I tried reading this book but sadly I didn't make it very far while reading this book. I think that the different point of views made it a bit difficult to understand . I usually love this author's books and I hoped that this one would work out for me.

Honestly I forgot the synopsis of this one so I was totally hooked on Petra and Martin's meet-cute and was devastated when Martin ended up in a coma only a few short pages later. I feel like I might have adored this had it been a contemporary romance, but this is definitely not that. It''s heavy, and hard to get into. It was also hard for me to tell who's chapter I was reading when the POV switched, as they weren't labeled and the voices weren't that distinct.

Archived before I was able to read and review. I am still interested in reading and will provide a updated review then. Thank you for accepting my request for WHAT YOU LEFT ME by Bridget Morrissey.

I really wanted to love this book. It has a great premise and I loved the characters but I couldn’t tell them apart. The POV’s weren’t marked and they switched after small paragraphs sometimes. I love a good dual POV novel, but the two characters have to be distinct enough that there’s a point to hearing from both of them. This one didn’t have that for me. I didn’t realize there were even multiple POV’s until like 15 pages in. I think this could’ve had a great impact and been just as relevant as If I Stay had the characterization and voices been better and they were more distinct. Great plot and message, bad execution.

CONTENT WARNING: SEXUAL ASSAULT

This was a tough book to read. The content was very raw and emotional and I had to take breaks between various chapters. What You Left Me is a story about love and friendship and about survival. You will be captivated by the characters from the first page until the last sentence.

Something about this story was magical. It's these moments we experience and people we meet that draw us so openly into this world. I enjoyed it.

When I'd requested the book, I was really excited and as I started getting into it, I got more and more disinterested. This books isn't what it seems. The author has already mentioned that it deals with the aftermath of sexual assault on Petra, so, trigger warning! I failed to connect with any of the characters nor did I get into the whole magical realism thing (at least I think thats what it was) and frankly speaking, the book dragged on without any real material.

I didn't like the writing style and it was a bore tbh.

What You Left Me is an odd mixture of reality and absurdist that somehow is able to work. I love this book so much. The character development is amazing, especially in Petra. I wish there had been so more character development for Martin but at the same time I think his whole purpose in the story was to help others develop.
I personally love the idea of tragedy bringing people together who normally wouldn't  gravitate towards one another. It's sad but true that when something bad happens we tend to meet and befriend new people. It's just one of the ways that good things can come out of bad situations. I especially love how Petra and Martins respective friend groups already have connections to each other that they never even saw until the accident.
While this book is sad and at times it really hits you I would still say this is a heartwarming book. It makes you see that good things come out of bad situations and it restores hope.
While the whole plot idea of Martin appearing in everyone's dreams seems weird, the way the author writes it makes it seem like the most natural thing ever. And the way that the author switches character point-of-view is seamless.
Overall, a well written and uplifting story.

I enjoyed this book however wasnt as good as i thought it would be. Its quite hard hitting and i prefer it a bit more light hearted. The characters were written beautifully though

Ack!  I'm so sorry that I didn't get to finish reading this advance copy before it was archived!  I loved the premise and the writing, though, and I look forward to purchasing a hard copy when it's out.

Thank you for the opportunity to read the ARC.  It means so much to educators as we decide how to stock our in-classroom libraries and what books to recommend to students.

*4.5* 

Have you ever read a book where you were constantly hoping for the best but preparing for the worst? That's how I was for the entirety of What You Left Me. I kept hoping that Bridget wouldn't take a certain path, but at the same time, I could see it being a very strong possibility. 

What You Left Me wasn't what I was expecting. Honestly, I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting such a deep and moving read. This book made me laugh and cry. I alternated between angry, happy, and sad. There were so many times I wished that things could be different, but at the same time, I gave props to Bridget for making the choices she did regarding the plot. It made it a tough read for sure, but a tough read that I won't forget for quite some time. 

What You Left Me introduces Martin and Petra. They couldn't be anymore different. Martin is the funny guy, constantly in trouble with his teachers and family but loved by his classmates. Petra, on the other hand, has always been the star student, the trustworthy daughter, and the steadfast friend but all that changed one night. Now she's stuck sitting next to Martin at graduation instead of being at the front with the top of her class. Martin can tell that something isn't right with Petra, that she's brooding about something big, and even though it spells out nothing but trouble, he tries to get her attention, to make her smile, and this is what changes everything. 

