Every Reason to Stay

by Lane Clarke

A heartbreaking yet hopeful novel about one girl’s journey through grief and the family, first love, and shocking truths she finds on the other side—perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson and Every Last Word.

All her life, it’s just been sixteen-year-old Skylar and her rockstar dad against the world. But this year, a horrible accident cuts the summer short and upends her life.

As Skylar grieves her dad, she discovers a huge secret: her mother is still alive. Now, Skylar is uprooted from her home and thrust into a family of strangers on the other side of the country. Furious with the mother who deserted her, she seeks comfort in her baking and decides to enter a local competition with a dazzling prize of a trip to a Parisian pastry school. As she gains her footing in the contest and her new town, she befriends a girl who seems just as lost as her, and she also finds more than friendship in the frustratingly irresistible boy next door. But as Skylar bakes her way to a brighter future, she’ll uncover truths about the past in the last place she expected.

Filled with heaps of emotion, a spoonful of hope, and an unexpected twist of fate, this is a powerful story about the true meaning of home.

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Grief, Fiction, Family

320 pages, Hardcover

Published July 7, 2026

Reviews

[lydia {67} ୨ৎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

❀° ┄───╮
review
╰───┄ °❀

thanks to netgalley, author, and publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review! <3

✨✨✨ ~ 3.5 rounded to 3 stars

okay so i literally gobbled this book up, i think i read it all in less than 24 hours. it was such an aesthetically appealing book, with that gorgeous cover and the interesting plot. i think my favorite part was the baking, which appealed to me the most because i love love love baking. there are some sensitive topics like death of a parent and drunk driving, among others, but i thought it was a great book... until i let it marinate in my head for awhile. honestly, i thought that skylar was annoying. yeah sure her dad just died, but she expected the world to revolve around her. and i think that was kind of the point of the book, that she finds out it doesn't, but it was so annoying. one minute she would be crying over her dad, and then the next she would be mad at her mom or feeling so preppy and happy. i didn't get it - especially since her expensive therapist (which she didn't even thank her mom for paying for that, BIG red flag) explained the 5 stages or grief to her, and she basically skipped them all. overall, i liked the book while i was reading it, but once it was over, it felt very unfulfilling and the only characters i liked were angela and taylor.



❀° ┄───╮
pre-read
╰───┄ °❀

got this arc, i absolutely love the cover!! 🍓💗

[Alexandria Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books don't just tell a story...They sit beside you while you're grieving and remind you that healing isn't about "moving on" it's about learning how to carry the people you love with you.🥺

There were so many moments in Every Reason to Stay that hit closer to home than I expected. A few years ago, I lost my grandfather. Even now, there are days when something small....a song, a smell, a random memory brings me right back to him. So watching Skylar lose the person who had been her entire world immediately broke my heart.

Grief isn't linear.
Some days you're okay.
Some days you're angry.
Some days you're just trying to survive the next five minutes.
Lane Clarke captured that so honestly.

Skylar's entire world shatters after losing her father only to discover an even bigger truth... the mother she believed had died is actually alive. Imagine grieving one parent while trying to process the fact that the other has been there all along. That's the kind of emotional whiplash this story explores and it does so with so much compassion.

One thing I really appreciated was that this wasn't a story about "fixing" grief. It was about learning to live alongside it. Therapy, new friendships, uncomfortable conversations, forgiveness, baking... none of it magically erased Skylar's pain but little by little they helped her rediscover pieces of herself she thought she'd lost.

I think that's something so many of us can relate to.
Sometimes life completely rewrites the future you thought you were going to have.
Sometimes the people you trusted disappoint you.
Sometimes you're forced to start over somewhere you never wanted to be.
But that doesn't mean there isn't still joy waiting for you.

The baking competition became one of my favorite parts not because it was the main focus but because baking became Skylar's safe place. A reminder that even when life feels impossible creating something with your own hands can be healing. I also loved the friendships, the LGBTQ+ representation, the therapy representation, and the reminder that family isn't always simple... but healing is still possible.

