The Distance from A to Z by Natalie Blitt (Epub)

Description

This full-length novel by debut author Natalie Blitt is a pitch-perfect blend of Stephanie Perkins and Miranda Kenneally that proves the age-old adage: opposites attract.

Seventeen-year-old Abby has only one goal for her summer: to make sure she is fluent in French—well, that, and to get as far away from baseball and her Cubs-obsessed family as possible. A summer of culture and language, with no sports in sight.

That turns out to be impossible, though, because her French partner is the exact kind of boy she was hoping to avoid. Eight weeks. 120 hours of class. 80 hours of conversation practice with someone who seems to wear baseball caps and jerseys every day.

But Zeke in French is a different person than Zeke in English. And Abby can’t help but fall for him, hard. As Abby begins to suspect that Zeke is hiding something, she has to decide if bridging the gap between who she is and who he is is worth the risk.

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User’s Reviews

“As delicious as a macaron, this swoon-worthy story of love and language will captivate readers and make their hearts flutter. Natalie Blitt knocks it out of the park!” — Aimee Friedman, author of Two Summers”The Distance From A to Z is the perfect confection of swoony romance, humor, and spice. It’s a smart, touching read with a ton of heart, strong characterizations, and all the feels rolled into a heart-warming debut.” — Ann Stampler, author of Afterparty and Where it Began”Ooh la la, j’adore this fun and romantic story about finding the perfect middle ground between where you come from and where you’re headed.” — Jen Malone, author of Map to the Stars”This book is everything you want from a YA, and it doesn’t matter how old you are — those first big loves will always get you in the end.” — Ginger Scott, Amazon bestselling author of This Is Falling and Wild Reckless

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ I thought this book looked really adorable when it first came onto my radar, and I decided to preorder it. ($1.99? Why not?!) I ended up reading it right away because I heard so many awesome things from lots of blogger friends. I finished this within the day. IT WAS SO CUTE. I absolutely loved the characters (main and side) and seeing their relationship grow throughout the summer.A couple reasons you should read this one:- The main characters speak French to each other throughout the book, and that makes it pretty darn romantic. I don’t speak French and didn’t find myself confused.- There’s a lot of baseball talk (which was fun, even for this football fan), but nothing that would make non-Sports-fans run the other direction.- The book is an incredibly quick read. Once I started, it was really hard for me to stop. (And I didn’t! Totally finished in one day.)- The best friend character has a real personality and is completely fleshed out. We know so much about her and can easily see why Abby and her get along so well as roommates.- It leaves you wanting more! Anytime a book has adorable characters that I want to see more of, I count that as a success. I want to know what happens next for these two.There was some classic miscommunication towards the end that led to conflict, but that’s to be expected in this situation. It actually was quite the curveball (sorry, had to use the baseball pun) that I didn’t see coming. I loved that it still managed to surprise me!Zeke and Abby were so cute together; I really believed their chemistry. This book was just what I needed to get back into the contemporary groove. Highly recommend!

⭐ The distance from A to Z was a realistic good read. I loved Zeke and Alice and Collin, but for the love of all things I couldn’t love Abby. I just couldn’t connect with her, in all honesty, she was kind of a judgmental (insert not so nice word here). She judges people by their appearances entirely, deciding someone who is in to sports can’t possibly be into French and that someone who wears short shorts can’t possibly have a brain. She has this higher than though attitude and I just can’t connect with her. I never could decide if she hated baseball because she outgrew it, if she was tired of her family obsessing over it, or if she just had some psychological hate over it because she felt her parents loved baseball more than her. And I think there is even a harder time understanding why she doesn’t love it because it’s clear through out the book she doesn’t have a grasp on why she doesn’t love it either. Further, I can’t even come to fathom the idea that she wants to chose to stop loving someone simply because they love baseball. She said English Zeke and French Zeke were different, but I don’t think Zeke was the one who was different, it was Abby. Abby was happy in her French world and full of hate in her English one. I don’t like sports, I’ve never liked sports, but when my son decided he wanted to play baseball, guess who was on the side lines cheering him on? Because if you love someone, you love all of them, not bits and pieces!

