The Thing About Lemons

by Tasha Harrison

Ori Reynolds has just made the biggest mistake of her life. One that’s resulted in:

1) losing all but one of her friends,
2) feeling like the World’s Most Terrible Person,
and
3) having all her fun summer plans cancelled.

And, as if things couldn’t get any worse, she now has no choice but to go on a road trip with her estranged grandad Claude to his home in the French countryside.

Talk about life giving you lemons!

However, while Ori scoffs at her mum’s suggestion to “make lemonade”, her sour situation is about to turn significantly sweeter than she could ever have imagined…

The Thing About Lemons is the perfect summer read for fans of The Kissing Booth, To All The Boys I Loved Before and Sex Education.

Genres: Romance, Young Adult, Summer Reads, Contemporary, Fiction

261 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 3, 2023

About the author

I write comedy for kids and young adults. Clementine Florentine (UCLan 2022) is a middle grade comedy with a punk & poetry flavour, and The Thing About Lemons (UCLan 2023) is a YA romcom set in the French countryside in summertime. Another teen romcom is in the pipeline, so watch this space…

My self-published novels aren't currently available for purchase, although they might return, refreshed and updated, at some point in the future.

I live on the south coast of the UK, with my husband, two children and an over-excited Labrador called Arnie.

Reviews

[Natasha Leighton · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

Fast paced and full of wit, The Thing About Lemons is a fantastically funny YA Rom-Com with an entertaining and surprisingly loveable protagonist in Ori, who’s teenage angst—and humorously cringy antics make her the perfect successor to Georgia Nicholson (of Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging fame).

Having made the biggest mistake of her life—kissing her Best Friend Ava’s boyfriend. Ori is now facing her summer with no friends (except for Ravi, the only person currently talking to her) and a mass cancellation of plans (including the camping trip she’d been planning with Ava and their friends.)

Instead, Ori is off to spend time with her estranged (and slightly forgetful) grandfather, Claude on a road trip to his converted barn house in the French Countryside.

This was such a charming and unputdownable read full of soo much humour and heart—I absolutely loved it!

Ori, despite her flaws, was a really interesting character to get to know. Given the premise (which leans heavy on the attempted boyfriend stealing) I wasn’t sure how likeable Ori was gonna be, and definitely expected this to focus mostly on trying to redeem her. And though it does to an extent, I was really impressed with how endearing and relatable Ori was right from the start.

I also really enjoyed getting to know several of the supporting characters in more depth, and loved how much dimension and emotional development Tasha Harrison imbues into each of them.

Particularly Claude and Odette who really open up to Ori (and each other) in an effort to untangle their own complicated (and fraught) relationship with one another and heal old wounds.

There’s also decent amount of romance between Ori and all THREE of her swoon worthy love interests which I really enjoyed. However, I do think that her emotional journey leaned for into her own personal growth and her newfound ties with Claude and Odette.

From navigating family secrets and decades long betrayals to the age old teenage growing pains, Harrison’s heartfelt (and hilarious) coming of age YA is definitely a book that needs to be on your TBR this summer!

Also, a massive thank you to the Tasha Harrison for the physical proof.

[Sara.khammar · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کتابو با تصور « یه ماجراجویی داغ تابستونی» خریدم و تا حدی اون چیزی که میخواستم بود
اگه ميخواييد از ديدگاه كسي كه شخصيت سوم منفور رابطه عاشقانه ای شده دنیا رو ببینید، پیشنهادش میکنم.

٣امتياز بهش ميدم بخاطر
١- اولين كتابي بود كه از ديد يه شخصيت كه خيانت كرده ( نه بهش خيانت شده!) میخوندم.
۲-وایب تابستونی قشنگی داشت
۳-راوی😂♥️

[L𐂂 · Rating 4 out of 5]

"همه چی روبه راهه. فقط یکم درب و داغونم، همین."

