ARC Review: All This Time

Author: Mikki Daughtry & Rachael Lippincott

Genre: YA Contemporary

Release Date: 09.29.20

Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers

Source: Publisher via Netgalley

My Rating: 2/5 stars

Synopsis: “Kyle and Kimberly have been the perfect couple all through high school, but when Kimberly breaks up with him on the night of their graduation party, Kyle’s entire world upends—literally. Their car crashes and when he awakes, he has a brain injury. Kimberly is dead. And no one in his life could possibly understand.

Until Marley. Marley is suffering from her own loss, a loss she thinks was her fault. And when their paths cross, Kyle sees in her all the unspoken things he’s feeling.

As Kyle and Marley work to heal each other’s wounds, their feelings for each other grow stronger. But Kyle can’t shake the sense that he’s headed for another crashing moment that will blow up his life as soon as he’s started to put it back together.

And he’s right.”

This isn’t a bad book, it’s just not one for me.

I went into this book super excited. Although I haven’t read anything from these authors previously I went in with high expectations. The synopsis made the book sound heartbreakingly amazing and honestly? That cover is so beautiful that I assumed I’d love the story underneath. However, that wasn’t the case.

Initially I was hooked onto this book. The shock and grief in the beginning was beautifully written. But, at some point things changed for me. I stopped connecting with the story and as I began to predict the plot to almost perfection, I lost touch. I think the biggest issue with me for this book was simply the plot. It pulled on tropes that I’m not a fan of and the romance felt inauthentic to me as I disconnected from the story.

It wasn’t a horrible book, or poorly written. It did have an interesting concept and touched on hard topics in a good manner. However, this just wasn’t the book for me. I personally wouldn’t recommend it, but I feel like other people with different reading tastes could enjoy this one much more than I did.

Thank you very much to the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.