Review of The Getaway List by Emma Lord
My Review of The Getaway List by Emma Lord, a 2024 YA Contemporary book about a high school graduate who impulsively decides to go live in New York instead of heading to college. Do you love Books Set in New York City? Me too, so I’m linking to my post on the NYC World of Emma Lord!
The Getaway List by Emma Lord
Published on January 23, 2024 by Wednesday Books
Plot Summary for The Getaway List
When Riley gets rejected from all her college choices, she makes the impulsive decision to head to New York to stay with her childhood best friend Tom. Years ago, the two of them made a bucket list of all the adventures they wanted to do together since he moved away. Riley hopes this trip will reset her life and give her a break from her overprotective mother.
When Riley arrives in New York, it feels as if she and Tom were never apart. Riley, Tom, and their found friends work their way through the The Getaway List, and Riley learns that sometimes the biggest adventure is embracing the unknown.
Review of The Getaway List
I’ve read all of Emma Lord’s books, from Tweet Cute (2020), You Have a Match (2021), When You Get the Chance (2022), Begin Again (2023), The Getaway List (2024), and The Rival (2025).
Jen’s Quick Take on The Getaway List
- A bucket list plot
- A best friends to lovers romance
- A New York City adventure
- Found family
what are emma Lord’s books like?
Overall, Emma Lord’s books have some similar elements: complicated family relationships, wary, circling-each-other-uneasily kinds of romance, and urban settings. And food!
nyc settings in emma lord’s books
One of my favorite parts of The Getaway List was the NYC setting. The jokes about accidentally taking the subway to Brooklyn reminded me of my early days in New York.
Do you want my cheat sheet on the NYC locations in all of Emma Lord’s books? Then you should check out my post on The NYC World of Emma Lord, which runs down her books that are set in New York City and where everything is!
quirky characters in emma lord’s books
Yes, I freely admit that Lord’s main characters have very strong personalities that some readers have found “a lot.” But I love that her female characters don’t try to make themselves smaller or quieter!
This makes her books feel (at times) little rambling and a little long. But I think that’s because her quirky characters are VERY passionate about things, from the theater, to grilled cheese sandwiches, to taking a gap year.
Found family in the getaway list
The found family aspects were great if that’s your thing. Maybe I’m a weirdo, but sometimes reading about cliques in books is triggering to me and I feel excluded.
I did wish that Riley’s relationship with her mother had felt more realistic The parents in Lord’s books are often not the best (many even feel like a throwback to those terrible 2000s YA parents.)
I’m happy that MOST 2020s YA features characters who have present parents. If anything, Riley’s mom is a bit on the overprotective side. She got pregnant with Riley at a very young age, and she had the (irrational) belief that Riley was going to get pregnant in New York.
y2k nostalgia in the getaway list
What I DID love was Riley’s constant mocking of her mother’s 2000s lifestyle in New York. She describes her mom:
“clubbing to early 2000s hits in low rise jeans while sneaking sips of Fireball from a glittery hip flask.”
While this wasn’t my very favorite Emma Lord book, I always enjoy her books and just being in her Emma Lord NYC world.
