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Debby's Reviews > By Your Side
By Your Side
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Debby's review
bookshelves: debby-books, own-read, for-review, 2016-reads, banterfluff, best-romance, brb-flailing, everything-i-wanted, favorites-contemporary, stand-alone, tears-in-my-eyes
Oct 25, 2016
bookshelves: debby-books, own-read, for-review, 2016-reads, banterfluff, best-romance, brb-flailing, everything-i-wanted, favorites-contemporary, stand-alone, tears-in-my-eyes
5 stars
She did it again. I don't know how she does it, to be honest. Time and time again, Kasie West writes absolute, pure magic. And despite having loved all of her books until now, she blew me away with By Your Side, which, I think, has definitely taken her to the next level.
By Your Side starts off as the exact perfect cuteness that all your hopeless romantic dreams are made of: a boy and a girl trapped together in a library for three days. It's the middle of winter, so it's cold, so obviously we should like snuggle. Though the boy in this case is distant and at first loathes making any connection with people, with such a situation it's unavoidable. Feelings... blossom.
But then that part ends. BOOM. And we hadn't exactly gotten to the intensely shippy phase yet. It'd all been about that romantic build up though, without much focus on character depth. So I thought, I was definitely enjoying it 100%, but it may end up being a book that's "just" cute.
I was dead wrong.
This book has the depth you're looking for. Autumn actually suffers from anxiety, and the book tackles her disorder in the best possible way. It's not very heavy, it's definitely still light and swoony, but it's completely realistic. And it has such brilliant insights into how her anxiety affects her. How she doesn't want people to treat her differently, but sometimes, she needs that special treatment so she's given the space to relax. How she doesn't want to disappoint people by flaking on plans or saying no, but in her case, she really needs to listen to what's good for HER. And that when figuring out which boy she should actually be with... she needs to pick the one who makes her feel comfortable and at ease, instead of on edge and panicky. Oh my gosh, how I love this little book so.
I flailed. I swooned. I had butterflies. I had tears in my eyes. This book is the total package, guys.
*An electronic advance review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the contents of the review.
She did it again. I don't know how she does it, to be honest. Time and time again, Kasie West writes absolute, pure magic. And despite having loved all of her books until now, she blew me away with By Your Side, which, I think, has definitely taken her to the next level.
By Your Side starts off as the exact perfect cuteness that all your hopeless romantic dreams are made of: a boy and a girl trapped together in a library for three days. It's the middle of winter, so it's cold, so obviously we should like snuggle. Though the boy in this case is distant and at first loathes making any connection with people, with such a situation it's unavoidable. Feelings... blossom.
But then that part ends. BOOM. And we hadn't exactly gotten to the intensely shippy phase yet. It'd all been about that romantic build up though, without much focus on character depth. So I thought, I was definitely enjoying it 100%, but it may end up being a book that's "just" cute.
I was dead wrong.
This book has the depth you're looking for. Autumn actually suffers from anxiety, and the book tackles her disorder in the best possible way. It's not very heavy, it's definitely still light and swoony, but it's completely realistic. And it has such brilliant insights into how her anxiety affects her. How she doesn't want people to treat her differently, but sometimes, she needs that special treatment so she's given the space to relax. How she doesn't want to disappoint people by flaking on plans or saying no, but in her case, she really needs to listen to what's good for HER. And that when figuring out which boy she should actually be with... she needs to pick the one who makes her feel comfortable and at ease, instead of on edge and panicky. Oh my gosh, how I love this little book so.
I flailed. I swooned. I had butterflies. I had tears in my eyes. This book is the total package, guys.
*An electronic advance review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the contents of the review.
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Reading Progress
July 16, 2015
– Shelved
October 24, 2016
–
Started Reading
October 25, 2016
–
Finished Reading