⭐ Wow you guys, this is book is something that all you YA contemporary romance fans need to purchase right away! Not only is it amazing, but it’s also a very affordable buy, it’s a full length novel but only $1.99. It doesn’t get much better than that! Based on the description, I expected that this would be something that I would get lost in and really relate to. In the end, it turned out to be a lot more than simply that. I loved this book and I hope that you give it a try.I loved how Abby got lost in learning French languages. I think that all of us have something that we’re passionate about like that so I thought this was extremely well done. French is a beautiful language and you will definitely get the urge to learn more about the language and culture if you read this! The main thing that Zeke and Abby had in common was a love and passion for the French language. When they speak in French, Abby sees a completely different side to the so called stereotypical jock. I felt like the relationship between the two of them was realistic to say the least. Abby is often doubting Zeke’s feelings for her and he isn’t always honest or straightforward with her, which often happens in high school relationships.So in conclusion, read this book if you’re looking for a light and fluffy read that will actually make you feel ALL of the feels. This book will leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy on the inside when you finish reading it, I promise! More than just being a romance, this is also a story about a girl discovering who she is apart from her family and where she wants to end up in the future. It’s also about friendship, family, and obviously love.Go buy this now!

⭐ I have been excited for The Distance From A to Z since I saw it on a 2016 Debut Author list and looked it up. Not only is it recommended for fans of Stephanie Perkins (love!) but the synopsis sounded like something I would love to read. I started reading The Distance From A to Z before going to bed (pretty much as soon as it was sent to my Kindle from pre-ordering it). I thought to myself, “I’ll just read a couple chapters and pick it back up tomorrow”. A couple hours later it was 3 am and I was like 85% done with the book. I had to force myself to put it down and sleep. (I really did consider staying up the extra 20 to 30 minutes to finish, but I was so sleepy. The first thing I did the next morning was reading the rest of the book.I loved this book. It was cute and very entertaining. I was instantly pulled into the book and didn’t want to stop reading. And when I finished reading it, I wanted more. The Distance From A to Z is a wonderful debut, it has the perfect amount of cuteness, drama, and swoon. The story and characters made me smile and laugh. The story line is interesting and has a good pace. I also really like the added French mixed into the story, it is a good balance. Plus, there is a baseball element to the story. I grew up watching and going to baseball games. So I enjoyed all the little baseball parts and was able to connect with that aspect of the story.The characters are awesome! I think all of the main characters are well-developed. I really loved all the characters and their interactions in the book.Abby is a driven and determined character. She knows what she wants and will work hard to achieve her goal. I love her passion for all things French. She also has her flaws, like being judgmental. Which makes her a realistic and well-developed character.I loved her friendship with Alice and how it evolved throughout the story. Alice and Abby hit it off right away and have a lot of things in common. It was a lot of fun seeing their friendship blossom. They have ups and downs and wonderful friendship moments. Definitely one of my favorite things about this story is their friendship.I also loved Zeke. He is a bit of a mysterious character. I like that they are opposites and were able to connect through their French class. It is pretty clear that there is something else going on in his life and I was left wondering what it was. I love that the romance aspect wasn’t rushed and grew over time. I think Zeke is sweet and definitely a swoon-worthy character.My Recommendation:READ IT! I loved the story and the characters. It is a great contemporary romance. It has the right amount of cuteness, drama, and swoon. I couldn’t get enough. I definitely recommend reading The Distance From A to Z if you like cute young adult romances and/or a fan of Stephanie Perkins. I am so glad I read this book and I can’t wait to read what Natalie Blitt writes next!This review has also been posted on my Blog: My Bookish Itinerary

