has nightmares, and feels a deep loneliness that she eventually confesses to. These are all signs of PTSD that require therapy to work through. 
  That being said, Marly's connection to Dylan is super inappropriate. He's setup to be a love interest and her closest friend tries to goad her into pursuing it. However, she just met this guy and she clearly has some major issues to work through. Where this story started as a moving forward tale, it ends up turning into a love story focus. It sets an unhealthy precedent that romantic relationships can fix personal problems and that's the last message anyone needs to hear. 
 A story with a great setup and terrible details. 
My rating: 2 out of 5

Thank you NetGalley, Mandi Lynn, and Stone Ridge books for sending me a free ARC copy of Meet Me At The Summit in exchange for an honest review. Overall, I enjoyed this book and following Marley’s journey as she dealt with the grief from losing her parents unexpectedly. Unfortunately, I have experienced a similar tragic loss as Marley; therefore, I can empathize with the character’s emotional journey. The portrayal of grief and how it can feel all encompassing as you learn to have it be part of your daily life was accurate and emotional. I also thought the author’s descriptive details regarding the hiking trails and summits that Marley explored to be top notch and made you feel as though you were hiking along side her.

Despite the author painting vivid pictures of both emotion and nature, the writing was a bit repetitive, and there were typos scattered throughout.

As someone who has recently started hiking, this book made me want to get out there on the trails, so thank you for igniting that fire for more adventure, Mandi!

"How can I imagine a future without them when they were in every memory of my past."

Meet Me At The Summit is the story of Marly, a 19 year old girl who's struggling to come to terms with her parents deaths. She's working a job she hates, stuck in a routine she can't seem to break. So when her mom's side of the family practically forces her into a VW bus and tells her to travel, she doesn't know how to respond. A previous Marly, one before her parent's death, would've jumped on the opportunity, but now... things were different. She doesn't feel like the same person so how could she possibly do this trip? Eventually, Marly does end up accepting her family's bus if only in an attempt to break her boring everyday routine.

This is a story of loss, grief, and dealing with the Feelings that come when you lose loved ones and it portrayed those emotions in a way that made sense. Marly's anxiety attacks, the way she could never sleep without the constant buzz of the television so no thoughts could overtake her, how she stopped taking pictures, and dropped out of college were all little things that gave glimpses of how she felt.

But sometimes, it fell flat. I liked the premise and the plot but it got repetitive. I know there's only so many things that can happen living out of a VW bus and going on trails, but still. It became a cycle where we could only read about how pretty a trail was, how Marly had a panic attack, and oh look she's eating yet another hot dog, yay Marly! The only thing that seemed to break this cycle was Dylan, and somehow he failed.

Dylan had so much potential!!! He could've been like a 30 year old guy who stopped hiking for whatever reason and seeing Marly overcome her grief could've motivated him and it would've been awesome. But, he just ended up joining this whole entire Marly cycle. At times, it honestly felt like Marly was using Dylan as a replacement for her dad and not as a romantic partner.

Which brings me to My Issue™. Dylan should never have been a lover. You're telling me that a teenage girl who desperately needs therapy and has been bottling up her emotions for a 9 whole months, is EMOTIONALLY STABLE ENOUGH TO BE IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH A GUY SHE *JUST* MET??? No thank you. Dylan is friend material and that's it.

And finally, let's talk about Lori because why not! I really liked her character but sometimes I forgot she existed. There were times when Marly would call Lori and I'd just be like huh?? why her?? Her defining characteristic was the bubbly sunshiney best friend who needed more hobbies than stalking Marly's friends on Facebook and I wish she'd been developed more.

As for final thoughts, I think the writing style was pretty decent and there were some really great moments on Marly's journey that I enjoyed. I would especially recommend this book to anyone who's interested in hiking because there was a lot of that in here! I heard this is going to be a series and I'd definitely be interested in checking book 2 out :)

Meet Me at the Summit was my first read by Mandi Lynn, and I don’t think it will be my last.

