Me Since You by Laura Wiess

Publisher:MTV Books
Date: February 18th 2014
Page: 368
Source: Publisher
Age Range: Young Adult

Before and After. That’s how Rowan Areno sees her life now. Before: she was a normal sixteen-year-old, a little too sheltered by her police officer father and her mother. After: everything she once believed has been destroyed in the wake of a shattering tragedy, and every day is there to be survived.
If she had known, on that Friday in March when she cut school, that a random stranger’s shocking crime would have traumatic consequences, she never would have left campus. If the crime video never went viral, maybe she could have saved her mother, grandmother, and herself, from the endless replay of heartache and grief.
Finding a soul mate in Eli, a witness to the crime who is haunted by losses of his own, Rowan begins to see there is no simple, straightforward path to healing wounded hearts. Can she learn to trust, hope, and believe in happiness again?

This is the kind of edgy YA novel that I like! The book had a very gripping but also sad theme. I didn't saw it coming that Rowan's father would commit suicide. This book took me completely by surprise. This is the first book I've read by Laura Wiess and I think she writes beautifully. After a fateful event, Rowan’s life changed. Rowan’s father took what happened hard that caused him to go to depression. They had to deal with it as a family, but not everything can be dealt with, and not everyone is as strong as people thought they should be. In which this book showed that things really don’t always happen the way we want them to.Another fascinating character in this story is Eli, he’s been one of the people involved in the same event that changed Rowan’s family’s life and through little twist of fate, he and Rowan met. It’s interesting how the painful common event in their lives has brought them together AND made them right for each other. I could not put the book down. You feel sympathy and understanding for each person, without feeling pity or it seeming unrealistic. I highly recommend this book and I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more books by Laura Wiess.