⭐ I’ve finally found a book to get me out of a reading slump, and this is it! If you’re a big fan of Stephanie Perkins’ Anna and the French Kiss series, or Jenn Bennett’s The Anatomical Shape of a Heart or just basically a big sucker for adorable fluffy romance, then this Natalie Blitt debut novel is what you should pick up next on your ‘to be read’ list.This book blew me away. Well, no, that’s a little extreme, but as someone who’s very picky when it comes to Young Adult Contemporary novels (and debut novels), The Distance From A to Z surely knocked me off the wagon and exceeded my expectations.Blitt’s writing is incredible. It’s fun and refreshing; filled with witty dialogue and coupled with a romantic twist au francias—definitely out of the ordinary. Her characters are also wonderfully created and undeniably realistic with a tinge of awkward and quirky.We follow Abby and Zeke at a French summer program at a college where they’re practically fetuses as high school seniors surrounded by quasi grown ups in the form of frat boys and high on caffeine undergraduates; and as the only two high schoolers in the class, they’re forced to be partners. Basically a teenage romcom with non-stop french conversations, baseball trivia and x-rated French films (woops).Abby is a French enthusiast and is incredibly in love with its culture. She’s an inspiring character who learnt to speak a foreign language through her own means and dreams to one day step foot in the land of immense culture and romance. Funnily enough, she has a hilarious dislike towards anything sports, particularly baseball, which got a tad annoying a few times. Though, imagine growing up in a household which screamed the sport from every single nook and cranny, I’d obviously be sick of the thing. Leaving home for this summer program was a literally a breath of fresh air for Abby. No sports, no baseball, everything French aka Paradise. But her sanctuary of peace gets ruined once she meets her summer partner.Zeke, on the other hand, looks like your typical jock teenager. He’s smooth and suave, and a total looker. He’s that cute boy with the nice hair and the backwards hat and regularly clad in baseball team shirts; and Abby’s French class partner, much to her luck. But don’t let the jock-boy tendencies fool you because this lad here is another dedicated French enthusiast and an incredibly charming persona.Their romance is one of the best I’ve read in YA books. It’s an entertaining slow burn, from a friendship filled with clever banter and a whole lot of flirty-flirt which bloomed to a no holds barred romance. While these two didn’t instantly click as friends at the beginning, they exuded amazing chemistry and will make you feel giddy with every turn of a page.And while the romance was one of my favorites, another thumbs up to Blitt’s ingenuity in her writing style was the way she smoothly wove a foreign language into the story, with Zeke and Abby speaking in French about 80% of the time. Don’t be confused—the story isn’t written in french, but rather coupled with quite a number of phrases patterned into their conversations with English translations, and never did I get confused at all.The Distance From A to Z is a wonderfully captivating read and will surely keep you hooked until the very end. This book will make you swoon and fill you with butterflies. If you haven’t read this book, then what are you waiting for? Get rid of that terrible reading slump with this beaut and get reading!

⭐ This was a very good read. Abby & Zeke have great chemistry & a legitimate reason to be wary of each other. They are both 18 during their summer before senior year in college & are participating in an 8 week intensive college course and living on campus — which is a great set-up for kids who are just about to make big decisions for themselves to get to play at being grown ups & confront their inexperience for a little while.This story is well-plotted. There is good character development for both Abby and Zeke as well as Abby’s roommate Alice. Reasonable ups and downs on the relationship as they attempt to be vulnerable with each other. And practicing a French is handled well with translations after French dialogue & thoughts that don’t feel awkward.I think this has a good potential for another book about finding healthy love for passions whether that is baseball, French or another person. Abby has some serious issues to get over with her family — to get them to hear her in a way that they would be willing to understand what she’s saying. It seems like maybe if she can confront her family, and find a way to enjoy baseball again that maybe they can all find a way to keep their love of baseball in perspective, so it doesn’t feel like the game is being chosen over their sister/daughter. It would be interesting to follow Abby to France since it can’t possibly live up to her fairy tale ideas, but I’m sure she’ll be able to learn a lot about herself, maybe what she’d like to do with French or some kind of double major, and what it’s truly like to be so far away from baseball. … And a scene or two with Abby visiting Zeke’s grand-mère in Paris would have the potential for fun, wisdom, connection.I am pretty sure this is written as a stand alone, but I would be interested in additional books centered around: Abby, Zeke, Alice, and maybe another with Abby & Zeke after they have a chance to realize their separate dreams, and then bump back into each other!?

