Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - If He Had Been with Me

Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin

86 reviews

sterreks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

i related to autumn a bit too much

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rubberrosebooks's review against another edition

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emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I loved this book so much 🥹 The author did such a great job of creating characters who felt like real-life high school students. Their emotions, struggles, daily activities, and responses to conflict were both realistic and modern. Autumn was such a relatable character to me personally, and I just wanted to hug her 🥺

Communication is a key component of learning how to be a human in our society. The author does an incredible job showcasing the depth of emotion, maturity, and growth it takes for teens to communicate with their friends, family, and significant others.

I loved everything about this book and am thankful to Booktok for the recommendation ❤️

P.s. If you're an empath like me, be prepared to cry 🙃

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ginger010's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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samantha_dhanda's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Oh my god. You read this book in Autumn (the main character) point of view before the bad thing happens I don’t love how long it took for the main characters to find each other again but how the author rights it is nice. I HATE the ending in the ending I got teary eyed and mad at how it all happened. There is a sex scene but it is not graphic. It just says they took each others clothes off. And when they were done they were done he went and took a shower and she said that there was blood on the sheets. But it doesn’t go in graphic detail about anything. There is a book after this in Finny (the male point of view) called “if only I had told her.” I didn’t love this book to the point where I’m gonna be reading that one. But for anyone who does want to that’s the title. .
Im giving this book 3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hope this review helped.🖤

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lauren_shilling's review against another edition

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emotional sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

So everyone says this book makes them cry, but it didn't make me cry. It didn't break my heart, but it felt like it had carved my heart right out of my chest. I felt so empty after finishing it. I hurt so much, and left me feeling very numb. The entire book has a very melancholy tone, and you know what's going to happen from the first chapter. Even though I knew what was going to happen, I spent the entire book convincing myself that it wouldn't and trying to pretend like everything would be okay in the end. It hurt so badly, and I love Autumn and Finn so much. At first, I wasn't sure if I liked Autumn because she felt like a very classic "weird" girl character that the popular boy falls in love with (even though that isn't really the setup of the story at all), but I fell in love with her pretty quickly. Finn I fell in love with instantly. I loved him so much. This book was a messy story with messy characters, but even though they were so messy, they were so good. In the end, they were such good people, and they were always meant for each other, but things got so complicated so quickly and so easily. I don't really know what more to say except that I really adore these characters and this story, and it left me feeling so empty and sad that I cannot properly express it.

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sing1133's review

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

I listened to this as an audiobook after hearing a lot of good things about this book.
I really enjoyed listening to it and really liked the story.
There were some parts where it felt like not a lot was happening yet I didn’t get bored. The chapters were quick which is always a positive thing in my mind.
Nothing dragged on for too long.
I also really liked that Autumn’s boyfriend Jamie wasn’t terrible

at least not the whole time, at the end for sure.

I feel like usually in books where two people should be together or want to be, their significant other is often portrayed as a bad partner in some way but for most of this book I thought Jamie was fine.
He wasn’t my favourite character and I didn’t think they were perfect for each other but I didn’t hate it either.
That’s what made me interested even more because I didn’t really hate anyone and it made the situation more complicated.
I also liked how on top of everything it felt like a normal high school experience too with people growing apart but still having a connection and having trouble dealing with that.
It definitely was a sad ending and it definitely did rip my heart out seeing it coming but I also wasn’t quite as connected to Finn and Autumn as I thought I’d be. I loved Finn a lot and I did want them together but it wasn’t as much as I thought.

I both loved and hated the accident at the end. It was so sad and clearly the book was leading to this but I also felt like it was sudden. And then the very very end with Autumn felt heartbreaking but also sudden to. It just ended a bit abruptly for me which is what brought it down a tiny bit from a 5 star.

Over all though I like this book a lot.

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amelie_wat's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted relaxing sad medium-paced

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

3.75

🚨SPOILERS🚨

This book was a roller coaster - and oh boy, that ending…the lack of transition into such a big plot twist was bold and I personally did not enjoy it as much as other readers.

Overall, I generally liked the characters throughout the book. The story was compelling and the romance aspects were especially well written. I just wish it was a little shorter, I understand that a lot of the chapters were used to develop Autumn and Finn’s relationship - but at some points It just seemed unnecessary.

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jnterhune's review against another edition

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emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Nice read, lower rating because felt it was a really long story line and some of it was kinda unnecessary and just fillers. Enjoyed enough to preorder the second. Thought about the ending for a couple of days, did not cry but still couldn’t get out of mind. Enjoyed

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kozufen's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

4.5

It took me a while to get into this book but once I got into it hours went by as I read this.

It felt like I was autumn and as if I was in her position. It felt so real to me.

Loved the way it was written!

finny and autumn deserved better:( finny shouldn’t have just died like that but it was so good.

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speterson47's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

3.0

Autumn and Finn (or Finney), have been best friends forever, until they sort of weren't anymore, but their moms' are still best friends and they live next store to one another. We hear the story from Autumn's perspective and jump back in time often to when they were close. What was it like when they were close? How will their high school years go if they aren't best friends anymore? What would it be like if they were maybe more than best friends?

Would recommend to fans of romance and realistic fiction with a touch of mystery and drama.

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