Review: Beautiful, Gut Wrenching, Redemptive!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 28, 2013
Talk about an intense, in-your-face, emotionally charged read! By My Side by Stephanie Witter is that and more! Lily's world is coming down all around her and her super prickly, sarcastic faade is slipping. Her parents have divorced, her mother is drinking herself do death, her father has completely distanced himself, her best friend has suddenly cut her off, so where can Lily find some comfort and a place to feel safe? Why not with the lifelong pain-in-the-neck, evil brother of her best friend? Makes. Total. Sense. Okay, maybe not, but that's what happens when Gabe comes home from college for the summer, sadder, quieter, more mature and most definitely attracted to Lily. Lily even trusts the `new' Gabe with her private art, which for Lily is like letting someone read her diary, because this has always been how she pours her feelings out.Still, Lily misses Andy, her best friend. Their relationship has fallen completely to ruins, and jealousy is the reason. Somewhere along the way, Andy's feeling for Lily have changed and to him, once again, Gabe comes out on top. Can she bring the brothers back together without losing them both? After all, she needs them each in a different way. Then, just when there is some good in her life, once again, she is beaten down when she wakes up to a real life nightmare that she couldn't prevent. How much more can Lily take? What about when Gabe goes back to college? Will he still want her? Will he even remember her? Lily's own insecurities could cost her Gabe, but maybe she needs to heal herself before she can be any good for anyone.This is an emotional roller coaster, a real three hankie read for me. Stephanie Witter has colored a world full of the realities of pain, love, loss and gain in a beautiful coming of age young adult romance that I can't praise enough!