seriously romantic: leaving everest by megan westfield

i loved lessons in gravity, megan westfield's debut that introduced the walkabout productions universe. this book has less to do with the crew in general, though april and josh do make brief appearances in leaving everest. but it's not an outright sequel to their story, it's more like a spin-off.

this is a story of taking chances. of letting go of the past. of conquering your greatest fears. and all of these things happen for emily and luke on a climb of mount everest. as a new adult romance, there is plenty of angst in the story. but the life-or-death stakes really amps up the tension.

because the truth is emily and luke figure out early on how much they love each other. how much they've always loved each other. the question is how to make things work now that emily has given up the idea of college and luke is locked into finishing out his degree. especially since they both really dream of climbing. they want to climb professionally. they don't just want to be guides. they want to scale the world's highest peaks in the most challenging ways possible.

logistically, emotionally it doesn't feel like something that can be solved easily. but when things go haywire at the summit of chomolungma everything becomes clear. and love wins out in the end.

i love this world that westfield has created, and can't wait to see more of walkabout productions in future books.

**leaving everest will publish on february 19, 2018. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/entangled publishing (embrace) in exchange for my honest review.