However, Autumn’s friends support her desire to wear tiaras, even adding to her collection on birthdays and holidays. Only a few pages into the prologue of If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin, readers are hit with a jarring yet interesting revelation: this book is not a typical romance novel. 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. Despite knowing this I continually tried to bury this awful fact at the back of my mind, I kept trying to make myself believe that the author would change the course of the story and that maybe she was just playing with us.

At home, they continue to celebrate holidays together with their families, even though things are awkward between the two of them. The stories were timed right as to show their significance into why that memory had a specific impact to why Autumn was the way she was today. Some readers may have got frustrated with Autumn’s decisions, but if I were in her shoes I don’t think I would have done it any other way. I really wanted to love this book but it did fall a little flat for me unfortunately and I found myself skimming quite a bit of it.If you’re worried about giving this book a try because of the heart breaking story please don’t because Nowlin’s gorgeous prose is not one to be missed. also let me just say that i really just read the first chapter in this book and was like ah ok and wiped my mind clean of it CLEARLY bc i should not be this big of a mess rn. Eventually, Autumn and Finny find their way back to each other and fall in love—only to be separated again by Finny’s death, which finally gives readers context to the foreshadowing in the prologue that lured them into the story. At the end, when Nowlin reveals why Finny should have been with Autumn all along, readers are sure to feel the ache of life's capriciousness. This war continues for weeks until Autumn confronts Finny on the day it is his turn to secure the table.

I want to savor this wonder, this happening of loving a book and reading it for the first time, because the first time is always the best, and I will never read this book for the first time ever again. Despite their mothers being best friends, and being neighbours, there was always that awkward tension between them when they spent “family time” together. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.It’s such an amazing book I havent finished it yet but I know the ending is going to me amazing and is already very engaging and draws you in on the first pages .