When Livia Stone suddenly loses her twin brother, Jasper, to a horrific act of violence, will she be able to navigate the world alone? Will Daniel, a new student at her high school, be able to reach Livia in a way that her friends and family cannot?

Standing Sideways is a good book about how the path to self-destructive behavior can be missed when no one is really looking. Livia is suffering from grief and is angry at the world around her, which is a recipe for disaster. The novel delves deep into issues of death, addiction, and grief, all subjects for which the target audience may be able to relate. The connection between Livia and Daniel is not as successful, leaving me to think that the novel would have been better with friendship in place of any romantic involvement.

As I was reading, the question of why the author decided to bury the reason for Jasper's death kept coming up. I got that the "why" was not as important, but it did not necessarily make sense that it was kept a secret. Standing Sideways was a good read, but really did not stand out among the many similar books in the genre.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy of Standing Sideways by NetGalley and the publisher, J. House Publishing. The choice to review this book was my own.

When Livia Stone suddenly loses her twin brother, Jasper, she must learn to navigate her new life alone. As she faces tragedy and starts down a road toward self-destruction, Daniel enters Livia’s life—at a moment when she needs it most.

Standing Sideways is a poignant, relevant, and touching story of survival, courage, and compassion that will have readers crying, laughing, and most of all, debating the issues affecting the lives of parents and teens alike on a journey of hope and forgiveness.

Beautiful and touching story.

It is very hard for me to give a bad review of a book that deals with the topic of true tragic events, so I am very happy I don't need to do that this time. It seems the author really understand the grieving process and writes about it in her own, personal way.

However, I must admit that my reading of this book was somewhat slower because the only thing that kept my interest for continuing was the desire to find out how did one of the characters ended his life. At the end, when I found out that the story is based on a real event and a real person's death, I understand that it was hard for the author to write about something so intimate and traumatic, so I guess that is the reason for all my troubles, my attempt to plunge into a story that is not my own.

Death, grief, love, loss, addiction, and emotional depth takes center stage in this Young Adult novel. I really enjoyed this book despite its dark aspects because it displayed true results of pain and glimmers of hope.

This was a hard book for me to read because it was so personal. How alcoholism affects lives, and how violence and loss changes lives is simply a tough and emotional subject. I can also attest to the fact that loved ones who have passed give us messages if we are open to receiving them. It is nice to read this book as it reminds us we are not alone in life struggles.

5* Two Broken Half Hearts Stars

This book was steeped in sadness and grief. The story is about Livia who has lost her twin brother in a tragic accident at 17 years old and how she tries to cope with his death and the sorrow that surrounded her. This was not an easy story to read, as it was raw and fraught with emotions and the destructive ways of coping with her heartache.

It was very well written and told from Livia’s POV. The secondary characters were very likeable and realistic.

I highly recommend this powerful emotionally felt story that deals with grief, anger, forgiveness, sadness, and family. The cover of the book was very beautiful too.

Thanks to Xpresso Book Tours and Netgalley for providing a copy of this book to read and review.

“Maybe, sometimes, it’s easier in the dark. When the world doesn’t seem so loud, so chaotic.”

I am a ball of emotions right now. All kinds of them. Sadness. Hope. Awe. Shock. Calmness. Excited. When I opened Standing Sideways I had no idea what to expect as I have never read this author’s work before. But saying I was shockingly pleased would be a tremendous understatement. J. Lynn Bailey completely blew me away.

With a sarcastic, in-your-face, and cutthroat narrative, Livia is one of the most interesting characters I have read to this day. Her struggles and her feelings were ones that I feel as if we can all relate to in one way or another. Her coping mechanisms- I’m sure we have all been there. The beauty of it all? Her character growth. Watching her transform into the person she was meant to be was an incredible journey for me. Watching her find her way, the way she needed to and the way she did it (good or bad) was even better. I felt like I was right beside her cheering her on every step of the way.

“Grief makes us do funny things. Our minds, once ours, are now blind by eternal light. Where we wait for our loved ones, in limbo, somewhere between heartbeats.”

I really enjoyed that the author didn’t base this novel around romance. That is not what Standing Sideways is about to me. Sure, Daniel is a great addition, but it wasn’t an addition that Livia herself needed. She wanted Daniel, but all through out the novel she didn’t need him to do what she had to for herself and THAT is what this book was about. A girl grieving, coping, and healing in a way that didn’t involved any one else but herself. She had support and the people there and she used what she had to but she had to find herself and watching her do that was incredible.

