Me Since You

Me Since You by Laura Weiss

ISBN: 1439193975

Pages: 368

Appearance:

Summary:

Are there any answers when someone you love makes a tragic choice?
Before and After. That's how Rowan Areno sees her life now. Before: she was a normal sixteen-year-old--a little too sheltered by her police officer father and her mother. After: everything she once believed has been destroyed in the wake of a shattering tragedy, and every day is there to be survived.
If she had known, on that Friday in March when she cut school, that a random stranger's shocking crime would have traumatic consequences, she never would have left campus. If the crime video never went viral, maybe she could have saved her mother, grandmother--and herself--from the endless replay of heartache and grief.
Finding a soul mate in Eli, a witness to the crime who is haunted by losses of his own, Rowan begins to see there is no simple, straightforward path to healing wounded hearts. Can she learn to trust, hope, and believe in happiness again?

Hey guys! Finally have a review up. This was originally going to be combined with my review for The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle, but I haven't started on that yet and I already had this done. I think we've all had enough of seeing blitz posts am I right? Anyway, welcome to my second book review for NetGalley! Super duper excited to share with you this beautiful story that definitely invoked some serious emotion and tears with me. Let's get into it!

I seem to be having a trend with my genre of books recently even though I generally avoid emotionally wrecking books because I'm a pretty sensitive reader and I can tear up quite easily. Yet, I just felt so drawn to this story, I just couldn't resist. 

First of all, what I loved about this book was that we didn't start off in a pit. The story starts with Rowan living her life as a regular teenager doing what teenagers do. Skip school. With that type of beginning, you get to see Rowan as a regular character before this huge hurricane blows into her life. This allows a small connection to be established so that when that massive hurricane arrives you don't feel detached, but completely part of every single moment in her life. Essentially, you become her and experience everything. The other thing I want to mention, the writing. Omgawds, the writing is so amazing and close to flawless. It really just brings out those emotions within and just makes you want to cry. 

One of the things that I found the most faulty was the length. When I mentioned hurricane, I wasn't kidding. Rowan went through a lot of crap in this book and after a while, you feel like enough is enough. It's like the author had a full bag of the worst things that could happen to a character, picked out a few, and just threw them straight at Rowan's face. That's not to say it was clichéd or anything. Everything logically makes sense, but like I said before, the writing just amplifies it so it feels anything but clichéd. 

Then again, on the bright side to the length, you got to see Rowan heal. Towards the late 2/3 of the book, there are excerpts of Rowan's grief journal and it gives an in depth view of Rowan and her feelings towards everything that is going on. The grief journal holds a lot of emotion and they just really open up those floodgates. The ending to the story is happy, I'll give you that much and I'm so glad that it is because I couldn't take one more sad thing. The ending is really, truly very beautiful and a wonderful conclusion.

Definitely recommend, go give it a try, but be sure to keep tissues nearby :) 

Grief...You can't hide from it/ There is no over, under, or around it. No avoiding. It will stay until you make your way through it.

Never deprive someone of hope; it may be all they have.

Death slew not him, but he made death his ladder to the skies.

Death knows exactly how to break your heart, over and over again.

Greif numbs me, protects me; shields go up and come down again inch by inch, only allowing me to see as much of my wretched new reality as I can handle at the time.

All those stars up there, shining so bright, and so many already dead.

The beginning of the healing, I mean, because me and mom are starting to reach for each other across the empty space you left between us and every new moment we share that's just us changes something, makes the would seem just a bit smaller and just a little less hurtful.

Not defeat Dad. Understanding and acceptance. And in the end, isn't that all any of us can try for anyway?

3.5 out of 5 stars

Foreverly Obsessed,

Riv