A review by penniew79
If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin

5.0

This book took me on an emotional rollercoaster! I loved it but hated it all the same. It literally broke my heart.

Autumn and Finn have known each other since birth. They were inseparable. But then life and cliques happen and they grow apart. You go through all of their high school years of their lives. You’ll meet their friends. You will go through and emotional life with Autumn. She deals with the ups and downs of her parents lives. She oddly has an obsession with Tiaras. She goes through ups and downs of dating the same guy. She and Finn aren’t close but do not hate each other. But you see how she goes through adolescence and deals with mental health issues. Clearly, her mental health is something she has inherited from her mother.

I do feel that for some this book could have used Trigger Warnings. I am not easily triggered, but mental health is discussed and dealt with so much through this. There’s depression and discussions of eating disorders. And there is attempted suicide discussed in it. At one point it is almost vividly mentioned.