If you love:

🍓 Emotional YA contemporaries

🧁 Baking as therapy

🖤 Stories about grief & healing

🌈 LGBTQ+ representation

🏡 Found family

💕 Sweet romance


...this deserves a spot on your summer TBR.

Some stories make you cry.
Some make you smile.
This one somehow managed to do both.

[Libby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Received an arc from NetGalley.

This book had some good moments and kept me entertained throughout, which was much appreciated after dnfing a few books due to boredom. However, the story ultimately kind of went nowhere—except for a bizarre and unexplained twist—and the writing itself wasn’t very strong.

Let’s start out with the (few) things I liked before moving into the issues I had with everything else. As mentioned in the blurb, Skylar’s dad dies right at the beginning. I think the depiction of that death and Skylar’s emotions evoked the correct sense of sympathy, and we did get moments in the rest of the book of Skylar going through the ugliness of dealing with that grief.

This book was also rich with queer representation. I think it can be tricky to incorporate different identities and experiences without seeming to incorporate diversity for diversity's sake, but it felt authentic here. There was a moment when Skylar kind of laughs at herself for unintentionally surrounding herself with fellow queer people, which makes sense—queer people attract queer people!

And for all the complaining I’m about to do in the rest of this review, I have to admit that this held my attention the entire way through. Even if minor plot sequences seemed off, the pace was quick and I found it easy to read multiple chapters in one sitting.

Now to the issues I had with this, starting broad and narrowing in. (I kept lots of notes on specific things that irritated me, but I’ll do my best to summarize.)

By the end of this book, I’m not really sure what was accomplished. I kept waiting for Skylar and her mom to talk about why she didn’t know about her, but it kept not coming up. Skylar was too mad at her mom to want to talk about it, which kind of worked but not really? Like if that was me, I would want to know what the fuck was up! Skylar also finds a diary that her mom wrote in around the time Skylar was born (wow how convenient!!!), but would only read a few entries at a time before stashing it away in anger; again, I would take advantage of that and read it one sitting in order to get some answers. I guess I assumed the plot would center more on Skylar coming to terms with what happened, but instead it was more the mystery of what happened. This made for a rather weak and frustrating narrative. The twist at the end was so bizarre and wasn't incorporated well into the larger story; before that I was hoping to round this up to three stars, but that immediately made me lower my rating.

There was also the aspect of the baking competition. Firstly, the logistics of that competition were very wack, with three rounds spaced out with weeks in between. Skylar also never appeared to be terribly invested in the competition, so I never was that invested either. Her interest in baking seemed like a forced way to add some depth to Skylar’s character and it just didn’t work. (I HATE when authors add a prominent hobby to a character in an attempt to give them personality: it never works!!)

None of the side characters were that successful, as they only seemed to appear when the plot needed them. I had quite a few issues with Cameron, the “frustratingly irresistible boy next door.” He never seemed that sensitive to the fact that Skylar’s dad just fucking DIED and her whole life was turned upside down, which soured me on their flirtations (which weak, anyway). We get hints that he has his own stuff that he’s dealing with, but when that’s finally revealed what it is we move past it rather quickly, a bit blink-and-you-miss-it. I also think that Clare’s character was not used well and most of the time her role didn’t really make sense; that is, until the story tries to force her to make total sense, and things really fall apart.

Logistically, the structure of this story didn’t make sense at times, to the point that I wondered if there was any sort of editor for this. Characters would enter a scene only to immediately leave after short, important-to-the-plot conversations, or chapters would end before the scene was fully resolved. There were also things that were just straight up contradicted: for example, at the beginning of the book Skylar mentions that she recently broke up with her girlfriend of two years, but she then recalls sleeping with a boy her junior year, which was within the last year. Huh???

