***I'm just going to say this up front. This review is going to have SPOILERS. In order for me to talk about the book I have to give some key things away, so if you want to read the book, but don't want it spoiled, then please read this after you read the book. I do highly recommend this book. I absolutely loved it, but I don't want to ruin anything for anyone, so please, if you want to read the book, read this review after you've read the book :)***
With that out of the way, I have to say that this book sent me for a little bit of a loop. We start off the book with Vale, the main character, and her boyfriend Crawford getting to an accident that puts them both in the hospital. This book is then divided into two parts and the character development in both parts just is amazing. That's why I loved this book so much. Vale's character develops so much in different but the same way. That sounds totally confusing, but it's the only way I can explain it.
The first part we see Vale as the dutiful girlfriend. Crawford is in a coma and she sees it as her duty to sit at the hospital and wait for him to wake up. While being at the hospital all day everyday, Vale meets Slate, who is a friend of her brother's. The two of them develop an amicable relationship at first that eventually turns into something more. His urging her to branch out more along with the insistence of Crawford's mother, leads her to go to the college she had planned on going to in the fall while Crawford is still in the hospital.
Throughout this first part, we see Vale interacting with other guys, with her roommate (which is hilarious), and with the friends that she makes in her dorm once she gets to college. She doesn't forget about Crawford, but she does begin to think about him less and she starts to live the life that she wants. realizing that all of the decisions she had made up until that point were because of Crawford and not actually things that she wanted. This first part is where he development as a character is so important because she's discovering who she is while she's with her new friends and while she's with Slate.
So, part two knocked me for a loop, because it turns out that part one didn't really happen. Vale was the one in the coma, not Crawford. The friends she made in her dream state were actually nurses and other hospital staff and Slate, who she had developed a romantic relationship for in her dream, was at the hospital visiting his uncle, just like he was in the first part.
The character development we see in the second part reflects what we see in the first part pretty much. While the first part sees her exploring what she actually wants without Crawford, the second part sees her backstepping a little bit. Crawford is already at college for an athletic scholarship and has moved on without her and when she wakes up its a struggle for her to find her footing with him. She senses that there is something off about her life. She doesn't remember the dream she had while in her coma, but she's drawn to Slate and amazed that he seems to fit in with her family so well. She's even drawn to his uncle, who is still in the hospital and not doing well. All of this pulls her out of her shell and away from Crawford so she can discover, in an awake state, what it is that she wants and helps her to move closer to Slate.
There was one thing that bothered me a little about this book and it had nothing to do with the book at all really, but the description of the book. I feel like it gives false information and while it draws the reader in, which is what you want, I feel that it does the story a disservice. I was expecting Vale to be devastated because of Crawford not remembering her. I was expecting there to be more drama between her and Slate as a result. Instead I got a beautiful Sleeping Beauty fairy tale that I actually preferred to what I thought I was going to get.
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