[karla JR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who won’t enjoy a nice and warm Rom-Com? I couldn’t put it down. I loved not only getting to know the main characters. I adore the relationship of the main character and her grandad, this was a plus in the whole story
The most beautiful thing about this book is that the characters find peace and heal during the book. I leave this books with a warm heart and a smile. This is the kinda of book sometimes you need when you had a session of heavy reading.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange of a review . Pre order this book is a big help for the authors

[Justine · Rating 3 out of 5]

C'était un peu cucul sur les bords mais j'ai quand même bien aimé l'histoire surtout le développement des personnages le long du livre. Par contre j'ai vraiment eu du mal à avoir de l'empathie pour le perso principal que j'ai trouvé détestable (mais un peu moins à la fin quand même).
Pour un livre que jai choisi surtout pour sa couverture je suis pas déçue

[ToriJaneReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: Adventure, Romance, ARC
Pace: Fast
Format: Kindle ARC
Pages: 261
Rating: 4*

Thank you to the Author Tasha Harrison, to the publisher UCLan Publishing and to Netgalley for an early version of the book in exchange for this honest review.

Set in the summer following her GCSEs, Aurelie (Ori) finds herself having to change all of her plans after being caught breaking one of the biggest promises between best friends: not to kiss your best friend's boyfriend! Shunned by the entire friend group, except for childhood friend Ravi, Ori changes Cornwell with friends for France with her grandfather, who she hardly knows and is slightly forgetful too.

Despite the flaws of every character in the book, it was easy to get invested in their lives as they learn forgiveness, self-respect and love for each other. The history between Ori's grandfather Claude and her great Aunt Odette was a very touching backstory and the way they all grow closer throughout this one journey is heartwarming. Their secrets and swept-away feelings have surrounded them for decades but Ori manages to get them to open up to each other and help them realise that their old coping mechanisms just weren't working at all.

When I first started reading this book, I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to connect with Ori and her teenage thoughts and problems. I haven't been a teenager for a good few years but she is written in such a way that you can't help wanting the best for her, even though she doesn't give the best first impression. This story definitely takes the reader on the adventure of Ori growing up and realising the type of person she is, away from her friends and their influence. It really makes you root for her to sort everything out and for her to finally make that big glass of lemonade from all of the recent lemons she's been handed recently.

Overall, this story was sweet, charming and unputdownable. It is definitely something I would recommend to everyone, no matter their age as it's certainly a story to raise the spirits. I will also be keeping my eye out for future books from this author.

[Hannah Rials Jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very cute summer kind-of-anti-romance with a helping of family drama! Quite light, not normally my thing, but the writing was strong and the characters endearing. Perfect book to read by the sea side. Got vibes of Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was easy to bing-read, allowing me to finish it within the timeframe of a day. This novel is light and straight-to-the-point, with the added bonus of sarcastic humour providing an insight to the thinking patterns of a teenage girl. Although the storyline was a bit basic, all revolving around the huge mistake of kissing someone else’s boyfriend for the matter of two seconds, the added events and characters introduced later in the storyline built on the plot and created an addictive, memorable read.
I enjoyed the added element of romance and how this story had a happy, somewhat unexpected ending.

[petite_bibliotheque · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5/5

Honnêtement je pensais moins accroché et finalement j’ai passé un super moment. Je me suis vraiment attachée aux personnages et c’était sincèrement drôle avec des références très gen z j’ai bien kiffé. Je suis simplement un peu déçue parce que le dénouement est un peu en-dehors de tout le développement de l’histoire avant j’ai trouvé, mais globalement c’était fun, sans prise de tête, avec des sujets importants comme la famille et l’amitié, à lire au soleil en sirotant une grenadine quoi !!

[Noa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in France, a rom-com, making mistakes, finding yourself,.... yes perfect i like

[Angelina Ballerina · Rating 4 out of 5]

En super härlig och lugn sommarbok !! Rekommenderar starkt !!!!!!

[Lara Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was really good and lots was happening which is good because it got me hooked. But I hated Jackson’s character he cringed me out tbh.

[Hedda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Det första hon gjorde va att klippa av allt hår och färga det rosa… hon kallade dessutom all för boomers. Förutom det va den bra och jag gillade slutet men ville ha lite mer romans kanske

[Fateme H. · Rating 1 out of 5]

آیا من و تمام کسانی که قبل از من این کتاب رو خونده و بهش امتیاز داده‌ن، یک کتاب واحد رو خونده‌یم؟ قدری شک دارم.
برای من بدترین کتاب ۲۰۲۵ تا این‌جا بود. یک ستاره برای عناوین فصول، چون خلاقیتش برام جالب بود. می‌خواستم بگم شاید این تنها بخش خلاقانه کتاب بوده باشه، ولی بی‌خیال.
شاید هم چون کتاب ترجمه و سانسور شده بود این‌قدر بدم اومد، نمی‌دونم. نشر ایران‌بان با عنوان «شیرین مثل لیمو ترش» چاپش کرده. به هر حال حتی اگر این بوده باشه هم، طرح اصلی داستان و شخصیت‌هاش هیچ‌جوره برای من جالب نبود و در بهترین حالت این یک ستاره می‌خواست تبدیل بشه به دو ستاره.

