Synopsis & My Review:
Addison Snow is your typical
teenager. She has a family that loves her, friends that make her laugh, and she’s
wrapped up in the excitement of graduating high school and going off to college
to pursue her dream of becoming an author. When her mother, who also happens to
be Addison’s best friend, dies unexpectedly, her world comes to a crashing
halt.
Death changes everyone…
To make the pain go away, Addison
and her father travel down separate, dark paths. She chooses to end her grief
forever, while he drowns his sorrows in the bottom of a bottle. How do you
learn to live again when the most important person in your life is gone?
Addison struggles to pick up the
pieces of her life. Instead of getting back to being the carefree teenager she
once was, she’s stuck handling all of the responsibilities that should have
been her father’s. She has no time to grieve, no time for emotions, and no time
for happiness…until Zander Reinhardt walks in. All it takes is one little
handwritten note on a napkin to kick-start her back to life and help her
realize that maybe there’s more to that life than pain.
But can it really be that simple?
Can she really trust this man who makes her feel alive again for the first time
in a year?
Addison and Zander both have
secrets they aren’t ready to share. When the truth finally comes out, is it enough
to tear them apart or has something bigger than themselves always been watching
over them, pushing them together, making sure they both get their happily ever
after?
This book
wasn’t what I expected. It isn’t a typical young adult novel.
It’s…deeper
than that. It’s dark and depressing and Jesus, is it frustrating at times; but while
you’re swimming through the darkness and living in Addison’s world full of
pain, loss, heartache, and loneliness – there’s an overlying sense of warmth, a
quite calm. It’s that superimposing aspect of comfort that blankets you while
you turn page after page and makes you want to follow Addison into the darkness…and
eventually, into the light again.
I can’t lie,
this book started out average for me. It wasn’t until I hit around the 40% mark
that I just absolutely couldn’t put it down. The first half wasn’t bad by any
means, but it was just a little slow. Now, after having finished it (with tears
streaming down my face, of course) I can appreciate the pace. It was necessary.
I needed to know the back story involving certain conversations with her mom, I
needed to see just how close they were, I needed to understand just how broken
she was in order to appreciate her journey to happiness. The flashbacks and therapy
sessions that I kind of “trudged” through in the first third of this book
became crucial to me.
As far as
characters go, I liked both Addison and Zander. Some of the things Addison did
frustrated the hell out of me, but every time I found myself cursing her I took
a step back and thought to myself, what
would you do if you were in her position? Now, I can’t answer that with
certainty because I don’t know what I would do. I’ve never been in her shoes.
But what I can say is that taking that second to step back allowed me to put
her actions into perspective. I still didn’t agree or even like some of the
things she did, but I could understand
why she was behaving that way, even
if I didn’t care for it. Now, onto Zander… *sigh*. I liked him, but I just wish
we would have gotten more from him. Maybe more background, more…well, I don’t
know what I wanted more of but I just felt a little shorted. That aside, the
napkin notes – I DIE. I don’t know
if it gets any more adorable than that, I really don’t. He was so wonderfully
funny and charming and compassionate that it was impossible not to fall in love
with him.
I did have a
couple issues that prevented me from giving this a 5 star rating, the main one
being Addison’s attitude towards her dad which was upsetting to me. Like I said, I’ve
never had to deal with that type of situation so I don’t know how I would
handle it…but it’s incredibly hard
for me to imagine giving up on my dad, regardless of the circumstance.
Watch Over Me is clearly a very personal story
for Tara and it’s one that will tug at your heartstrings. This isn’t a novel
that centers on the romance – that is just an added bonus. It’s about a girl
struggling with the loss of her mother and her journey to find happiness again
when it never seemed possible. It’s very different from Tara’s previous novels,
but her incredible writing style remains the same. This story will make you cry,
make you laugh, and take you on an incredibly emotional journey; a journey that
left me reaching for my phone to call my mom almost immediately after I read
the words, The End.
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About the Author
T.E. Sivec is the pen name for Tara Sivec. Under T.E. Sivec, she delves into a more serious genre that is her absolute favorite to read -- romantic suspense. She loves reading a book and feeling her heart speed up with anticipation and wanted to be able to give that feeling to her fans.
T.E. lives in Ohio with her husband and two children, living the dream of being a full-time writer.
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