Reviews

If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin

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bookstagramuser's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

**Spoilers Below**
⚠️TRIGGER WARNING - Death and S*****e⚠️
This damn book. It kept coming up in people's reels about books that made them cry and now... I get it. Firstly, Finny has my heart. What an amazing and caring young man. Autumn, the main character is a quirky young writer that lives next door to her childhood bestfriend Finny. Their mom's are best friends and that have been brought up together. As they grow up and go through middle and high school they drift apart and start dating people and making new friends and going through their own problems with family and mental health, whilst slowly losing one another. However, when Autumn's boyfriend Jamie cheats with one of her best friends (fuck you Jamie), Finny and Autumn get close again and realise they have always loved each other. They sleep together and Finny says he is going to leave his girlfriend for Autumn. However when he goes to do this, he gets into a car crash and he dies. We actually know he dies from the start which makes it hurt 10x more. The book ends with Autumn attempting to take her own life, only to find out she is pregnant with Finnys baby. I have not cried at a book like this in a while. I will 100% be reading the follow up book too. The only reason is isn't a 5 star is because I felt the ending was a bit rushed for my liking. But other then that, I 100% recommend reading this book!!💔😭

Content Warnings