⭐ I have been waiting a really really long time for The Distance from A to Z to come out. I’m a huge sucker for cute contemporary romances and I was told that this was a mere book by someone that read an early copy. But as excited I was for reading it I was weary when I saw it billed as a book for Stephanie Perkins and Miranda Kenneally lovers. To me those are hard shoes to fill. Stephanie and Miranda are two of my favorite YA contemporary authors and people so I did take pause. I knew I was going to read it but I did so with lower expectations. Now I can tell you I was wrong to do that because if you love Perkins and Kenneally you really will love The Distance from A to Z. So fun and fantastic.Action:I will admit if I was going to mark this book down for anything it was the French. There was a lot but the translations were always there so I couldn’t even fault the story for that. I mean French was a huge ‘character’ in the book so it made sense it was in there. Now the baseball thing in the other hand…give me all the baseball. I’m a huge huge fan on baseball so I loved that that was the thread through the story.Background:I loved the setting being on a college campus in New Hampshire. There is something about putting high school kids in a setting with less supervision that helps to make stories like The Distance from A to Z work for me. These kids were good and didn’t get into too much trouble so it made it make more sense that they had the amount of freedom they had. Plus I loved the trip that was thrown in. That really added to the story. It all was just written really well and just worked.Characters:Zeke and Abby. Abby and Zeke. I flipping loved these two. They had that kind of friendship/relationship that I love reading about and watching in TV and movies. There was a natural chemistry and push pull. They had things in common but were so different in so many ways. Because of those differences I fell in love with them. I constantly found myself wanting more of them and when I finished I wanted to know more of their story.And then there was Alice and Abby’s brothers. They were all parts of the story but in the sidelines. We got to know a lot about them through Abby but I wanted more of all of them. Abby’s family sounded like so much fun (especially as the baseball fan I am) and Alice has a story that needs to be told. I loved her relationship with Abby. As people say soul mates don’t have to be romantic and Abby and Alice proved that.Final Thoughts:This book was just what I needed. Actually I have said more than once that I feel like it was written for me. It had everything I love in a book and it left me wanting more. After 300ish pages, which I read 97% in a sitting, I ended just wanting more words. It was fun and emotional and just really well written. I had high hopes when I heard about this one and Natalie Blitt did not let me down. Don’t miss this really great book.

⭐ Review posted on Between the Pages, Book BlogThe Story:The Distance from A to Z is an amazing debut story about a girl trying to escape her baseball obsessed family by attending a summer French class. Abby meets Zeke on her first day and automatically puts him into the not the kind of guy she wants category when she sees him wearing a baseball T-Shirt. But, Abby cannot avoid Zeke, as the only high school students in their French class they are thrown together as partners and Abby soon realizes that French Zeke is totally different from non-French Zeke, and it may be harder to stop her feelings than she thought.What I liked:Characters: I absolutely loved the relationship between Abby and Zeke, and that no matter how hard Abby tried to fight it, Zeke got under her skin. I liked that even though time was an issue, as it was a summer program; their relationship did not feel rushed. Sure there were feelings immediately, but they were not really acted on. We got to see Zeke and Abby have a friendship brought on by them being French partners, and then watch as it turns into something more. Their path was not easy as Abby had a feeling that Zeke was hiding something from her, and the fallout was pretty much what I expected, but it was still a great love story between two people who had more in common than they thought.I also loved the relationship between Abby and Alice. The fact that these two girls who are so opposite of each other could form an instant friendship made them seem as if they had really been friends forever. Alice was a great “side” character, but I felt she was important for Abby to have someone that maybe needed her in a way that her family did not.I will say that there were times I was a little upset with Zeke, and I think that it had to do with how different English Zeke and French Zeke were around Abby and other people. However, the further I got into the book and realized a few things about Zeke, the more his actions made more sense, especially given Abby’s feelings on certain topics.Setting:I thought the setting of this story worked really well. Having the characters attending a summer program at a college was a great place to show them feeling a little independent and giving them a feeling of it being like having gone off to summer camp, with classes and structure thrown in. I also think it was a brilliant way to bring Abby and Zeke together by making them the only high schoolers in the French class, thus giving the professor a reason to put them together.Final Thoughts:I am the type of person that wants the Happily Ever After for pretty much every book that I read. I also tend to have a problem with books that to me just end, and while this book had a good ending, I was more upset than anything that it did end. I wanted more. I wanted to see what happens with Abby and Zeke as they both go back to their respective lives and finish High School. I wanted to see if Abby goes to France for college, what does Zeke end up doing, and even what happens with Alice. Basically I just wanted more, and deep down I’m silently praying for a sequel. LOL All and all Ms. Blitt did an amazing job telling us Abby and Zeke’s beginning, yep still holding out hope for more, and I’m super happy that I did not miss this amazing book. I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone.

