As a result of my various committee appointments and commitments I am unable to disclose my personal thoughts on this title at this time. Please see my star rating for a general overview of how I felt about this title. Additionally, you may check my GoodReads for additional information on what thoughts I’m able to share publicly. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this and any other titles you are in charge of.

Weirdly enough, I LOVE books about friend break-ups. I've only read a few, but I've adored them all. It's a unique kind of heartbreak, and Ashley Woodfolk did a wonderful job encapsulating that in her work. I flew through this title and will for sure be recommending it to others!

It took me almost the whole year to get around to this 385 pages of a contemporary novel and for some reason Idk why but I loved it! This novel was full of diverse ppl. We got a person who stutters and a person dealing with their divorice parents which I wasn't excpeting that for some reasons. 
 I really loved our main character Chelo she is a new favorite female character. She loved music and books just like me and she is very confident in herself and I did saw the romance coming from a mile away but I still enjoyed it overall. 
 This is totally a new favorite book of mine for 2020 and I can't wait to talk about it in my favorite of 2020 books video that I'm going to make for my Youtube channel! I gave this a 5/5 stars and it was my first book by Ashley Woodfolk and I would totally recomeneded and I'm checking out her other novel that she has out!

Over all it was a fantastic read, full of heart-break and over coming tough situations, "When you were Everything" has a good chance of making you reminisce on your past relationships and where you went wrong in ones that past you by (you might even shed a few tears along the way).
The beginning is a tiny bit slow but once you get past that first chunk you are bound to not want to put this one down.

This one hit me right in the feels.  I think we’ve all experienced growing out of a friendship – and that stuff hurts! It’s even worse when you part on bad terms like Cleo and Layla.  
We follow Cleo on her journey of healing, self-discovery, and forging ahead with establishing new relationships. 
First we meet Dom – a hunky out of towner.  Not only is he a total dreamboat, he’s sweet and funny and hardworking.  And he loves his grandparents.  Does it get any cuter than that?  Now I know what you’re thinking – “Oh fabulous, a mushy love story.” Insert epic eye roll.  But that’s really not what this one is about.  Yes, Dom is a romantic interest, but more than that, he is a friend who helps set Cleo on the right path and reminds her that it’s okay for things (and people) to not always live up to her standards.  
I really enjoyed being along for Cleo’s journey.  She really seems to grow as a person and it’s nice to be a part of that. We do get to experience what happened between Layla and Cleo slowly, in pieces throughout the story.  It felt like I was back in school experiencing a friendship breakup.  
This was a really great read!

Wow, this is such a wonderful book. A love letter to lost friendships.

From the very beginning, we see how much Cleo is struggling because she lost her best friend and you can relate to her so much. She has the memories and the story keeps going back and forward as resembling her memories of what happened and why it happened the way it did.

The writer has such a wonderful way of putting things into words, it’s just profound and poetic, so realistic you can see the author understands the place where she put Cleo in. She knows how it feels.

As the story moves forward you learn is not one side’s fault but both of them made mistakes. And mistakes that everyone could make. The way the friendship starts to fall apart is so real, it just hurts.

I cried so much with this book. This book reminded me of History Is All You Left Me only, instead of with a romantic relationship it was a friendship, but it was the same kind of ache.

The characters are very lovable, i loved Cleo and Layla, both. I loved Dom, Syd, and Willa. I obviously didn’t like the chorus girls, but that’s a given, you are meant to dislike them as Cleo did.

I think the work with the characters was impeccable. They felt human, and because of that, the story hurt even more.

I don’t wanna talk too much about the storyline because i don’t want to spoil it for anyone. But i think this is a book everyone should read.

I gave it 5 stars and would give t more if i could.

