A review by lorena3585
If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin

lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.0

i’m not sure yet of my thoughts on this book as i have just finished it five minutes ago, but what is certain is that it captivated me. it did have quite a few traits that didn’t correlate with me, but they didn’t stop me from wanting to find out what the deal was about this book. it has a great score on goodreads, people recommend it online, and i even saw a classmate of mine reading it, so of course i had to try to understand the hype. sadly, i didn’t, but i can’t say that i regret picking it up. the story gets progressively better and at one point you get used to autumn’s “quirky” and “i’m so different” persona. yeah, she’s pretty and she knows it. oh she’s also weird 🤪 and people don’t get her. i could see the ending coming but it still somehow shocked me. the last few pages were sort of hard to grasp. i guess the book ends on a cliffhanger that i saw as unnecessary because it wasn’t an open ending - it was just a confusing ending. also, it doesn’t really have a plot???? we follow their relationship’s development through their high school years but somehow it felt shallow as if not a lot actually happened. personally, too much jamie, it could’ve used more finn. he could’ve been an interesting character, but the author just didn’t show us enough of his personality (oh! she wrote another book from HIS pov so she could make more money. got it). a book that was sorta decent but at the same time not worth it. had i been 14 while reading this oh boy would i have found my new favourite book