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A review by beckyyreadss
If Only I Had Told Her by Laura Nowlin
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I wanted to read this book because I wanted to know how this series was going to carry on, I was worried that this book was just a money-grabbing thing because there isn’t a lot of questions that needed to be answers or more information that was needed. This book could have just been the first book if the author had added multiple POVs.
This book has three points of view and three stories. The first is Finn and he has always loved Autumn, she’s not just the girl next door or his mother’s best friend’s daughter, she is his everything. But she’s not his girlfriend. That's Sylvie, and Finn would never hurt her, so there’s no way Autumn could know how he truly feels about her. The second story is about Jack, Finn’s best friend and he isn’t so sure. He has seen Finn and Autumn together. How could Autumn not know? And how is he supposed to support and protect Finn when headache seems inevitable? And the last point of view is Autumn, and she surrounds herself with books and wants to write her own destiny but one doesn’t always get a new chapter and fate can be cruel to those in love.
This book wasn’t needed. If the author had done dual POV in the first book, then two out of three of these stories wouldn’t be needed. The first book was 393 pages. If it was another 100 pages for Finn’s point of view, then it would have been sorted. Autumn still drives me nuts, I understand that she went through hell and only her knows what she is going through, but I really didn’t care for her point of view. After one whole book of her, I just didn’t care. I ended up skimming most of her chapter. I would have liked Finn’s POV as an extra bit in the first book to see how he was feeling.
The only thing that kept this from being two stars is Jack’s point of view. I would have loved this book to be his POV throughout the whole book especially because Jack got forgotten after Finn died in the first book. I would have liked to see how he was getting on and felt like it was getting good before it changed to Autumn’s POV. I didn’t like that he ended up with Sylvie, I would have liked this to be like A Thousand Broken Pieces where he met someone who was going through the same thing as Jack and someone to help him through college instead of Sylvie who he was questioning if SHE HAD MURDERED FINN THROUGHOUT HIS CHAPTER! How does he ended up with her after questioning that?
I don’t think this book was needed. It was a bit of a drag, but I liked Jack.
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Child death, Miscarriage, and Vomit