⭐ Oh guys, this book has me soaring up in the sky! The Distance from A to Z is everything I wish for every time I open a new YA contemporary book. It gave me a cute boy to swoon over (HARD), a great side character that I adored, an MC that I felt connected to in some ways (not so much in others), awesome awesome KISSING scenes, and a super fun storyline. C’est magnifique!At first I thought this book was going to be set in Paris because I heard “french” and “cute boy speaking french” and I had not read the blurb yet, so I was like I NEEDS IT since Paris = kissing and feels and swoons. But after realizing it was not, I was just a tad bit disappointed for like 3 secs because after reading the first few pages I soon realized that who needs the famous city of love when you have 8 weeks of French in a College campus with a boy like Zeke + a visit to imaginary Paris & Montreal?! No one, that’s right.Like I already mentioned, The Distance Between A to Z has a really great cast of characters, from the main character to the French teacher, but the ones I feel we really got to meet were Abby, Zeke and Alice. They’re bright and colorful and interesting and totally realistic. By realistic I don’t refer to how Alice has anxiety problems (tho I loved how this girl kicked anxiety’s butt), but more on how each character has their own insecurities that are relatable and I found a bit of me in every single one of them.Abby’s obsession on learning French is admirable yet intense. This girl tries to breathe, live and eat French just to get fluent. Like any obsession, it might come off as crazy and unhealthy, but totally understandable since that’s the way to go in order to get things done. Definitely makes me wish I had her dedication! *Takes out little foreign language pocket dictionary*.Right from the get-go, I fell in love with Abby’s and Alice’s friendship. Seriously one of the coolest friendships ever and I wish I could be a part of their little group. But if I had to pick one of them, I’d totally go for Alice. This amazing girl despite having anxiety issues, is a fierce and extremely talented poet that work hards to not let that rule her life. I, alongside Abby, was also cheering her on with every little step she would take to brave crowds.But the swoons guys, THE SWOONS. I think I reread like a bazillion times every scene were there was kissing or almost-kissing. It was glorious. I melted. I highlighted and I fangirled. Because Zeke. Mon dieu! Zeke is the kind of boy I love to read about. Sweet and caring. A talented kisser *wink*. There is the fact that we get the Zeke in French and the Zeke in English, and although he is kind of a jerk when in English mode, I still drooled over him because Zeke in French is 100% perfect. (Read the book to completely get him!!)I don’t think I even covered an inch of what The Distance from A to Z is really about, so I must really emphasize that this book is really amazing and fun, but not the fluffy type at all. It is the perfect blend of every good contemporary romace book out there so I’m pretty sure many will enjoy falling in love with it!P.S. No. 50! Natalie Blitt, promised us extra scenes. YAY. I NEED THAT EPILOGUE YOU GUYS. I am not satisfied with the ending. I need MORE. More Zeke. More Abby. More kissing! (Can’t help it) And more Alice would rock as well though I hear we might get her story later, eep!

⭐ Being a die-hard St. Louis Cardinal fan, I almost couldn’t read this because there was a point where the narrator was very nasty toward my team, but I decided it was spawned by jealousy and it would be okay. Even funnier to me was a hypothetical situation where the Cubs were winning 18-0 against the Cards. Yeah… Um… Right. So believable… (Clear my throat).With that said, the story was cute. I really enjoyed the French aspect. It made the story romantic, but not in an over-the-top kind of way. The language wasn’t just thrown in there, either. Ms. Blitt touched on some nuances of the French language, which made it feel more authentic and just much more interesting. I may have even picked up some of the language. Merci!The idea that Abby would go to such extremes to remove baseball from her life is a bit far-fetched, but I went with it, and it was fine as long as I didn’t think about it too much.I really liked the characters, especially Alice. If you are looking for a fun, light, YA romance, you will not be disappointed:)

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