Over the course of the book, I came to love Martin and Petra. On the surface, they seemed incredibly different. Martin seemed wild and carefree, forever the life of the party, while Petra was the smart girl, sticking to her books and her tight knit group of friends. Deep down, however, both Martin and Petra were lost...

Petra is dealing with the backlash of suddenly not being the perfect daughter, the perfect student. Everyone thinks she's graduating, but the truth is she's one credit short. She knows she should feel bad, even mad at herself for getting to this place, but she can't bring herself to feel anything. My heart broke for Petra. It was easy to tell from the start that something wasn't right, that she was just going through the motions. I wanted to know more, to learn more about what happened that night. More importantly, I wanted her to smile again, to live again. Yes, her decisions following that night weren't the best, but they were understandable. They could easily be fixed. What couldn't be easily fixed, however, was the non visible scars that remained on Petra, something that everyone failed to see but Martin. 

Martin, on the other hand, is growing tired of always being the funny, goofy guy. He wants people to see that there's more to him than his jokes and his bets. He wants more for himself. Some parts of him wonder if he even lived high school to the fullest...

Martin and Petra's meeting is sudden and quick, but it not only changes everything but starts What You Left Me off with a bang. I wanted to see more of Martin and Petra, to see them interact, to see if maybe there was more to everything than a quick meeting, but a car accident shatters everything. Suddenly, Martin is in a coma and Petra is devastated. Sure, she didn't know him well, but for some reason she can't get over what has happened, she's pulled to his bedside and pulled into his life. 

At its heart, What You Left Me is a book about second chances and how random encounters can change everything. What You Left Me is primarily character driven. Bridget spends a great deal of time building Petra and Martin's characters, and I really liked that aspect. There was something very interesting about their bond, something that made me curious to know what would happen next. I also liked how Bridget made everything interconnected. I loved seeing Martin and Petra's friend groups come together, often in some very surprising ways. 

There are two things, however, that I didn't like about What You Left Me. For one, I wish the POVs would have been labeled with the character's name. At first, it was hard to tell who was talking when, especially when the POVs expanded beyond just Martin and Petra. Additionally, I wish there was more about what happened to Petra that night. There was some resolution to it, but I wish there would've been more. In some ways, I feel like it was slightly pushed under the carpet by the end of the book. 

Overall, What You Left Me is a an emotional, deeply moving addition to contemporary YA. If you're anything like me, it will probably make you cry your eyes out, but I promise it's worth it. Bridget has something very special here. 

This review will be published on Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf on June 26, 2018. The link provided will go live on that date. This review has already been cross-posted to Amazon and Goodreads.*

Yall. I am legit crying right now, I loved this book so much. I cannot explain how much this book meant to me. I have never been the type of person to have very many friends so how they were connecting with someone through dreams felt so right and real. I felt as though I was experiencing the dreams myself as I know how lifelike my own dreams can feel. The friendship between all of the characters was heartwarming, to say the least. They had secrets from one another but secrets that did not break them up that showed each other that revealing them just brought them all closer. I loved how diverse the characters were in their ethnicities, sexualities, and even in personalities. I feel as though I have read tons of books were everyone in one friend group is the exact same from one another and that is the only thing keeping them together, but to see a group of friends that showed so much love and support towards each other while having their own personalities was beautiful. I also love how both of the different friend groups of Petra and of Martin were able to come together during a difficult and trying time. They all knew that they were going through a time of hurt and heartbreak yet no one ever tried to out hurt anyone. Overall I loved this book and I hope to read more of the author's work in the near future.

When I requested the book, I definitely had a different kind of story in mind. The premise was good but to be honest this book just felt... weird. And not in a good kind of weird. There are times where this book confused the hell out of me. I didn't connect with any of the characters and I actually wanted to dnf'ed this so bad

DNF around 30%.

I might come back to this later, but I really doubt it. I'm not a huge fan of the book so far - there are multiple indistinguishable perspectives that switch in confusing ways, and I don't think the idea of shared dreams is being executed all that well - but besides that, this is getting too close for comfort to some personal stuff and I just really don't want to read anymore. I would prefer to not give this a rating, since I read so little of it and didn't have strong feelings about the book's quality because of that, but NetGalley is requiring that I include a star rating with the review. The two-star rating included here (which I did not put on Goodreads) is largely arbitrary.