“I want to get lost in her words. Roll in them. And push them away and leave them in the dark by themselves to find their own way out.”

This is exactly how I felt about J. Lynn Bailey and her words. I wanted to get lost in them. I wanted to be buried in them. I wanted to be trapped in a dark room with them. They were just…exceptional. That’s just the only way I can put it.

“And just because you’ve lost your way doesn’t mean I won’t help you find it because you don’t give up on others. It might be that you can’t see the light right now, Liv, but I do. I’ll be your eyes until you can see the same person I see sitting in front of me.”

I have this five-star review, something I hardly ever write and I have this immense love for this book I just discovered but I’m still wondering about a few loose ends. I won’t acknowledge them in the review in fear of spoilers for others but I do wonder how a couple of things panned out and what happened to a couple of other things as well. But ultimately- that didn’t deter my love for the story and the message the author was portraying to her readers.

The story itself was so compelling and raw. The way that the author portrayed not just Livia’s grief but others as well was told in a way I hadn’t read before. It was heavy. I could totally settle for a Daniel book. Or even a Cao one. But I’m so happy I experienced this read. I’m just so happy.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. You did me a solid on this one.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review, "Standing Sideways
by J. Lynn Bailey" A real look into how grief can affect a person and the people around them. I enjoyed this book.

When Livia Stone suddenly loses her twin brother, Jasper, she must learn to navigate her new life alone. As she faces tragedy and starts down a road toward 
self-destruction, Daniel enters Livia’s life—at a moment when she needs it most. 

Standing Sideways is a poignant, relevant, and touching story of survival, courage, and compassion that will have readers crying, laughing, and most of all, debating the issues affecting the lives of parents and teens alike on a journey of hope and forgiveness.- Goodreads

I sat on reviewing this book for a while. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it. For some specific reasons, it is hard for me to say that this was a good book as in the story or if this was simply a good representation of various forums of grief.

These are two different things for me. Because you can have a good story that wraps you into several layers of emotions, keep you waiting more and allows you to live in that world. A good representation of anything can provide key points, be obvious or not, to show you something and doesn't necessarily have any other purpose other than to show you specific things.

I don't feel that it was a good story. I feel that way because I wasn't invested into the characters not even once. Livia is defined by her grief and there really isn't anything beyond that. Therefore, I can't really tell you what type of person she is or even the people around her. Their actions are based of her and yeah she does do somethings that are wrong but to me there was no substance. Therefore, I felt the story was lacking. 

But, at the same time, I felt that it represented grief and strength on different levels in a really good way. You see how Livia handles her grief and how that grief affects her friendships and her family relationships. You see other people handle their own grief and hers as well.

What I liked about this book was how the author took care to show different ways of comfort, release, anger and different phrases of moving on. It was important to see that because you don't really see a lot of teenagers expressing their grief in different ways out than anger and being reckless. Do not get me wrong Livia was not grieving in the most healthy way but her way gave attention to what other teens may be doing. 

Overall, I am going to leave this a non rated book but even after doing this review, I still don't know how I feel about this.

When I saw the cover, I admit that I was intrigued, even though I did not know the author! I was curious to discover this story.It was an intense story and it has great potentials I just couldn't connect with the characters, but I would love to try another book from J. Lynn Bailey!

How would you feel if you woke up one day and half of your soul was gone?

With all the chaos and traumatizing school mass shootings nowadays, this book is so current, so relevant, and really hits home.

It is a story of grief and heading for destruction, but also a story about love and finding hope and a strength to push forward.

When Livia loses her twin brother, Jasper, her world collapses. She shuts down everyone close to her and her live changes 180 degrees. Pills, alcohol and sex become a way to survive and numb the pain. The same girl, who was heading towards a good university and scholarship, now falls on the path that will eventually lead her to ruin her life. Will she let it go that far? How does Daniel – the new boy in town – fit into all of this?

I loved the compassion and empathy with which J. Lynn Bailey wrote this novel. Because of it, I felt emotionally connected on every page (that is also why I needed tissues next to me when reading this book, because I felt like Livia's grief was my own).

Although there are some points that were mentioned in the story and got forgotten without further explanation and without feeding my curiosity – BEWARE – SPOILER ALERT! - (ex. Jasper’s Hope Letter, which Livia could not read at the time when it was given to her, and which I really wanted to learn about, but this plot never came back; or the mysterious Sienna story which ends as abruptly as it starts), it did not change my overall feeling about the book.