The writing in this novel was weirdly reliant on pop culture references and often used them as analogies that weren’t needed. There was also the inclusion of many random details that didn’t matter, which I assume was an attempt to make the story/setting feel more real, but it totally failed and instead gave the story a "and then and then and then" feel. Whereas the issues I had with the plot were about quality, with the prose it was quantity: these elements aren’t inherently detrimental, but coming across them every other page was terribly grating.

Highlight reel of bad/weird/useless references I took note of before realizing that they would be too prolific to track (paraphrased):
“The doctor looked way too young, but then again, black don’t crack” this lady is literally about to tell you your dad died
“His funeral should be like the scene from Stranger Things” well I haven’t seen that so I don’t know what you’re talking about
“She stood there like the emoji of the guy standing awkwardly with his hands by his sides” this is how you choose to describe the appearance of her mother at her dad’s funeral???
“It’d be great to get to study baking in Paris like Marcus did in Copenhagen in the second season of the Bear” I actually do understand the concept of studying a skill abroad without a tv reference
“He’s literally man in finance, trust fund, six-five, blue eyes” this trend is already long dead
“These two were going to be my thirteenth reason” diabolical
“Her mouth was open but no words came out, like Ariel when Ursula took her voice” who is this for????

There were other issues with the prose. Sometimes things sounded stilted, either from the words used (I’m not saying that teenagers don’t use words like “blasé” and “recourse” and “percolating,” however…), or from the lack of buildup to in-depth conversations. Quite often characters would launch right into serious topics, and the worst part was that everyone always used politically correct terminology and would be sensitive to others. This is a book about a teenager, teenagers are stupid and say the wrong things! Let her be stupid and wrong!

The author was clearly too preoccupied in being "woke." Lots of random statements like “cybertrucks suck! pop music is good now that it’s dominated by badass women! We could use chatgpt but actually it sucks so let’s not!” Right after Skylar’s dad dies she thinks about how she wants the drunk driver responsible to be in jail, but has to clarify that she’s “usually anti-cop and rejects prison as a concept”—that doesn’t matter right now!!! She’s upset that her dad is fucking DEAD, just let her focus on that! Frankly it was exhausting how much the author worked to avoid ~cancellable~ ideas. (And for all that, she failed at the end when Skylar is like “I’m bi but girls are way better!”)

I’d be interested in returning to this author in the future to see if she improves, because I see the potential and I do think there was something special buried in here; unfortunately, it was buried just a bit too deep for me to fully enjoy.

[Stephanie Fitzgerald · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skyler’s world has turned upside down. Her father, whom she considered her best friend, has met with tragedy. Her mother died when Skye was a tiny baby, and she knows nothing about her.
She’s beginning to envision herself going to an orphanage, when relatives she never knew she had start coming out of the woodwork, and every one of them has life-altering secrets…

Good themes of family support, forgiveness, and learning to be comfortable with one’s self.

Red Flags:
Underage drinking; teen pregnancy; frequent curse words; parental abandonment
Trigger Warnings:
Death of a parent

2.5 stars
* I received a digital copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are strictly my own.*

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

YA contemporary revolving around themes of grief and healing through therapy with some grumpy x sunshine and boy next door romance.

I adored this book! It was emotional and heartbreaking, but demonstrated detailed self-growth and healing through the help of therapy, and meaningful conversations with friends and family. The main character, Skylar, had pain and emotional struggles that were raw and real and I loved the touch of magical realism. There was also a balanced comedic relief in Cameron, the charming boy next door.

If you love summer, baking, competitions, running, therapy, healing, and a cheery boy next door, then you should definitely read this book!

[Brandi Augustine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a YA contemporary book and took me on an emotional ride. I found myself crying through it because loss is so hard.

I really enjoyed how it was written with anger, healing, and love with forgiveness too through conversations and therapy along with friends and family.

Skylar definitely went through things she shouldn't have in her teen years but I feel the love her father showed her when he was still around was wonderful even though something was kept from Sky that shouldn't have been.

Baking being in here along with a competition was the best. Really enjoyed this book.

