From goodreads: The critically acclaimed, bestselling novel from Gayle Forman, author of Where She Went, Just One Day, and the forthcoming Just One Year.
On a day that started like any other,
Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, admiring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. In an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the only decision she has left. It is the most important decision she’ll ever make.
Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting, and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.
Review:
When I decided to read this series I had no idea it would take me on a gut-wrenching emotional journey!!! I knew to expect flawless writing and characters that would move me but never did I think it would grip me from the start and boy did it ever! Having loved Just One Day (seriously one of my favorite books of 2013) I knew I would love this story/series just as much. Normally I don’t like to compare books but since it’s the same author I feel I can and will.
“Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you.”
Gayle Forman weaves the past and present through the entire series up until the very end. While she does it flawlessly sometimes it felt a bit too much, almost as if it wasn’t really necessary. I get it, Mia has a beyond wonderful and loving family and I suppose all the flashbacks were necessary but again, for me it seemed to drag out the story.
“If you stay, I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll quit the band, go with you to New York. But if you need me to go away, I’ll do that, too. I was talking to Liz and she said maybe coming back to your old life would be too painful, that maybe it’d be easier for you to erase us. And that would suck, but I’d do it. I can lose you like that if I don’t lose you today. I’ll let you go. If you stay.”
While I rated both books 4 stars I liked the second book, Where She Went a lot more and it had to do with Adam’s voice and his struggle with life after Mia. I’m not a fan of the alternating POV but in this case it worked and made total sense. The entire book was his POV, whereas book 1, If I Stay was in Mia’s. It was brilliantly done.
“But still, I find the need to remind myself of the temporariness of a day, to reassure myself that I got through yesterday, I’ll get through today.”
Adam’s lyrics throughout Where She Went shattered me. Those words were incredibly moving and I felt his pain deep in my heart. This is what Gayle Forman’s writing does to me, it causes me to get so lost in a story that I forget who I am. Adam is struggling with who he is and what is purpose is…I mean, who can’t relate to feeling that lost at some point in their life?
“Letting go. Everyone talks about it like it’s the easiest thing. Unfurl your fingers one by one until your hand is open.”
This series is about love, loss, healing and the rebirth of a love that never died. Even though I struggled with some of the flashback sequences, I do think it’s absolutely fabulous. It’s a love story filled with hope! 
If I Stay Series (books 1 and 2)
