Last year I absolutely fell in love with Lord's novel The Start of Me and You, a book that managed to make me feel those butterflies of first love. In When We Collided,Vivi has moved to a small beach town with her artist mother for the summer. Jonah has been taking on more responsibility at home since his father's sudden death and is looking for a summer escape. They find each other, while attempting to find themselves. 
 This was a love story, but not. Rather, it was about Vivi and Jonah, two teens going through the roughest patches of their adolescent lives and both on the brink of adulthood and adult decisions, even if they've been faced with situations that have forced them to grow up faster anyway. It is about them finding each other amidst this chaos, and being a shoulder to lean on for a little while. It is about the people that come into our lives at the right moment, whether they stay forever or not. 
 I appreciate that this book was honest about where these characters were and would be in their lives. It didn't feel the need to force anything. Life is what it was for Vivi and Jonah at the end of the novel. 
 As usual Lord's language is gorgeous. She has a great style, and each character who speaks in this dual POV has a distinct voice. Characters run the show here. I did have trouble at times with Vivi. She was a brilliantly well drawn character, but for me it was obvious from the beginning that she wasn't just quirky (not that Lord was attempting to hide this at all). I saw a girl who desperately needs help, exactly what she was. But she always kept everyone in her life at least a little bit at arms distance, so it was often hard for me to connect with her. I just wanted to get her help. This is 100% not how all readers will react to her. Many, many will adore her. And yet Lord balanced this out with the super grounded and family oriented Jonah, whose entire family I really cared for. 
 I was anxious for a lot of the novel because I was just waiting for everything to come to a head. These were character's whose lives were balanced on the edge of a pin, making this a well-crafted novel. It just also had a weird balance of romance and trying to deal with the big issues. The romance never felt super developed, maybe more because these were characters clinging to each other for the escape they represented, as much as each other. And while I appreciated that the weightier parts of this book were handled as every day life, there could also have been more development here without sacrificing any of the stylist choices. 
 Most of my reaction tot his book is incredibly personal. This is a well-craft novel with vibrant characters. Lord is excellent at what she does. You should still read this, and I should pick up Open Road Summer, because why haven't I read it yet??