Cover Love: It's ok. I like contrast between the black cover and the colored font.
Why I Wanted to Read This:
The synopsis of this book made me want to read it. Here it is from GoodReads:Romance?: Yes.
When sixteen-year-old Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, her prognosis is grim. To maximize the time she does have, she vows to spend her final months righting wrongs—however she sees fit. She convinces her friend Harvey, who she knows has always had feelings for her, to help her with a crazy bucket list that's as much about revenge (humiliating her ex-boyfriend and getting back at her archnemesis) as it is about hope (doing something unexpectedly kind for a stranger). But just when Alice's scores are settled, she goes into remission.
Now Alice is forced to face the consequences of all that she's said and done, as well as her true feelings for Harvey. But has she caused irreparable damage to the people around her—and to the one person who matters most?
My Thoughts:
The synopsis for this makes it sound like a comedy, but it is so not. This is a deep, emotional book, so well written that you can get inside and feel everything from both Alice and Harvey. The chapters go back and forth between Harvey and Alice and the past and the present.
Harvey will break your heart the whole book. He is so in love with Alice and even though he acknowledges that she is using him and he knows it, he doesn't have the strength to step away. But this book is as much a Harvey coming of age story as it as an Alice coming of age story. He grows, he gets a backbone, but he always remains sweethearted Harvey. I just adored him. The tough part is that even though you know Alice is using him and will probably break his heart you can't help rooting for them to be together. Mostly because you know how very good and healing Harvey will be for Alice.
When I first started this book I read some Good Reads reviews and a few of them didn't love the book because Alice is so awful. And she is, she is a straight up bitch. But, she admits it, she knows it and she owns it, until she decides she wants to change. But it takes a lot before she decides she wants to change. I didn't love Alice, but I rooted for her to heal--not just her cancer, but her heart and her soul. The biggest problem is that she won't talk to anyone. If Alice was my daughter and I saw how she reacted when she was told she was in remission I would put her in counseling ASAP. That is probably the one thing that I disagreed with because when you are told you are going to die at 16 and then all of the sudden the sudden you aren't you probably need some help getting through that.
This book made me cry and made me read late into the night. It's was just the kind of book I wanted to read right now.
To Sum Up: This was a great emotional book. Probably a little too deep (mature) for my middle school library but I think many young adult readers could get a lot out of this story.
Book checked out from public library after egalley expired.
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