[Nicole Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

“Every Reason to Stay” by Lane Clarke is an emotional, character-driven story about grief, family, and figuring out where you belong after your whole life gets turned upside down.

The book follows sixteen-year-old Skylar, who has always lived with her single dad in Austin. But after he dies in a tragic accident, Skylar’s world completely falls apart, and things get even more shocking when she learns that her mom, who she was told had died years ago, is actually alive. Her dad had lied to her for most of her life, and now Skylar suddenly has to move across the country to live with a mother she’s never known.

It’s a pretty heavy setup, and honestly the dad’s decision to lie about Skylar’s mom for sixteen years is a lot. It’s the kind of choice that’s hard to wrap your head around, and you can’t help but feel awful for Skylar as she tries to process everything she thought she knew about her family.

Most of the book focuses on Skylar navigating grief and adjusting to her new life in Virginia. She’s dealing with losing her dad, the shock of meeting her mom, and trying to rebuild her sense of identity. Her mom is actually pretty respectful of Skylar’s space, which makes their relationship feel more realistic as they slowly try to figure each other out.

There’s also a lot of representation in the story. Skylar is bisexual, and her mom is in a same-sex marriage. Some of the backstory touches on homophobia, especially when Skylar starts uncovering more about why her mom left home years earlier.

One thing to know going in: this is definitely more of a character-focused story than a plot-heavy one. There’s technically a baking competition in the book, but it’s not really the main focus. Baking is more of a coping mechanism for Skylar; it’s something she uses to process her emotions rather than a big competitive storyline.

The book also does a nice job showing different ways people deal with grief and mental health. Skylar goes to counseling, and several characters are pretty open about their struggles, which adds another layer of realism.

The side characters were honestly some of my favorite parts. Skylar’s friendships, both old and new, bring a lot of warmth to the story, and they really help support her as she tries to rebuild her life. There’s also a little bit of romance, but it never takes over the main story.

There are a couple of plot elements that feel a little out of place or unrealistic, and some storylines could have used more explanation or closure. But overall, the heart of the book really works.

By the end, Skylar finally gets the emotional conversation she needs with her mom, and the ending is sweet and hopeful. It’s very much a story about healing, forgiveness, and learning that even after everything falls apart, there can still be reasons to stay and keep moving forward.

Overall, “Every Reason to Stay” is a heartfelt, bittersweet read that leans heavily into emotions and relationships. If you like character-driven YA stories about grief, identity, and finding your place after loss, this one is definitely worth picking up.

[Susan (Purplegalaxyreads94) · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I want to thank Lane Clarke, Colored Pages Book Tours and The Novl for the gifted physical copy of Every Reason To Stay to read and provide my honest, spoiler free review.

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My Thoughts:
Every Reason To Stay grabbed my attention from the very beginning. It only took me a couple hours to read this book fully and once I finished it, I found myself smiling and feeling a bit more healed inside.

While reading this book, I felt very seen. I may not have had the same life as Sky but I did have part of it the same. Losing my own father when I was 16 years old, took a huge toll on me. He was my best friend and losing him broke and also changed me. Seeing Sky go through something similar but also have more secrets going on around her just made for an even harder healing journey. I felt like this author did a great job at bringing all of those heavy emotions out in Sky. The closed off vibes she gave where her walls would eventually slowly come down is a defense mechanism that affects so many people and I liked seeing it represented in this story.

I also really liked the therapy representation and the thoughtful questions that it brought into play as well. It felt like it was researched well and done well to make everything that much more relatable. The stages of grief are so real and I liked that it was talked about in this story. The healing journey that Sky took with the help of guardian angels, friends and her new family made for a beautiful lesson at the end of the day.

I truly enjoyed this book and I’m so glad I got to read it. It was very healing for me and I hope it can be healing for a lot of other readers as well.

[Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every Reason to Stay by Lane Clarke, 305 pages. JULY 2026. $20.
Language: R (78 swears, 7 ‘f’); Mature Content: G; Violence: G
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
APPEALS TO:SEVERAL
For 16 years, Skylar and her rock star dad have been best friends together - until the day Dad dies. Then, Skylar finds herself not only grieving losing her father, but she has been whisked away from Austin, Texas to Washington, D.C. to live with the mother, Mona, who Sky thought was dead. And with Mona’s wife and their young son. As Sky tries to come to grips with her new life, she finds a diary written by Mona in the months before Sky was born.
Clarke thankfully did not give as an evil mother/stepmother here - the book is about Sky processing her grief and learning that hearing someone else's story can go a long way to building bridges. While some may feel everything worked out too easily, I did enjoy the soothing story and the bit of romance. The only thing I did not like was a bit of magical realism - or schizophrenia - you decide which it is when you find the twist. Almost every character is LGBT of some sort.
Cindy, Middle School Librarian, MLS

[Jenn Norris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC copy of this book! 😊🖤

Every Reason to Stay is a bittersweet story about Skylar Morrison, a sixteen year old girl that was raised by her single father in Austin, Texas. Her dad is the lead in a band and one night after a show he is killed in by a drunk driver and Sky’s world is turned upside down. At his funeral, she finds out her mother, that she thought was dead, is alive and now she has to go live with her in Virginia.

This story kept me completely invested. I loved how the grief was handled. I adored the relationships Skylar had with other characters. It was a really sweet read and gave some closure. The only issue I had was a certain part of the plot line didn’t have any closure on how it happened etc. and another I wish would have been explored more. Otherwise, an excellent read that completely left me wanting more!

4 🌟

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was really good until it wasn't. Was it condensed to the point of not expounding on topics, yes. Did it feel like there was a checklist of politics in it, yes. But it is YA and I expect some condensing. The summary of the book didn't really seem like the story I was reading, but I enjoyed the incredibly unrealistic baking completion and overall it was going to be a 3-4 star read. Until the weird twist at the end. That was so bizarre and completely not explained. At. All. The entire end of the book was weirdly rushed and just flat. I don't read a lot of YA. The last 50 pages of this book reminded me why.

[C Rivera · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️ 2 Stars

Thank you to Colored Pages Book Tours, The Novl, and Lane Clarke for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. The cover is absolutely adorable!

I really wanted to enjoy Every Reason to Stay, but it just wasn’t for me. I felt like the book focused more on its social and political messaging than on developing the actual plot and at times it overshadowed the story.

The constant pop culture references became distracting, and I never connected with the characters enough to become emotionally invested. The ending was the biggest letdown, the plot twist felt random and unsupported by the rest of the story, so it didn’t make much sense to me at all.

[Chris G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sky’s dad is great - a contractor whose true passion is playing music. Mom died shortly after Sky was born but dad has created a wonderful, loving family - until he dies in a car accident and Sky learns that her mom is still alive. With nowhere else to go, Sky leaves Austin to live with her mom, mom’s wife, and a younger step-brother. Stiff with grief and betrayal, therapy and some new friends gradually help Sky to work through her anger at her parents. A baking competition provides some opportunities for growth and joy. Most characters are Black. Earc from Edelweiss.

[Suzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a good book. It was so heartbreaking too, but it was beautiful to watch Skylar make her way back up from what has happened to her.
Skylar has to find a new normal in a new place with a new family. Along the way she gets to practice her baking, which she loves and is good at. And she makes some great friends that really help guide her.
I loved the descriptions of what she was baking, I wanted to eat them!
I loved the chemistry that comes out between here and the boy next door.
This is such a beautiful look at how to find where you fit after everything in your life changes.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly sweet read. The premise was unique and kept me curious. It balanced romance with some deeper emotional moments, and I found myself genuinely invested in the characters.

It was definitely a little weird at times, but in a way that made it stand out rather than feel gimmicky. While not every part completely worked for me, it was heartfelt, engaging, and left me smiling by the end.

