If He Had Been with Me

3.5/5 ⭐
I recently reread this so that I could refresh my memory before reading the sequel and I have some thoughts. I don't like the writing. Some people like that it's super simple but everyone talked so grammatically correct and it kind of took me out of the book. I forgot about pretty much everything that happened in the book so most of the “plot twists” were a surprise all over again which was fun. But it felt like nothing really happened for a while as we were introducing characters and going through the high-school drama that I didn't care about eg. the whole table fight thing and all the other couples. It felt like the author was like “what if I wrote a book where one of them tragically dies at the end. That would be cool. Now what to put before that?” Ya know? I wish we got more of Finn and Autumn together. I see why we didn't but it was still disappointing to read all of this buildup of them liking each other and all the relationship drama for him to just die a day after they got together. Finn's death had me in tears. The first time I remember being kind of disappointed and not at all emotional but it hit different this time. I don't like that she wrote in the whole cheating on Sylvie plot point. I get that its “for the drama” or whatever but it still made me feel weird because I hate cheating trope. The ending with the whole suicide attempt pregnancy thing was a decent ending and I was satisfied. It didn't need a sequel just saying.