The Homecoming War is a delightful YA from Addie Woolridge

Some authors can write in multiple genres and that’s exactly what Addie Woolrdige has done with The Homecoming War.

You might recognize her from such titles as The Checklist or Anatomy of a Meet Cute which are both adult romances published by Montlake. Now, she’s taking her talents to the young-adult age range.

After seeing the adorable cover for The Homecoming War, I knew I had to pick this up and the premise sounded even better. Even though I’d never read anything from Addie Woolrdige, I knew this was the best place to start.

Before getting into my thoughts, I wanted to thank Underlined for sending me a digital ARC and getting me so excited for a YA book.

The Homecoming War is an adorable YA genre mix from Addie Woolridge.

When it comes to young-adult books, I don’t pick up many these days yet The Homecoming War sounded like a lot of fun. The story follows Meg who is a junior and class president at Hirono but we find out quickly that Hirono and another school: Davies have combined to become Huntersville High School.

Of course, that results in there being two presidents, and Meg is paired up with Chris Chaves who is utterly dreamy. While the two start off not trusting each other, they quickly form a friendship and even, decide to clue each other in on a prank war between the two schools. From there, we watch as the two start to grow closer.

While The Homecoming War does have an adorable romance between Meg and Chris, this book is a lot heavier than the cover makes it out to be. Meg is dealing with the grief of losing her father especially how her mother is dealing with the loss. Meanwhile, Chris is trying to figure out what he wants to do while not disappointing his family. The book is very much Meg’s story but we do learn a lot about Chris and his struggles.

I think The Homecoming War does a great job of encompassing a lot of different tropes including rivals-to-lovers, a coming-of-age story, and a high school dance. On their own, they’re all classic tropes in YA books yet they work together great within The Homecoming War.

As I mentioned, I don’t read in this age range much anymore but I do think this is a fun one if you read young-adult. The only complaint I had was that the pacing felt off. Maybe it was the way the third-act conflict played out but it felt a little too long. Then again, this is my first time reading Addie Woolridge so maybe I’m the problem. (It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem!)

The Homecoming War by Addie Wooldridge is out now where books are sold.

Will you be picking up a copy of The Homecoming War this fall? Let us know in the comments!