Edie Mey­er knows exact­ly when she’s going to meet the love of her life. It has dic­tat­ed almost every step she’s tak­en: who she dates, her pro­fes­sion, her entire world­view. Edie’s grand­moth­er, Glo­ria, has a spe­cial intu­ition: she is able to pre­dict pre­cise­ly when every­one in her extend­ed fam­i­ly will meet the one with whom they are intend­ed to spend the rest of their life. When Edie meets a musi­cian, Theo, on the exact date her grand­moth­er spec­i­fied, Edie is con­vinced he is the per­son for her.

But although a rela­tion­ship between Theo and Edie begins to blos­som, the two don’t have the smooth road to love Edie envi­sioned. Instead, Edie remains con­flict­ed over how she dealt with a pre­vi­ous rela­tion­ship, and dif­fer­ences between her and Theo — from fam­i­ly to reli­gion, even to mar­riage — become clear. After two life-alter­ing events occur, Edie is forced to con­front what’s been both­er­ing her: If this is tru­ly the love that is meant to be, how can there be so many things that don’t fit?

Meant to Be Mine is a heart­warm­ing and well-writ­ten roman­tic sto­ry, with relat­able char­ac­ters and a won­der­ful­ly described set­ting. The con­cept of bash­ert is present through much of the nov­el, and the pieces of Jew­ish tra­di­tion incor­po­rat­ed into the sto­ry are com­pelling. Glo­ria and Edie’s rela­tion­ship is beau­ti­ful, and the cen­ter­ing pres­ence of fam­i­ly is empha­sized through­out the book. Meant to Be Mine is an excel­lent sum­mer read.