We’re introduced to Marly, who’s struggling nine months after she lost both of her parents in a car accident. Barely out of high school, she’s dropped out of college and isn’t sure what’s next for her life. When she takes a trip to visit her mother’s family in Washington, her family and friends convince her to drive her mother’s renovated VW bus cross country to return home to New Hampshire. Despite her doubts about the trip, she agrees and searches to find pieces of her former life that she loved: hiking among the mountains and taking beautiful photographs. On the journey home, she meets people and explores places that will stick with her long after she drives away.

I loved the concept of this story, and it’s what drew me to pick this book as a read. The author does an amazing job depicting Marly’s grief and her struggles to find her next step forward when nothing will ever be the same. Even as this is a deep and emotional exploration of grief, there are plenty of moments throughout the book where bits of joy and happiness creep through. I enjoyed Marly as a character, and I loved the relationships that she had with some of the other characters in the book, especially her best friend Lori and Dylan.

The story and characters were a highlight of this one for me, and the reason I knocked it down one star comes to the writing. There were moments that the pacing felt off and there could have been some additional editing, but it wasn’t enough to completely pull me out of the story.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

2.5

This was an ARC from Netgalley and was therefore an uncorrected proof.
I feel with a serious edit there was real potential in this story. I liked the exploration of grief and the difficulties surrounding moving on after trauma.

However - the extended, sometimes repetitive descriptions of hiking/checking hiking gear were unnecessary. I also thought the characters could have been developed much further - particularly the love interest whose own traumatic experience was glossed over.

I didn't like that Marly was basically kidnapped - as she was taken to another state without her knowledge when she had clearly stated she wanted to go home.

I hope all the spelling errors are caught as they were distracting.
This book definitely had its moments and I enjoyed it but it could be so much more.

I loved the premise of this book. I’m a sucker for a story where someone turns to nature or traveling to “find themselves” or “rediscover themselves.”

I feel the book has potential but it needs another turn at the editors if it hasn’t been yet. Several grammatical errors and specifically the word “womb” was used when it should have been “wound”.

Overall, I really did enjoy the book and look forward to book 2.

This book is a beautiful story of grief and moving forwards. After Marley loses both her parents in an accident, she drops out of college and enters a cycle of grief. But then she’s pulled into a gathering of her family, and she realises she doesn’t have to be alone in her struggles.

Marley’s journey was gripping. The imagery was beautiful and well thought out. I could clearly see the activities she went on, and it really made me want to go outside and just enjoy nature. I was captivated by the portrayal of her mental state and attitudes which clearly shifted as the book progressed. I think Mandi Lynn really captured the idea that grief doesn’t shirk, we just learn to grow with it.

My favourite part of this book was the unconditional love between Marley and Lori. Though all the the relationships throughout the book felt realistic and followed a good pace.

The overall story did feel a little slow and some paragraphs were quite difficult to get through. This is mostly an editing issue given the writing itself was nice.

Just 9 months after the death of her parents, Meet Me at the Summit by Mandi Lynn follows the reluctant journey of 19-year-old Marly from Washington to New Hampshire in her mother’s renovated vintage VW bus. Marley is forced to come to terms with the grief she has been suppressing in a tale that highlights that what we think we want, what we think we are capable of and what we need are not always the same things. As the story progresses, we are opened up to the lead character much in the same way she is opened up to herself and those around her. The novel reads like a love letter to the outdoors and the creativity it inspires not only for Marly but us reading her story. It is a wonderful multi-layered story about grief and adventure that I would highly recommend to teen and young adult readers as well as anyone who enjoys the outdoors and might need a reminder of how healing it can be.

While I do follow Mandi (the author) on Instagram, I've never interacted with her outside of liking some of her posts. Part of the reason I read this ARC was because of Mandi's Instagram.

This is my third attempt to write a review for this book. I’m trying to be short and to the point. So, hopefully third time’s the charm. This isn’t going to be a kind review and I’m going to touch on abusive relationships. So if this might be a concerning topic, I wouldn’t recommend reading further, or picking up this book.