[Imogen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it

[just afangirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn’t expect how much I would like this book. It was very refreshing, funny read with some deep parts that made me stop and think (and go and hug my mom). Overall a very good read!!

[Millie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet, summer teen romance - perfect for ages 12 onwards.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly engaging book, which I read largely in one sitting. Set in the summer after her GCSEs, it’s the story of Audrey, who is spending the summer with her estranged grandfather in France; having kissed her best friend’s boyfriend in a moment of madness her previous plans have unsurprisingly fallen through.

I really enjoyed this - it was written with warmth and humour, and the teenage characters were realistically flawed. The familial relationships between Aurelie, her grandfather and his sister were also given lots of time and space, and this balanced the book really well.

[Wilma · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5/3
The main charachter was annoying like 2/3 of the story, she became less annoying towards the end. It was cozy and gave me the summer feels.

[Rachel Churcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

For more YA reviews, visit my blog – Unsupervised in a Bookstore .

This is a sweet YA romance, and therefore not my usual choice of reading, but it grabbed me from the start and kept the pages turning right up until the satisfying ending. It's a perfect holiday beach read, with the power to make it feel like summer even as I was reading it in October.

Ori is looking forward to a summer of camping and festivals with her best friends from school. Her mum will be in Chicago with her new boyfriend, their flat is being rented out on Airbnb while they are both away, and everything is lined up for the perfect holiday ... until Ori makes a really, really big mistake and loses most of her friends overnight. Camping is off, festivals are off, and the flat will be someone else's home while her mother is out of the country.

Enter Ori's grandfather Claude – a notoriously clueless womaniser who lives in France, and calls in to see her once every few years. She's dreading spending time with him, let alone staying with him in his small French village, helping him convert an old barn into a music venue for the local community. But that's what her mother has organised, and she has nowhere else to go.

But Claude turns out to have hidden depths, eccentric family connections, and neighbours with a student grandson who is also staying for the summer. Despite life giving her lemons, Ori decides to make metaphorical lemonade, and enjoy her enforced holiday as much as she can.

It's a fun story, with family feuds and secrets to uncover, neighbours and extended family to meet, and an absolutely gorgeous setting. I wanted to join Ori and her grandfather as they spent their days preparing the barn for a grand opening, and their evenings swimming in the river at the edge of his property. The descriptions of the village, the great food and drink, and their progress on the barn made the story glow.

Feel-good and engaging, this book surprised and hooked me, a taste of summer between its pages.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was looking forward to this book, but I actually loved it so much more than I thought I was going to. It has a gentleness to it, and an honesty, that gives it a depth beyond what you might expect from a light, summery, rom-com romp. But it’s still great fun!

As someone who spent many teenage hours staring out a car window at beautiful French countryside and fantasying about the boys that may have been hidden there, The Thing About Lemons is like my own teen brain on a page! It has such a believable teen voice: all the conflict between self-belief and self doubt, intensely emotional friendships without being over-dramatic, the crushes and the fashion crises all set alongside tenderness and family and slow growing wisdom. And despite my nostalgia, it also has everything my own distant teenage years lacked, both the bad: the temptation of social media and ever-present FOMO, and the good: a consumer and environmental awareness wore lightly.

It is sweet, witty, pacy and feel-good, and it has two of the most unique and excellent supporting characters in grandparent and great-aunt Claude and Colette —Colette deserves a spin off all of all of her own (the continued hunt for her own Dada-esque ending!)

Highly recommended for 11+

[Rebecca Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly, lemons! Secondly, this book is beautiful; both inside and out! This little book is about a teen finding her way, discovering who she is, and what she wants to do. Ori was flawed, she makes mistakes, but she accepts they were mistakes and tries to make them right. Having made her colossal mistake she has to spend her Summer basically friendless with a grandad she barely knows in France. I absolutely loved their relationship, watching it grow as she realised he wasn't quite as annoying as she thought (and his sister Odette, another great character). I loved all his many nicknames for her, they really made me smile! Each character was written so beautifully and each strand to the story seemed so complete and engaging. The perfect mix of the romance, friendship and family elements. The way it ended was perfect and I can't recommend this book enough!
(My only complaint is she says "Boomer" too much haha! I don't mean a crazy amount like every other page though, only a few but any number of times would be too much for me.)

