"that’s the kind of heartbreak time could never mend 💔"

"i just KNOW autumn was tumblr famous"

"~ 1.0 stars ~

I had such high expectations for this one. Gah. And this is why, you never let your expectations go too high. Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk.

(Oh wait, I'm not done.) If He Had Been with Me's premise was so interesting. We already knew how it ended, but we didn't know the journey to the end. But, alas, the premise doesn't live up to the book.

"This is friendship, and it is love, but I already know what they have not learned yet; how dangerous friendship is, how damaging love can be."

I got some heavy-duty nostalgia while reading this book. This is one of the only good things I got out of reading this book.

There was a love triangle. Why oh why do authors love implementing love triangles?! They're pointless and stupid and dumb.

I hated this book right from the beginning. I could tell it was the type of novel to drag on and on until the very end. And I was right. Only in the last 5-10% or so did stuff actually happen. And that was it. It was also extremely predictable. (view spoiler)[It was obvious that Finny actually loved Autumn, and not Sylvie. It was obvious from like halfway through the book that Finny and Sylvie were arguing about Autumn during their car crash. It was also obvious that Jamie cheated on Autumn with Sasha. Too much foreshadowing can lead to this. (hide spoiler)]

There were also way too many "I love you"s. Too many.

Too much beginning. Too much exposition. Too much foreshadowing. Too much description. Too much monotone. Too much filler. Too much fluff. Too little dialogue. Too little plot. Too little action. Too little personality. Yeah, the author did too much on certain things and too little on others. Not a good balance at all.

All relationships in this book were shallow, except the relationship between Finny and Autumn. So, is the reader supposed to believe that Autumn and Finny were just Meant To Be and Perfect For Each Other? There are other ways, you know, to demonstrate this, and you're certainly not supposed to make all Autumn's other relationships just shallow. Her romantic relationship with Jamie was so surface level. Her friendship between the kids in her friend group were so shallow.

I would not recommend this to anyone, and I will certainly never read this again. Buh-bye.

follow me for reviews on every book i read!!! 💖💗

� a disastrous 1.0 stars ★☆☆☆�

Review written on 6/15/2021"