Never Thought I'd End Up Here

by Ann Liang

Recommended Age: YA (13+ years and above)

Lexile: N/A

Content Warning(s): mild romantic theme but nothing explicit

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Book Summary

"Leah Zhang has spent her whole life in LA - it's all she's ever known. But after accidentally wishing her cousin ill health and a very depressing marriage at her wedding, her parents stage an intervention. She's forgotten most of her Mandarin, has zero regard for etiquette, and can't hold a conversation with her own grandparents for longer than a minute. Their solution? Send her on an intensive two-week travel program across China's most beautiful cities. To them, it's the perfect opportunity for Leah to get back to her roots. To Leah, it's simply a much-needed escape.

But before Leah can even begin to enjoy the luxurious hotels, stunning scenery, and mouth-watering cuisine, she finds that also on the trip is her former classmate and least favorite person cynical, sarcastic Cyrus, who's somehow only gotten more annoyingly handsome since they last saw each other.

While Leah might be tempted to shove him off the peak of the Yellow Mountain when nobody's looking, she can't get rid of him just yet. After all, she might never get another chance to get revenge on the boy who ruined her life.

Yet the deeper they wander into China's provinces, the deeper Leah finds herself falling in love - with the boy she once thought she despised, the home she never thought she'd call her own, and the parts of herself she thought were already lost."

My Thoughts

I think it's already a widely known fact that I am Ann Liang's number one fan, so the intention of this post is not to introduce a new author but rather to announce another book that deserves another spot on your summer TBR pile! Anyways, I have had an eye on this book since December when I first added it to my "to-be-released" shelf on Goodreads (I checked!) and thought it would be perfect as one of my first few summer reads. 

One of the things I especially admire about Liang's writing is that the plot is never the same, yet always something relevant to her teenage audience. As a third-culture kid, it's much more difficult to stay in touch with your roots when you're planted in a different forest, and this was something I felt NTIEUH tackled particularly well.

Leah isn't a complete reflection of me, but I did see pieces of myself in her. I, for one, believe a book is 100x more immersive when you see parts of yourself reflected in the protagonist. It almost becomes a roadmap: if you're ever facing the same kind of problem, just by turning back to the book, you get more hopeful by seeing how they pushed through and came out on the other side stronger and for the better.

Another aspect I appreciated was that Leah is a (former) model, meaning you also get to explore the behind-the-scenes of something that seems so exciting from afar. But, as you get closer, that overly romanticized, fantastical notion that modeling is all sunshine and rainbows gets stripped away.

I also saw NTIEUH as both a reflection of the struggles of third-culture kids as well as a way to explore China. It's not a setting that's regularly shown in my everyday reads, so this was a good reminder for me to be more proactive in choosing books that showcase things or places unknown to me.

The third thing I came to realize was that no matter how perfect or flawless someone might seem, insecurities and self-doubt plague everyone—even models. Someone you might think would have the highest self-concept could actually turn out not to. This was a much-needed reminder that everyone is human and no one is free from body image issues, so be kind to others, but also yourself!