Book Review: If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin

Title:  Title:  If He Had Been With Me

Author:  Laura Nowlin
Release date:  April 2nd, 2013
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Genre:  YA, contemporary romance, realistic

Throughout their whole childhood, Finn and Autumn were inseparable—they finished each other's sentences, they knew just what to say when the other person was hurting. But one incident in middle school puts them in separate social worlds come high school, and Autumn has been happily dating James for the last 2 years. But she's always wondered what if...
The night she's about to get the answer is also one of terrible tragedy

If He Had Been With Me was on my 'can't wait' list for months and I couldn't resist and read it the moment I got my hands on it. I started reading in the morning and didn't put it down until I was done crying because I had a feeling someone stabbed me in the heart even though the book started with the most unpleasant thing than can happen. I chose to ignore it. There was just no way the story would go there. Well, I cried for a long time. 

Autumn used to be friends with her first door neighbor, Finn but after middle school she becomes very popular and they grow apart. Now in high school, Autumn is a part of a gang who are different from other students. They dress differently, listen to cool music, change their hair colors, well you get the picture. Finn is a hangin with the popular crowd-cheerleaders and football players and they ignore each other all the time except it's hard since their mothers are really close friends and they even eat together. 

Even though Finn and Autumn are not friends any more she can help but think about the time they spent together so we get to read about their childhood memories. Finn is such a sweet guy and is a devoted friend so I couldn't help but cheer for him to end up with Autumn even though they were both dating other people. Autumn is also battling with depression which she ignores as a winter blues. Her boyfriend is not really helpful in that department so Finn is there to make it all better. Finn's dad is also never around but he tries to buy his affection with expensive gifts. Both characters need each other to move on from their issues but disaster strikes and everything changes. 

I love to read heartbreaking stories because they make me feel alive. Make me see life in another light. I will bore my friends to pick this book up until they block me. I urge you to buy it. It's worth the money. Yes! I know you want to read it. So what are you waiting for?