Where She Went

i’m a total sucker for romance novels no matter how cheesy and unrealistic they are.
which is why i was able to blow past the incredibly poor writing style of Stephanie Meyer {in my own opinion} and get through the Twilight books.
but then if i think about it too much afterwards [like i did with Twilight] then i start to realize how really bad the book was [like i did with Twilight] and feel a little ashamed that i actually read it so quickly.

however, i have had enough time to think over and analyze this book and i can firmly tell you that it really is a lovely, beautiful romance story.

Where She Went is the new BlogHer Book Club book i got to read and is actually the sequel to the book If I Stay. but i’m really glad i started the series with this book instead since i know i probably wouldn’t analyzed that one too much… though maybe not cause i heard it’s really good too.

even though it is a sequel, you don’t really have to read the first book to get an idea of what is going on.
there is enough flashbacks and background information that you are given the gist of what happened in the first book [though it wouldn’t hurt to read it i’m sure. and i do plan on going back and reading it]

to give you an idea of what happened, Adam and Mia are high school sweethearts when their world is turned upside down after a car crash kills all of Mia’s family except her.
seeing Mia balancing between life and death almost kills Adam.
but Mia miraculously recovers and goes on to fulfill her dreams of attending Julliard to be a professional cellist while Adam stays in Oregon to pursue his own dream of being a rock star.

you don’t really get this from the beginning, but they had a really bad falling out and Adam has basically been depressed about losing Mia for the last 3 years.
when all of a sudden, fate pushes them together again for one night, changing everything.

i really liked the story.
it was captivating and beautiful and had me squirming with all my junior high girlish excitement.
Gayle Forman does a great job at keeping you intrigued from chapter to chapter.
i literally could not put it down. i finished it in one day.

my only critical comments are these:
+the chapters go back and forth between present & flashbacks. which is good and fine especially if you haven’t read the first one. but i would get annoyed when the chapter would end right in the middle of a really intense discussion and then flash back to high school time. ugh!!!
which is why i couldn’t put it down! i had to keep going to figure out what happened and get through the history chapters.

+the high school stuff was actually kind of weird to me. so i guess Adam and Mia dated for 2 years which is cool. but both their parents were surprisingly open to a lot of things for them even though they were only 16 and 18 or something. like Adam said he would always sleep over at her house while her parents were there and her parents basically just treated them as if they were in their mid-twenties and in a super serious relationship.
maybe i’m just uptight but it just seemed weird. like it seemed pretty, ridiculously unrealistic but trying to play to the girlish whims that readers would have [a.k.a. Twilight-esque]. but i’m glad i started the story when they were older and it could be a little more exciting and realistic to me.
{just my opinion}

both of those things though wouldn’t keep me from reading the book again.
i still really enjoyed it!
it made my appreciate MY Adam and our own love story
[actually there were a lot of similarities between this Adam and my Adam, good ones, so that was fun!]

so if you are looking for a good, fun, girly, LOVELY book to read, i recommend Where She Went

 

*there is some foul language in the book [which is apparently a new norm] so be aware of that

 

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.