Saturday, June 25, 2011

Where she went

If you had a second chance at first love ...would you take it? It's been three years since Adam's love saved Mia after the accident that annihilated life as she knew it ...and three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever. Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Julliard's rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia's home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future and each other. Told from Adam's point of view in the spare, powerful prose that defined If I Stay, "Where She Went" explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

The other night at around nine or ten o'clock I started to read Where She Went, after reading If I Stay last week, and much like when I read If I Stay I could not put it down until I was finished. I finished it at around three in the morning, Gayle Forman's books are just so addictive.
Much like the first book, Where She Went is a heart breaking story that will leave you almost in tears. Though it is not about the death and the grief of being about to lose the one you love. But it is about the greif after that person is gone and the struggle to let them go. However Mia tries hard to do exactly the opposite; too keep their memory alive.
This book is told from Adams point of view rather than Mia's and we discover what he is truly like as a person. After Mia's leaving for Julliard he is left broken. Again we explore the depths of losing someone but in an entirely different way that the first book. In some ways losing someone to death is the hardest thing someone can go through, especially what Mia went through; but in other ways Adams story is one of the most saddest things that a person can go through.
We realise just how much he loves her, even if she hadn't realised, and we discover his side of the story we knew from Mia's perspective. Although he is living the dream, has somehow achieved everything he used to be aiming for Adam is far from happy. In fact he is distort, miserable to a point he has to take pills and has taken up smoking. Even music has become a chore to Adam; music once the only thing that drove him forward. Everything is dull, everyday is a struggle to get through, without her.
If I Stay explored a horrible act of fate, but in Where She Went fate is displayed as a wonderful gift, another chance. Adam and Mia cross paths once again, but they are both living very busy lifestyles now, both well known and being together in public is a struggle.
Adam realises what it is he has to move on to be happy again, he has to let her go.
This is an amazing book that will like the first book both break your heart and soften it. It shows you that love never dies, that your first love will always mean that little bit more to you and nothing can ever beat that. Everything happens for a reason, and Mia and Adam met again, three years on for a reason.


For a second chance at love, at first love.
Adam and Mia's story is truly beautiful. If you have not read If I Stay yet I recommend you go out and buy them both; it's a story that will remind you of how the only thing really worth living for is love and love will always find a way. Once again Gayle Forman bravo on such a beautiful story that can touch the hearts of every reader.

There is obviously no limit to love.

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