Standing Sideways is a must read which is hard to put down before it’s finished.

Excellent and very relevant novel about a set of twins, a mass shooting, and incredible grief.

Everyone deals with grief differently and there is no right or wrong way of dealing with grief. This is a poignant and heartbreaking story of Livia & how she is pushed down to a path of self destruction after losing her twin in a tragedy. The story is well written and you feel for Livia and her the way she is pushing everyone away. Loosing her twin feels like half of her soul is gone, she is confused, angry and frustrated until Daniel enters her life. The author has captured all the angst and raw emotions beautifully specially the way grief was portrayed is astounding. It’s a compelling and heartbreaking story.
J. Lynn Bailey has written this story fabulously. A must recommend!

Format: ARC Kindle ebook
Tissue warning: not for me, but sensitive issues
HEA: yes
Triggers: alcoholism, death, cancer, pill popping, meaningless sex
Narrative: 1st person, following Livia
My reviewer rating: 3 of 5
Published: December 12, 2017
Available for purchase through Amazon
Thank you, Netgalley and J. Lynne Bailey, for this free e-copy of Standing Sideways in exchange for my honest-to-goodness review.
Loss Hurts.
Livia is in high school. She has a twin brother, who just died, tragically. Livia isn't dealing with this very well. Like, at all. We follow Livia in her journey to find herself again, through some really stupid, dumb decisions and grief as told by a senior in high school.
Full review on blog!

When I saw the theme of the novel and the cover, I admit that I was intrigued. I did not know the author and I was curious to discover this story.

Livia lost her twin brother and since then she has been falling into self-destruction. Everything happens there: sex, drugs, alcohol, lies or even changes in attitude. It’s pretty sad to follow our heroine, she would like to get better but she can not do it because she wants to forget. However, when she meets Daniel, she tries to change, to improve but it’s not easy and it does not change everything she has done, or continues to do.

It was an intense story and I found it interesting to follow Livia. On the other hand, it is true that I found it a bit unfortunate that so many topics are discussed here because in the end I had the impression that many things remained on the surface. However, I had a good time with the story and I liked the author’s ideas. An interesting read.

I have mixed feelings about this book. For the most part, I enjoyed reading it. The storyline follows Livia Stone after the death of her twin brother, Jasper, (under circumstances that they don't reveal until the end of the book) and the resulting aftermath. The plot was interesting enough to keep me wanting to read more and find out what happened. However, it was hard for me to actually get into the book because I didn't really like most of the characters. I just didn't really connect with any of them (others than her best friend Cao--loved her!).

Additionally, I found the book a little slow at times and felt as though the writing style was a little off/unnecessary [i.e., Whenever Daniel's character (who was from England) would talk there'd be a sentence like, "He pronounces liar like lie-uh" or "And he pronounces ask as if it starts with an O instead of an A". This was done a total of 21 times throughout the book and got extremely frustrating.] Also there were a lot of parts of the storyline that were never resolved at the end and it just felt like they were almost forgotten about (i.e., The whole drama with Blog Heiress). Overall, Standing Sideways was an okay read for me--the plot was engaging enough for me to keep reading but I found a lot of parts problematic. 3 stars.

3.8 Stars.
This book was quite the read. I wasn't sure what I'd been expecting but it wasn't something quite so emotional.

As someone with many siblings, I can't fathom what losing one of them might feel like, but this book made my stomach twist because the author captured it terrifyingly well.

This book wasn't the easiest of reads as our heroine makes decisions that pull her deeper and deeper into her grief and for a moment, my heart was racing terrified that she wasn't going to find her way out.

The characters were well written, but I felt some dissatisfaction as the story closed:
- Why did we hear so much about Cao and her family if there was no confrontation or resolution to her parents overcompensating. It seemed as though that's where it had been heading and while we see Cao's future in the epilogue, I don't believe it covered it enough.
- Was Simon also gay? I also felt like this story was rushed and there wasn't enough time exploring his friendship with Jasper. The vagueness annoyed me.
- Who was behind the awful blog at the high school? This irritated me the entire book that the person behind the blog was hurting people's lives and we never discovered who it was.

This was more than the cliche book where the girl finds someone to help her through the grief because love can do that. No, she found out the hard way that she can be the only one to help herself if she wanted it. Also, the part of how some people deal with everything after a tragic event was truthful and honest. What a beautiful way to talk about a terrible event.