Alex (Pucksandpaperbacks) | Our Way Back to Always
Our Way Back to Always
Nina Moreno
To All the Boys I've Loved Before meets Since You’ve Been Gone in this effervescent romance about childhood best friends reconnecting, full of sunny days, warm nights, first kisses, and mended hearts.
Lou Patterson and Sam Alvarez were inseparable—the best of friends—until the most embarrassing middle school promposal ever. Now, four years later, Lou is an introverted romantic who’s bearing the weight of her mother’s expectations. Meanwhile, Sam is the golden boy with plenty of friends who’s still mourning the death of his father.
When Lou finds the bucket list she and Sam wrote together as kids, she’s disappointed to see that she hasn’t accomplished a single one of her goals.
Go to a party? Nope.
Pull the greatest prank of all time? Still no.
Learn how to be a really good kisser? Definitely not.
Lou sets out to finish the list, and in a stroke of fate, Sam decides to tag along, stirring up old arguments and some very new feelings.
But with the bucket list to guide them, Sam and Lou might just be able to find a way toward the future and each other.
BINGO CARD PROMPTS
- Read a book set at the beach
- Read a book where the character completes a bucket list
- Read a novella
- Read a book that starts with 'J'
- Attend reading sprints
- Read a book featuring ice cream
- Read a book published in July
- Read a book with disability/neurodivergent rep (It's Disability Pride Month!)
- Read a book on your summer TBR
- Read a book with your favorite color on the cover
- Read a graphic novel, comic, or manga
- Read a book set during the summer
- Read a romance book
- Read a middle grade book
- Have a summer treat
- Write a book review
Recommendations
Disability & Neurodivergent Rep
- Here We Go Again by Alison Cochrun (ADHD)
- Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White (Autism)
- How to Become a Planet by Nicole Melleby (anxiety & depression)
- Someone to Daydream About by Sydney Langford (deaf FMC, MMC w/ ADHD, dysgraphia & dyslexia)
Graphic Novels
- Magical Boy by The Kao
- The Chromatic Fantasy by H.A.
- Homebody by Theo Parish
- This One Summer by Mariko & Jillian Tamaki
Manga
- Blue Flag by KAITO
- Dinosaur Sanctuary by Itaru Kinoshita
- Confessions of a Shy Baker by Masaomi Ito (CW: Dieting, calorie counting)
- Cat + Gamer by Wataru Nadatani
Summer (Beach) Reads
- Melt My Heart by Bethany Rutter
- The House of Now and Then by Edward Underhill
- The Summer of Everything by Julian Winters
- If You Change Your Mind by Robby Weber
- Our Way Back to Always by Nina Moreno
Books starting with 'J'
- Just As You Are by Cameron Kellogg
- Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead
- Just Between Us by Adeline Kon
- Joy, to the World by Lisa Bunker, Kai Shappley
- Junior High by Tegan & Sara
Books Published in July
- Buried Feelings by Kit Rosewater (July 7, 2026)
- Heartstopper: Volume Six by Alice Oseman (July 2026)
- Melt My Heart by Bethany Rutter (July 23, 2020)
Middle Grade books
- The Beautiful Something Else by Alder Van Otterloo
- The House of Sunrise Lagoon series by Nicole Melleby
- Glitch Girl! by Rainie Oet
- Dear Mothman by Robin Gow
Novellas
- Finna by Nino Cipri
- Peter Darling by Austin Chant
- Read Between the Lines by Bee Medina
- Loading...The Machine Child by T.T. Wadden
Romance Books
- The Next Chapter by Cameron Kellogg
- And They Were Roommates by Page Powars
- Xeni by Rebekah Weatherspoon
- The Broposal by Sonido Reyes