Thank you to Tasha Harrison and UCLan Publishing for the gorgeous ARC copy of the book so I could write this honest review.

[LK · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely gorgeous summery YA romcom from Tasha Harrison that has SO many of the things I love, all wrapped up in one witty package.

The story follows Ori who, after getting caught smooching her best friend’s boyfriend, heads off for a summer in France with her absentee grandfather, Claude. Along the way they pick up Claude’s sister Odette and a handsome hitchhiker, Elias. Shenanigans ensue…

I whizzed through this book. Although it has plenty of light moments, a cracking pace and dreamy descriptions of the French countryside, it also has a lot of depth. All the characters are well rounded and memorable. I adored Ori who, despite some early questionable behaviour, is realistically flawed, entertaining and very relatable, and the book particularly shines in its depictions of family relationships.

I have to mention my favourite, Odette. I think I’d like to grow up to be her, please, with her animals and art and general awesomeness.

[Rebecca R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ori Reynolds has had a crush on her best friend's boyfriend for a while but when she kisses him and her best friend walks in on them she realises that not only has she lost her best friend, but she has also banished herself from her friendship group and all of her summer plans.

Her Mum is going away on holiday with her new boyfriend, so Ori is sent to France to stay with with her 'Airhead Grandad'. But as she spends time with him and his sister she learns a lot more about their difficult family history and comes to terms with her own mistakes.

I thought this was going to be a light-hearted summer romance but it is actually a coming-of-age story about family, friendship, first love and making mistakes that is thoughtful and funny without being flippant or patronising. I really enjoyed it!

[Zoe Radley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a heartwarming and endearing novel, about messing up relationships both romantic and friendships, about learning to forgive yourself and also finding new family. I at times thought Ori was a bit annoying (but give the girl some credit she’s only sixteen and I was also such a melodramatic, sarcastic and cutting beep lol) but gradually as she learnt to live in the here and now rather than on social media and her phone she came to realise that she was worth something and that she could trust herself. I found her relationships with her grandfather and great aunt cute and adorable and that she realised her situation has a similarity with theirs only she realises that she still has time to make amends and that it’s really not the end of the world.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book. All opinions are 100% my own.

This book was fine. It’ll be a good, quick read for the young adult audience.

This book follows Ori who loses all of her friends after kissing her best friends boyfriend. After being left with no plans for summer she goes on a road trip to France with her estranged grandad and great aunt. Ori’s relationships with her family and her friends Ravi and Jackson are explored throughout the book. I wish there was more Elias content as he was the only mature character in the whole thing.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so enjoyed reading about the (slightly cringy) adventures of Ori. Having kissed her best friend's boyfriend, she escapes to France for the summer, where she gets herself in ever more teenage-angst inducing situations, surrounded and supported by a motley crew of fabulous characters. A fast-paced read full of witty conversations and awkward scenarios — a potent reminder that I'm very relieved to no longer be a teen!

[Lucy Brandt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the perfect teen romcom full of wit, warmth and plenty of angst. Aurelie (Ori) has accidentally managed to kiss her best friend’s boyfriend and been caught. Full of remorse and with her summer plans in tatters, she’s sent away on a French road trip with her estranged Grandpa and his sister. But what she believes will be the worst holiday ever turns into an opportunity to build new family bonds and strengthen old friendships. Very funny and charming, we loved it.

[Mierfie Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can i say? You deserve it? Why Ori hope still be friend with them after what she do? The group make their priority and she better off without them. Then Ori still consider Jackson... oh my god.. I love how Ori reconcile with her grandfather, grow up and face her mistake and choose the right man.

Thank you to NetGalley for provide this book, it is pleasure to review this book.

#TheThingAboutLemons #TashaHarrison #UCLanPublishing #NetGalley #ARC

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was just a fun book to read and I found myself really enjoying it. It was nice to see a character own up to her mistakes and face them, to see her have an experience with her grandad & great aunt that changes her perspective on herself & her family, and to have a less that direct route to the guy. Like Jackson and Elias each worked really well as characters and were pretty likeable (which surprised me with Jackson) and Ravi was also really sweet. Yeah, just a nice read.