“Somehow I am a girl who makes all the wrong choices, but I am also a girl who aches in every way to be wanted despite my mistakes. ”

When You Were Everything features a topic that books don’t generally talk about – Friendship Breakups. I think the author did an amazing job by choosing this particular plot, since people tend to forget that losing a best friend hurts just like losing a person you’re in a relationship with; sometimes it hurts even more. This book was refreshing in a lot of ways - mainly because YA books tend to be more romance-centered , and When You Were Everything talks about friendship as the focal point. 

Ashley Woodfolk’s writing style is simple, yet so beautiful. The book was perfectly paced, and I literally flew through it. Cleo’s struggles as she adjusted to a life without her best friend, Layla was so heart-breakingly described. I felt really sad for her at times, and wanted to hug her endless times throughout the story. Friendships are over-romanticized most of the time, so I really appreciated how the theme of friendship and losing a best friend wasn’t sugar-coated in any way by the author.

When You Were Everything swiftly changed between two timelines – before and after the breakup, but for me, it felt more like the first half of the book featured Cleo’s trauma and the second half showcased her healing process. I loved seeing Cleo finding happiness outside her “Layla Bubble” and form new friendships. She gradually learnt to accept the fact that some things are never meant to be, while figuring out a way to appreciate the past without clinging into it forever. 

I loved how wonderfully written the romance between Cleo and Dom was, even though it was the secondary focus of the book. It was cheesy and sweet, just like Cleo deserved. Sydney and Willa, Cleo’s new friends, were the best additions to her life, and it was so heart-warming to see their friendship bloom throughout the story. 

I got annoyed with Cleo a few times throughout the story, and I wanted more contribution of her mother in the storyline. These were the only things that I didn’t like about the story – which explains the rating. I loved everything about When You Were Everything otherwise. It is a very important book, one that everyone- specially teenagers should read. <3 

These are some of my favorite quotes from When You Were Everything – 
1)	If you love someone, it’s always worth it….to try. You only get a few truly priceless people in your lifetime. You should fight like hell to hold on to them. 
2)	You kinda have to go through the dark to be sure you’re okay. Why not just make brand-new memories instead of overwriting old ones? You don’t have to erase the bad things to be happy. Besides, the dark shit is important to remember too.
3)	Time had taught me that kids weren’t kind to girls like me : Girls who were dreamy and moony-eyed and a little too nice. Girls who wore rose-tinted glasses. Girls who thought the world was beautiful, and who read too many books, and who never saw cruelty coming. But something about this girl felt safe. 
4)	Love and life are fluid. Even heroes can make choices that fall into shades of gray.
5)	The thing about snow-globes, is that they’re pretty to look at, but they’d be awful to inhabit. People are like that. Lives too
6)	There’s still so much good in the world, you know? There’s still a chance for things to be amazing even if your life didn’t start out so great. But it’s kind of up to you to build the life you want. 
7)	I want to love the people I love with my eyes wide open.

I received this book as an ARC through NetGalley. I gave this book 3 stars because if you look at how long it took me to read (Feb 19-Sep 18), that’s the main reason for the star rating. This book kept losing my interest. I finally finished and here’s what I thought about the book.

Overall it was an “ok” read. The main 2 characters, I thought was secretly in love with each other by how they reacted to each other but turned out to be genuine friends. I didn’t like how the story ended. I left with the feeling of “that’s it!? After all that I read, that’s the ending that they have?” I was disappointed in that aspect.

The book talked about friendship, divorce, and bullying. I would recommend this to young readers, ages 12 - 16.

This book was great and is such a fun read! The focus on high school dynamics is much needed and relatable. It covers a range of topics, including Disability, divorce, parenting, jealousy, self-awareness. I was especially in awe of the author’s ability to convey such heavy topics with the precision needed to reach a young adult audience. I highly recommend this book!

This was such a pure and tender book about best friends! I loved it for all its aspects and would recommend it to YA readers and I think it can also be read in groups of best friends! <33 Full review to come!

Couldnt not download this onto my device hence i could not read it. It was not compatible with my device. My sincerest apologies!!