What You Left Me is a great young adult story about Petra and Martin. I really enjoyed this book and the two lead charcters.

I thought I wouldn't like this book after reading the synopsis, because it just didn't sound like my kind of book. It really impressed me, because I was enthralled, even though I usually don't get into this type of book. It captivated me, it kept me interested, and it ended up being a great read.

Before I start this review I have to admit that when I first saw the e-arc available for request in NetGalley my first thought was "the cover is so heartbreakingly beautiful" and so I requested it, because I am a sucker for heartbreaking books. 
Everything starts when our two main characters meet at graduation day, and there is an instant connection even though they'd been together in high school for the last four years and a beautiful friendship is born until one day a terrible accident occurs. 
Friendship is the main thing in this book, healing and how sometimes all you need is a friend to hold you. The writing was beautiful, heartbreaking and real, I totally recommend this book to the lovers of 'I was here' and 'Wintergirls' more books like this are needed and I do hope to someday write like this. 
 Now on to the small little things that kind of bothered me, the book switch between two points of view and that got a little confusing, because there is no way to know that the point of view is going to change until you read several lines and finally notice that it had changed and I had to go back and read again in order to really understand and sometimes that distracted me. 
Also FYI the book has some rape scenes. 

Thanks to the publisher Sourcebooks Fire for giving me an e-arc through NetGalley.

I got an ARC of this book.

I liked the idea behind this book more than I liked the book. So let's start there. The book follows Petra as she tries to help out a boy she has just met deal with being hit by a car in a drunk driving accident. The twist here is that he is not awake for this, he is in a coma. So they communicate with dreams. It was a bit more woo-woo than I wanted, but it didn't really focus on that. Instead it was  more about the people around Martin taking steps forward.

There was a random subplot of Petra dealing with an attempted rape. It was hinted at a lot and then it was shown a few times. She hadn't dealt with it and the consequences could have ruined her future. It was refreshing to see a character heal from an attempt. It wasn't a full blown, graphic rape scene like a lot of sexual trauma in books has become. Instead Petra was able to escape by biting his hand before too much had happened. She was strong and scared and traumatized. This was not talked about on the back cover, so it felt like I really needed to be graphic with that. The author included a trigger warning in her review on Goodreads, but that didn't help me when I stumbled on it. 

The gay sub plot was weird. It felt rushed. It also felt like all of the plots of this book were a bit rushed and fueled by alcohol. There would been no plot at all without drinking outside of Petra's sexual assault. 

The formatting could have been drastically better. There was no distinction between who was the narrator. You had to guess, but all of the characters sound the same. Most of the time, I didn't know who was speaking until they mentioned someone else or they mentioned their trauma...I mean their one character trait that could be used to tell them apart. 

So while I liked the idea of the book and generally liked reading it, this isn't a book I would tell everyone to go out and read immediately. If you can look past the formatting then the story is enjoyable.

Unfortunately, this book did not work for me. The writing was good, but I felt the story moved a bit too slow. I liked all the characters, but the way the book was set up made it very confusing who’s POV I was reading. I also thought the dream sequences were odd. This may work for others, but ultimately did not work for me. 
* ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the advance reader copy, What You Left Me by debut author, Bridget Morrissey, in exchange for an honest review. Teens will enjoy this stunning debut, that examines through alternating perspectives and dream sequences, the power of love, friendship, hopes, and dreams when two teens, Petra and Martin, seated next to each other (alphabetically) meet for the first time at their graduation from high school.  Petra has a secret so she holds Martin’s antics at arms-length, but she really enjoys his kidding, prodding, and agrees to attend his graduation party that night.  Morrissey has a real gift for description and drama as she treats the reader to Petra and Martin’s friends and the way they talk, laugh, cry, and communicate with each other.  I really enjoyed these teens, their honesty and fierce protectiveness toward each other.  Much will be learned through the time these new friends spend together as they gather in the hospital, waiting for news about Martin after he and his best friend are in a car accident.  Verdict – a must read for teens!