Unfortunately I didn’t like this book. Other reviewers have addressed the typos and other errors. I wanted to discuss something that I haven’t seen anyone else mention yet.

There’s a weird toxic undertone to this story. And it’s all because everyone in Marly’s life does everything they can to take away her autonomy.

Lori keeps pressuring Marly to go back to her old ways. Her uncle pressures her to take the bus. Her Gran even pressures her to go on the road trip. Once Marly meets Dylan he’s no better.

Dylan not only pressures Marly to talk about her parents in unhealthy ways he also goes behind her back multiple times to do what he thinks is best for her. At one point Lori and Dylan conspire to break Marly’s trust. And what does Marly do? Not a whole lot. They give half-hearted apologies and all is forgiven. No one grows. No one learns. Nothing changes. Marly continues to be abused by her friend and ‘boyfriend.’

Marly is never given healthy ways to cope. Everyone is too busy shoving their opinions on her and trying to get her back to normal. No one understands that Marly can’t go ‘back’. Her parents are dead. Going back would imply her parents would magically be alive again. No one wants to accept that Marly is stuck and going back isn’t an option for her.

When Marly does start to open up and move forward nothing comes of it. Everything stays stiff and surface level. Marly shares the same things over and over. The opportunity to get deeper into her grief never really comes up. And instead Dylan chooses to dig up her grief after the moment has passed. But this of course never seems to set Marly off again. The girl has two full on panic attack breakdowns and they’re just treated as a minor inconvenience, like hiccups or allergies. They’re just something that happens sometimes and clearly nothing to worry about.

I think Lori is supposed to be the encouraging friend but I found her tiresome and problematic. She went behind Marly’s back multiple times and arranged things on Marly’s behalf, rarely ever worrying about what was best for Marly. As soon as things start to go south Lori cries and shifts the sympathy from Marly to Lori. This makes Marly feel bad and FORGET that she’s the one who’s been betrayed and harmed.

Marly is constantly emotionally abused throughout the entire book. When Marly finally breaks down and opens up to Lori (showing deeper emotion and finally voicing her own opinions) the only thing Lori comments on is Marly trying to sell her photographs on a stock website. Not a word about how she misses her parents or Marly’s guilt. Not a word about her struggling and not feeling connected to anything. Lori is not a good friend. I can’t think of a single time I enjoyed spending time with Lori. Maybe the one hike they went on. That’s it.

Dylan isn’t much better. He’s always there to hug her or ‘comfort’ her, but they never talk. She opens up and he feels sad for her and that’s the end of the conversation. He even has the audacity to show up unannounced at one point. He doesn’t care about what’s best for Marly either.

Dylan and Marly’s relationship is surface level. They don’t know anything about each other. They never learn anything about each other. I can’t even tell you what Dyan looks like aside from his muscular shoulders. I don’t remember his hair color and I think he had hazel eyes? Maybe. He works as some kind of social media ad manager for some unnamed company. I’m not sure Marley can tell you much more about Dylan that I just did.

Both Dylan and Lori are trying to make Marly be someone she can’t be right now. They keep pushing her beyond what she’s comfortable with and NEVER check in with her until she’s already having a breakdown. Until it’s too late.

Marly doesn’t need two terrible friends pretending to help her cope. She needs a therapist. A real, licensed, therapist to help her process all her emotions. She doesn’t need to hike up a mountain and blow some stupid bubbles. This isn’t how trauma is resolved.

I can’t in good faith recommend this book. It sends the wrong message. It subtly teaches girls that consent doesn’t matter and that what you want isn’t important. It teaches girls that everyone else knows better than them. And this point is reinforced because every time Dylan goes against Marly’s wishes it magically works out for her and she’s grateful for the experience. Every. Single. Time. The book teaches girls that abusive relationships (romantic and friendships) are healthy. I don’t think this was the intent of the book. But unfortunately that’s what happens.

One star. And I wish I could give less.