Meet Me at Midnight coming June 30th, 2026 from Delacorte Press; 352 pages
About the Author: “Brianna Bourne writes books about teenagers that meet in impossible situations – and then try very hard not to kiss. Her debut novel, You and Me at the End of the World, was recommended by The New York Times on their summer YA reading list, and was later called ‘Stunning’ by bestselling novelist Emily Henry. Bri’s heart-wrenching sophomore novel, The Half-Life of Love, was shortlisted for The Cybils Award and placed on the OLA Sequoyah Masterlist, and was recently nominated for the Carnegie Medal for Writing. Bri lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and two young daughters” (Bio from author’s website).
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Aria thinks it’s just her overactive imagination that causes her to dream up Strat—a beautiful, piano-playing rich boy—but when she meets him in the real world, fantasy and reality collide. And it’s amazing. Strat takes her away from all the hard things in her life, including her sister’s coma and her parents’ divorce. But memory is a fickle thing, and when Aria and Strat find themselves face to face with the truth they must choose between the life they built…or the fantasy they’ve constructed.
Aria is me, and I am her (except, I didn’t meet the love of my life in a dream). Aria is a dreamer and a hopeless romantic. She was a starkly defined character, which was super interesting because a large part of the book was in her head, and she was putting together the pieces of who she really is. Furthermore, this book was great because of the commentary about fantasy and reality. Aria had to come to terms with the fact that reality is sometimes worse and yet almost always better than fantasy, and it wasn’t just when it came to Strat and the romance. There were several aspects of Aria’s life that were tied up in fantasy and she had to break down those walls before she could see how great her real life is. As a reader, writer, and general creative I really related to Aria having her “head in the clouds,” so I really appreciated it being the heart of the story and the character growth. There were also parts of this book that spoke about toxic or unhealthy relationships, and I don’t think you see that a lot in young adult (YA) lit, so I really appreciated that. The only strange and slightly unsettling part of this book was the balance between romance/fiction and the fantastical/science-fiction elements. It was a bit disconnected for me, even when it became an imperative part of the plot. For me, the center of this book was the growth between Aria and Strat, and them realizing that their dream world, and even their past life, isn’t as great as what they built in reality, so when the science fiction elements get introduced, it felt like an odd addition. All in all, this book was such a sweet romance, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. I will also be reading all of Brianna Bourne’s other novels because she’s proved to me she knows romance.
Meet Me at Midnight releases on June 30th, 2026.
Pine Reads Review would like to thank NetGalley and Delacorte Press for sending us an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change before final publication.
Hayley Bigelow, Pine Reads Review Writer