Everything Leads to You

Starred review from March 24, 2014
At age 18, Emi Price is making big strides toward a career in production design, with a rent-free Los Angeles apartment and an enviable and promising internship on a movie set. When Emi and her best friend Charlotte discover a letter written by a recently deceased film icon (think Clint Eastwood), it leads them to his unknown granddaughter, Ava. Emi is smitten, and as her life and career take ever more fortunate turns, her recently broken heart begins to heal with the hope of new love with Ava. LaCour (The Disenchantments) can write her way around a movie set (and L.A., too), and her descriptions of Emi’s work raise Emi’s character to another level and add fascinating depth to this story. Between Ava’s troubled ingénue status, her claim to Hollywood royalty, and the way several characters are both charmed by unexpected fortune and grayed by tragedy, the story can feel like a Hollywood fairy tale. But underneath the privilege surges real pain, longing, and feeling in a way that makes it easy to imagine this novel as a film. Ages 14–up. Agent: Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger.

High school graduate Emi is recovering from being dumped by Morgan. Again. Narrator Jorjeana Marie voices Emi's frustration and sadness as she flounders at love and at her second obsession--finding pieces that complete a set she's designing--which she uses to find consolation. Her passion for everything Hollywood is consuming, both for her and for listeners, whom Marie shepherds into the romantic world of film. While exploring the estate of Clyde Jones, a cowboy movie icon, Emi and her best friend, Charlotte, discover a hidden letter and are instantly immersed in solving the mystery of his estranged family. Soon Emi is cast into the messy world of Clyde's magnetic and talented granddaughter. She learns about real commitment to a relationship, the arts, and herself in this absorbing listen. S.W. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine