I am back with another book review! Today, I am reviewing the companion novel to a book I reviewed a while back called Our Demons, Best Friends (you can see that review here), Love Me While I'm Gone by Diana T. Scott. Thank you to the author for sending me a copy of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
It was so fantastic to be back with these characters again! I remembered why I fell in love with them from the first book! This sequel, although I suppose it is more of a companion novel, focuses on Emily and Collin, instead of Ava and Sebastian. Don't worry, we still get to see the other characters, but this book is told in Emily and Collin's perspectives.
The first character we are introduced to is Emily. At the beginning of this book, I really enjoyed her character. She was funny and honest, and she dealt with her heartbreak in a way that I could imagine. The way the book is set up, you get the prologue first, where we find out Collin has come back to the hospital after pretty much disappearing a couple years ago, without telling Emily what was going on. You see both of their reactions to seeing each other for the first time, and then the book jumps back three years.
As the story progressed, and we got closer to present day, I disliked Emily more and more. In the "flashback" part of the book, she was fun and got along really well with Collin. But towards the end, after he came back, I wasn't really a fan of her.
**I wouldn't really consider this a spoiler, but read on with caution.**
Anyways, I was didn't like how Emily reacted to Collin coming back. Yes, he up and left her three years ago, and she should be mad. I understand that. What I didn't understand was that when he came back, he REPEATEDLY asked her to talk, so he could explain himself, why he was gone. If you read the first book, you know why, but the reason he left is understandable. Maybe not at first to Emily, but at least she could have waited until she was ready and then asked him. Instead, she gets her sister to dish and THEN GETS MAD AT COLLIN FOR NOT TELLING HER. I don't know, maybe I missed something somewhere, but I don't think she has any right to get mad at him. Multiple times he says he wants to talk about it, and when she hears it from someone else (who she had to squeeze it out of) and totally shuts him out because he didn't tell her WHEN SHE WASN'T READY TO HEAR IT.
**End possible spoiler**
After that, I pretty much was not a fan of Emily. And I don't know if that is a flaw of the book, or just Emily's character. As painful as she was being, it made her real and relatable.
Collin, on the other hand, was fantastic. He was witty, and such a good friend to Sebastian. I mean, I suppose if he had time to send Emily a text saying he was sorry, he could have explained things a little bit. Or maybe send one of those letter. But I still liked him over Emily.
I think, even though I didn't 100% LOVE these characters, they were still real, human, and relatable. Everybody makes mistakes, no matter how big or small, and these characters show that you can move on from these mistakes.
Similar to the first book, I would consider this one a New Adult novel, however, once again, it has so much more depth than the average NA book. While these issues weren't as devastating as the first book, the characters still had their struggles.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I loved the hospital, Grey's Anatomy-esque stuff once again, and think that if you are looking for a NA book with a real lesson, you definitely need check this one and Our Demons, Best Friends out!