Joined at the Joints
Marissa Eller
Holiday House
Published July 2, 2024

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About Joined at the Joints

When baking-obsessed Ivy meets a super-hot boy who shares her rare diagnosis, sparks fly outside of the kitchen for the first time in her life!

Chronically ill seventeen-year-old Ivy has stayed in watching the Food Network all summer—pies are better than people, and they don’t trigger her social anxiety. So when her (also) chronically ill mom and sister cook up a plan to get Ivy out of the house and into a support group, Ivy doesn’t expect to say more than a few words.

And she certainly doesn’t expect Grant. Grant is CUTE: class-clown cute, perfectly-messy-hair cute, will-always-text-you-back cute. There’s an instant connection between them. He has the same diagnosis as her–juvenille rheumatoid arthritis–and he actually understands Ivy’s world.

But just because he understands Ivy’s pain doesn’t mean he can take it away. And she wishes he could—because it’s getting worse. Ivy has always tried her best to appear pain-free, but between treatment plans, symptom management, and struggling with medical self-advocacy, being sick feels more and more difficult. Will Ivy’s delicious new romance pan out? Can she keep up the façade, for him and for the world… or should she be brave and let it go?

Marissa Eller serves up a sweet, satisfying romcom that tackles the realities of chronic illness—and coming-of-age milestones from friend breakups to first kisses—with wry humor, tons of heart, and a huge helping of honesty. Nuanced, poignant, and deeply enjoyable, readers will fall for Eller’s voice in this compelling debut that offers all the right ingredients.

My Review

This is such a sweet book. I loved that because both characters understand rheumatoid arthritis, there’s not a lot of one character educating the other. Both Ivy and Grant have some similarities and differences in their experiences, and they share enough common ground to offer support to one another when it’s needed.

Ivy is a great character. I love stories about baking or cooking, so the scenes in which she prepares food were great. When a character’s love language is food, I find it easy to connect with them. I also liked her relationship with her sister, Caroline. They look out for one another but give each other space and autonomy, too. They have a great balance. The descriptions of their younger brother, Ethan, made me laugh, too. He felt like such an energetic character, even when he was just in the periphery of a scene.

The relationship between Grant and Ivy is great, too. They like each other from the start, but it didn’t feel too insta-love-y to me. Maybe because Ivy is so shy and takes so long to admit that she likes him and that he seems to like her, too. I liked the progression of the relationship and how they leaned on one another.

In terms of a summer romance, Joined at the Joints hits all the right notes. It’s sweet, thoughtful, and full of fun. Definitely a good one for a weekend read.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Ivy and Grant have juvenile idiopathic arthritis (rheumatoid arthritis). Ivy also has social anxiety. Ivy’s sister, Caroline, has celiac disease. Her mom has lupus. Caroline and Ivy join a support group for teens with chronic illnesses.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
F-bombs used infrequently. Strong profanity used somewhat infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A baseball strikes a character, leaving an ugly bruise. Ivy experiences growing pain in her joints that becomes increasingly debilitating. Some references to ableist comments.

Drug Content
Just the drugs prescribed by Ivy’s doctor.

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