Overall, the beginning and the end are what made the story for me. Finn is a more open character, and though Autumn is the one narrating the story, it’s easier to understand him. She keeps much of the important details about herself, her relationships, and her feelings bottled up within her. Much of the story seems to be summarized, as Autumn doesn’t really let us get into her head. It might have been an interesting story, but Autumn is a hard-to-pin-down narrator.

What I’d been hoping to see was more of what happens to Autumn after Finn’s death, or at least see their story closer to the time of his death instead of reliving high school with her. However, the story ends up stagnating and dragging on, and I skimmed much of the latter half of the story looking for answers that didn’t come until the end of the novel. Even if they fell into different social spheres in middle and high school, they have a long history of friendship that isn’t easily overcome by social barriers. It’s laid out clearly for us.) It was interesting at first to learn about their childhood, and I was curious about why they stopped hanging out together. However, I didn’t want to go through all of high school with them when I already knew the outcome.

The suspense of learning what argument caused Finn’s accident gets more and more interesting until it’s finally revealed at the end.◆ A copy was provided by Sourcebooks for review ◆Ī lot of the backstory is needed to understand Finn and Autumn’s relationship. The reconciliation of both Autumn and Finn is played out wonderfully as they slowly reconnect and become more than what they were before. The pacing of this story is perfect, there is not one part that is too rushed or too slow. Laura Nowlin, the author of If He Had Been With Me, created this brilliant but heartbreaking romance novel. Autumn is the only one who knows the reason Finn got into the car accident, and she always thinks back on how she could have prevented it. Although they were in two different crowds, Autumn put in the effort to try to mend their relationship. The two students used to be best friends until they slowly drifted apart, but Autumn always felt like something should have been different.

Finn, her neighbor, is a popular guy who got into a car accident. The main character, Autumn, is a normal girl at high school with her friends and her boyfriend.

If he had been with me about