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A review by starcrossreverie
If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I'm not even going to read the second book. It's from Finn's POV and I don't want to sit through that bullshit.
This story started off okayish. I wasn't having fun but it wasn't a pain to continue reading. I started loving the story when Autumn and her friends started to feel like actual characters. I believe this was around the time the writing stopped being so vague about their time together and got detailed with the scenes.
This book had a perfect coming-of-age story and I was going to mark this as a perfect 4-star (due to the beginning being meh) but then...
I started to not like this story after Jamie broke up with Autumn. Him cheating on her with Sasha wasn't surprising, I figured something was up the moment he said "Me too." in one scene after Autumn told him she loved him. He always replied with a "I love you, too." so that change was a huge tip off.
And I didn't mind that Finn and Autumn started hanging out together again. I thought that moment was sweet, that they were finally rekindling their friendship.
And then things started getting weird. They were doing romantic things together while he was still dating Sylvie, who was overseas on vacation. They fell asleep in Finn's bed together, they hung out really late at night, they did that stupid romance trope during a horror movie where the girl cowers into the guy and the guy puts his arm around her shoulders.
I didn't think it would get worse than that but of course it did.
They had sex. Finn cheated on Sylvie and Autumn was a part of that betrayal the same way Sasha and Jamie did to her.
That scene killed their characters for me. I didn't care that Finn was planning on breaking up with Sylvie once she returned. He still cheated on her and I hate this story for doing that. I didn't even care that he died. I pushed through the rest of the chapters after that horror movie scene and stopped caring all together when they had sex.
The only reason this story isn't a 1-star is because of those moments before the breakup with Jamie happened. I was having fun with the book and because of that this story is a 2-stars for me.
I'm not going to bother reading the Finn POV book. Right now, I feel nothing for Finn and I just know I'll just hate his pining for Autumn knowing what he'll do to Sylvie in the end.
Overall, a story that had great potential if it didn't enjoy cheating tropes.
This story started off okayish. I wasn't having fun but it wasn't a pain to continue reading. I started loving the story when Autumn and her friends started to feel like actual characters. I believe this was around the time the writing stopped being so vague about their time together and got detailed with the scenes.
This book had a perfect coming-of-age story and I was going to mark this as a perfect 4-star (due to the beginning being meh) but then...
And I didn't mind that Finn and Autumn started hanging out together again. I thought that moment was sweet, that they were finally rekindling their friendship.
And then things started getting weird. They were doing romantic things together while he was still dating Sylvie, who was overseas on vacation. They fell asleep in Finn's bed together, they hung out really late at night, they did that stupid romance trope during a horror movie where the girl cowers into the guy and the guy puts his arm around her shoulders.
I didn't think it would get worse than that but of course it did.
They had sex. Finn cheated on Sylvie and Autumn was a part of that betrayal the same way Sasha and Jamie did to her.
That scene killed their characters for me. I didn't care that Finn was planning on breaking up with Sylvie once she returned. He still cheated on her and I hate this story for doing that. I didn't even care that he died. I pushed through the rest of the chapters after that horror movie scene and stopped caring all together when they had sex.
The only reason this story isn't a 1-star is because of those moments before the breakup with Jamie happened. I was having fun with the book and because of that this story is a 2-stars for me.
I'm not going to bother reading the Finn POV book. Right now, I feel nothing for Finn and I just know I'll just hate his pining for Autumn knowing what he'll do to Sylvie in the end.
Overall, a story that had great potential if it didn't enjoy cheating tropes.