A cute, memorable romance that’s worth picking up if you’re looking for something a little different.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book, but didn't love it. I felt so badly for Skylar, having her world upended like she did. And what was that ending? I'm so confused by whether or not she was even real.

Better review to come later...after I have more time to think.

I received a complimentary copy of this book to review. I was asked to give my honest opinion of the book - which I have done.

[Debbie Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book and cried my eyes out as I recently lost my own mom to cancer. The grieving process is so real and this book was a bit healing for me. I really connected with the world that that author built. This is a YA coming of age story but grieving knows no age boundaries. I loved reading this and this is one I will treasure on my bookshelf. Thank you to the author and publisher for the gifted copy.

[CJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you soo much to Netgalley for this Earc. I loved the plot so much. The storyline is different from what I normally read, but it was so good! I definitely will be reading more of this author! I recommend this to people looking for a light hearted sweet YA book!💗💗

[The Page Ladies Book Club · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every Reason to Stay by Lane Clarke was an emotional journey filled with grief, healing, family secrets, first love, and plenty of delicious baking. I found myself rooting for Skylar as she rebuilt her life one recipe and one revelation at a time. It balanced heartbreak with hope beautifully.

[Janet]

Review book so can't comment.

[Nikita Dolese · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such a cute little romcomdram that felt genuine, albeit a little rushed. Read it in one sitting.

[Beezy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pop culture references tell me you don't trust your book will be relevant in a few years also, I don't care about them.

[Stephanie Hawley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very YA but cute all the same!

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

The secret went on a little too long imo, but I did really enjoy it. I was crying my eyes out while working tho lol I could barely see the screen. Real review to come to my blog.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an arc from a giveaway through Goodreads. The author is clearly a talented writer, and I genuinely enjoyed much of this story. The writing was pretty engaging, and the book made me feel a range of emotions throughout. While I'm no longer the target audience for YA, I still found a lot to appreciate in the storytelling. The way grief was expressed throughout was definitely one of the book’s strongest qualities.

The only reason it lost some stars was from the frequent use of modern references. At times, they felt a bit overdone and pulled me out of the story, making some moments come across as more corny than immersive. I also found the ending left me somewhat unsatisfied. The relationships and emotional arcs were sweet, but I wanted a little more depth and connection between the characters before the story wrapped up. A few more meaningful conversations would have made the conclusion hit a little deeper.

Overall, this was a heartfelt, enjoyable read.

[Lovely Loveday]

Every Reason to Stay by Lane Clarke is a deeply moving and heartfelt read. The story beautifully balances raw emotion with hope, weaving in an unexpected twist that kept me fully invested until the end. I especially appreciated the way it explores the meaning of home, family, and belonging, reminding readers that sometimes the places and people we need most are closer than we think. Warm, uplifting, and emotionally resonant, this is a story that stayed with me long after I finished the final page.

[The Candid Cover (Olivia & Lori)]

DNF @ 40%

I picked this one up because I adore books about baking, but unfortunately I'm underwhelmed. The baking competition itself doesn't seem to be playing a major role in the story so far, and I don't feel attached to any of the characters. I'm also not a fan of the writing style and the pop culture references throughout. I'm not interested enough to continue reading, but I'm sure this book will resonate with many others.

[⁕*⁎ katherine ⁎*⁕ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley for the E-ARC of this novel!

3 stars

I really enjoyed and appreciated how the author handled the topic of grief in this novel. It was raw and realistic, yet gentle. The character interaction was satisfying, and the fact that our FMC actually had good, healthy relationships with people made my heart happy. These days, we are getting books filled with toxic relationships that would never be okay in real life. But they are portrayed as ok in fiction. This book didn't have that.

I, however, didn't feel totally taken by the world; certain aspects didn't draw me in. There is a part that felt unresolved. The setting didn't feel like I could touch it or be totally invested in it. Without 'seeing' everything the characters are seeing, I felt as if I couldn't quite grasp the full beauty of this world.

drink coffee, read books
Katherine <3