​

Starting with the Writing Decency , I would rate this book at around a 2.7. I’m rating it that because it needs a lot of work, but it is a diamond in the rough! All it needs is a little shine and extra love and it would be perfect! Ashley Winters wrote this version of the book when she was sixteen! This is expected from this book; the author is actually in the middle of an edited rewrite of it! This is essentially a first draft of the book itself, which is what most Wattpad books are, except this author is putting effort into her work by continuing to better it! She even got this book published for a short while, and if this book gets some extra time and help from others, I can definitely see it all over Barnes and Nobles shelves one day.

 

Now onto the story thoughts! First let me tell you all that I have read this book twice before, way back about 4-5 years ago? It’s been a long while, but I still remember the big parts about the cancer and Dannon surviving! Don’t let that fool you however, because I sobbed the entire ending half of the book. I couldn’t help myself! Poor Dannon and Bri! They didn’t deserve the cards they were dealt, and it was tough seeing characters I truly loved suffering.

The story line of this book is absolutely beautiful. I loved the Christian aspect tied into the book. There are not a lot of fun enjoyable fiction books that include Christianity. The subject is not touched on really at all in the YA genre, so it was very refreshing to see that. I do feel that there needed to have been a bit more of that Christian aspect throughout the book. I know that the story is surrounding the love between Dannon and Bri, but a major part is Bri’s faith shaking and God pulling through and blessing the two of them with a miracle, so I wanted a little more of faith besides passing thoughts of it.

I immensely enjoyed Bri’s family aspect, especially her visits at Jill’s house. It reminded me of my family and I related to it a lot. I can completely imagine my mom and brother being up my butt if I ever met a guy. The characters were all super fun! I loved Kyla to death, she was a true amazing best friend. Dannon’s dad was cool as well, though there needed to be more of him involved in the story. I loved Garrett! He was such a weird cherry on top.

The evolution of Bri and Dannon’s relationship was so fun to follow! Bri started off as a complete judgmental bish, but over time she realized, ‘hey I was wrong and I love this goof’. Her growth into accepting loving someone and experiencing pain in life was inspiring, however I wish there was more depth in her character. I’m sure there is plenty more in the newer draft, but I’m just discussing this draft!

Dannon was such an amazing guy. One of my favorite scenes was the one where he finally broke down in front of Brianne. It was needed to show more dimension in Dannon’s character, and it allowed us to connect with him more. It was hard continuously seeing Dannon as nothing but a happy doofus, because that doesn’t feel real. Real is pain, happiness, and love combined so it made that moment extra powerful.

Ah! The engagement!! My heart, ugh, they deserve that and so much more! Though that ending is way too abrupt, I hated that. It needed more to it. It was like, ‘oh Dannon is up! Cancer gone! Wow now schools out and he’s proposing’????!!! That is not acceptable! All of that was extremely annoying, its like you put so much time and energy into their story and then it decided to be done without consideration. There is a separate One Shot book that the author wrote, but I really only enjoyed reading the ‘Engagement’ chapter. The rest of the chapters in the One Shot book are kinda everywhere, and not needed.

Issues with the book overall were very commercial. I felt there was a lot of cheesiness with the scenes and the characters acting. One of the cheesiest scenes to me was where Bri almost drowned. That entire moment was too quick and misplaced to not seem eh-ish. Along with that, the continuous dry remarks that were trying to be funny really didn’t hit me. It jolted me back a lot into realizing, ‘oh yeah it’s Wattpad I forgot’. It just felt like it was trying hard to hit the mark of, ‘super funny group of people who are sarcastic, childish, and fun!’ and it missed it. I did see the characters with those characteristics, but it was forced feeling and not a nice flow towards it.

Overall this book was super duper enjoyable! On a Wattpad scale I would rate it as an 8! On a normal book scale, it would be 5/6 because it needs that editing and in-depth aspects to it. It just needs another look through with a more thought out perspective with it. I think this author is crazy talented to have written this at sixteen years old! Oh my gosh, I’m twenty and I can only DREAM of writing something so beautiful.

 

​

​

​

​