This book is SO great and wonderful. Going into this, I expected it to be more lighthearted, but this is truly a heavy and complex YA contemporary. This is a book about friendship and what it means for you to outgrow friendships. It's about people changing and not always being able to recognize the new person that they have become. It's about saying the wrong thing and not being able to come back from it. It's about mistakes and regrets and trying to forget. It is about holding onto the memories and being able to recognize the importance of a friendship during the time it lasted. It is a book about forgiveness, but not forgetting. I really appreciated that this book tackled female friendship and its many complexities. There is no black and white to this book; it's all about the messy gray areas in between. It's about discovering that the adults in our lives are not perfect, and everyone is dealing with something behind the scenes. I appreciated just how messy and real this book felt.

It also features the complexity of falling for someone and being able to trust someone again after past trauma. It is an ode to Shakespeare. It's an ode to music. To books and libraries. To cooking. To finding that person who understands you more than you understand yourself. To expecting imperfections.

This book is so lovely and so complex and it is one that I am going to be left thinking about for a long time.

At the time of writing this review, I stumbled across a song called “Passerby” by Patrick Droney and I really feel like it captures this book perfectly.

This was an incredible story centered around the dynamics of a friendship and the effects a changing friendship can have on us. It was refreshing to see the importance and impact of friendship examined, along with how to heal when an important friendship dissipates. While this story does involve a romantic relationship, it was refreshing to see more of the focus go to the friendships in the story.

This book touched my heart. As someone who lost there best friend, so much of this book was relatable. I enjoyed reading every part of it and loved how it all came together in the ending. For lose who have ever lost a friend, this ones for you.

YES. This book does justice to the power of a friendship break-up. Cleo's emotions were given space and validity, even when she made poor choices.

Y.O.E. You over everyone. Layla has been Cleo's best friend since she was twelve-years-old. They start sophomore year as close as ever but slowly their friendship implodes. By Christmas it's over.

Ashley Woodfolk's sophomore novel is so excellent. She tells the story through Cleo's eyes and alternates between the past and the present. Although, told from Cleo's perspective, it's clear that Cleo made some huge mistakes too. The dual timeline grants us access to the breakdown of the friendship but also to Cleo's recovery.

A friendship breakup can be so devastating, and I love that I ended When You Were Everything feeling like, although they went through a lot, both of these characters are going to be okay.

3.5/5 Stars

When it comes to contemporary it is so difficult to find a book about friendship and not a romance. Sure, there is a touch of romance thrown in, but if you are looking for a book about friendship, this is the one for you.

I honestly didn’t realize how much this book would hit home for me. I went through a few rough periods with friends while growing up. Thankfully those all worked out okay in the end, but this book really brought back all those emotions. I think it was a fairly accurate representation of how teenagers act when being mean to each other. Sure, some things got blown out of proportion, but they always do don’t they?

One thing I wish we got to see more of in this book though was a resolution. There was a little resolution in the last few pages, but I would have loved to see more of how their friendship resolved. Additionally, why Layla was so willing to up and leave Cleo. Sure, what she said wasn’t great, but to end a whole friendship over that just because the popular kids like you? Not cool.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I read it quickly and I think it was a good representation of what teenagers can be like at that age. Additionally, if you are looking for POC representation, look no further!

This book absolutely wrecked me. Ashley Woodfolk truly nailed the intimacy and subtleties of a friendship ending. It was so painful to read but also so healing.

Told in dual timelines of then and now, ashley woodfolk's newest masterpiece is about what happens when both sides of a friendship implode.

*3.5 stars

I liked this!! I loved the writing and I appreciated that the story was mainly focussed on friendship and not as much on romance. I could also relate to the main character very much at the start (about losing friends), but after a while everything just got a bit too dramatic for me. It just felt like a bit too much at a certain point. BUT I did think the ending was beautiful! And if you like Shakespeare, you're going to love this because there are a lot of references to his plays.