Kyle thought he had everything right. His girlfriend that he has been with for years and a est friend who is always there for him. His problems started when he is injured during a football game and suddenly it is not the quarterback and the cheerleader any more. But with the help of Kimberly and Sam (his best friend) he moves on, until graduation night when he and Kim fight and get in his car and get in an accident. He can't believe that everything has changed. But then, he meet Marley, a mysterious and quiet girl who seems to know just how to listen to him and she knows just the type of relationship that he needs. But is everything as it seems?

This was a great YA book and I read it quickly wanting to see how it would all turn out. There was a great twist that I didn't see coming. I really loved the growth that Kyle and his friends had and I liked the close relationships that changed and matured.

Fans of Five Feet Apart are sure to devour this beautiful tale. The authors weaved a wonderful, page turner that I couldn't put down! There were so many twists and turns, yet none of my predictions ever seemed to be correct. Prepare yourself to be swept away by this delightful read. 

Disclosure: I received a complimentary eARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes. I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me this opportunity

This book starts off as a very depressing book. Kyle has an accident with his girlfriend after she gives him unpleasant news and he has to deal with the guilt of her death. As he begins to move on, he comes to a realization of all the mistakes he has made. I did not expect the twist in this book and it perked the book up immensely.

Received this book as an ARC; my teenage daughter read it on my kindle and gives the following review (she is a better judge as she is the target audience!):

My favorite genre of fiction is hands down romance, and Rachel Lippincott and Mikki Daughtry never fail to leave me on the edge of the seat- with tears in my eyes, of course. 

“All This Time” is a story of dreamers, loving and losing all at once, to create one big heartache. Just when I thought I knew what was happening, reality pulls one over on me and changes the path of the story completely. Kyle is just a teenager struggling to recover from the biggest loss of his life- no, not his football scholarship. The death of his girlfriend and best friend of 6 years, just after she came clean about a secret she had been hiding from him for weeks. Overwhelmed with betrayal, confusion, and guilt, the book follows Kyle’s emotional and mental recovery. 

Since he’s only human, Kyle mourns and struggles to return to normalcy, and can not get a grip on life, hitting rock bottom in all aspects. Just when giving up seems like the only option, he sees a light at the end of the tunnel, and begins to turn his life around. Happiness now becomes normal, instead of a guilty pleasure. But is this new life really real, or too good to be true?

I enjoyed Five Feet Apart so I was excited to read this one and it definitely did not disappoint. Daughtry and Lippincott are an unbeatable pair and write so well together. There were so many twists and turns that I was not expecting. This quick and emotional read kept me guessing and entertained throughout. An ideal love story exemplifying the power of soulmates for contemporary YA romance enthusiasts.

From the very first scene, this book takes you by surprise, carrying that on in nearly every way. It made me laugh, it made my cry, it made me scream and gasp. It was beautiful and it touched me deeply, in places that made my heart hurttttt

I can’t really say much without giving it away, but yeah. Just please read it. I don’t even love YA contemporary and I FLIPPING LOVED THIS. Hands down one of my favorite contemporaries ever….wow…

All This Time by Mikki Daughtry and Rachael Lippincott is a unique and heart-wrenching story about family and friends, love and loss, and a story about guilt, healing and forgiveness.  All This Time follows Kyle Lafferty, a young man who is graduating from high school. He and his longtime girlfriend Kimberly have been making plans to attend UCLA together in the fall and he’s very excited for what the future holds.  That is, until the night of their graduation party when Kyle’s life is turned upside down.  At the party, Kimberly informs Kyle that she is not attending UCLA and then tells him she doesn’t want to be his girlfriend anymore.  They fight in the car on the way home and end up in a horrific car accident that leaves Kyle in the hospital with a brain injury and Kimberly dead.

Kyle is struggling to move on from the accident, both in terms of his physical recovery and because he is wracked with guilt about Kimberly’s death.  When he is at his lowest, Kyle meets a girl named Marley at the cemetery. She’s there mourning the death of her twin sister and, like Kyle, she feels guilty and responsible for the death of her loved one.  Slowly Kyle and Marley get to know each other as they open up about everything they’re feeling, especially the guilt.  They begin the healing process together, but Kyle is plagued by this nagging feeling that the happiness he is finally starting to feel is too good to be true and that something is going to happen to take it all away from him. Are his fears justified or is this just more guilt about Kimberly?

What a tearjerker of a book this was for me!  I actually lost track of how many times I cried while I was reading.  My heart just broke for Kyle from the moment we meet him.  It’s like no matter what he does, he just can’t catch a break.  The writing is so powerful and vivid too, especially with respect to Kyle’s emotions. His heartbreak, his confusion, his grief, and even his hope were just palpable as I was reading. As much as I adored Kyle though, I think it was Marley who really stole my heart. She’s just such a unique character and I was truly captivated by her.  Marley loves to write original fairytales, she has a small army of ducks that follow her at the park because she feeds them popcorn, and she also nurtures small creatures like snails, moving them off of foot paths so they won’t get stepped on.  Marley is almost too pure for this world, which made it all the more heartbreaking that she was carrying around so much grief and sadness for her dead sister.  I loved Marley and I loved the person Kyle started to become when he was around her.

My only real issue with All This Time is that there’s a major unexpected plot twist about two-thirds of the way through the book and it completely changes the direction the story is going in.  I’m always up for a good dramatic plot twist, but I just didn’t find this twist and subsequent events to be all that believable.  It didn’t hamper my overall enjoyment of the story very much; it just felt like one twist too many and that the story didn’t really need it. Even with that issue, however, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend All This Time to anyone who enjoys heartfelt stories about love, grief, and healing. If you need a good cry, this is definitely your book!  3.5 STARS.

Thank you Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for the gifted e-copy.

Well this book gave me all the feels and made me cry!  Kyle and Kim have been together since middle school.  The night of their high school graduation party, Kim derails their plans for college and drops a bombshell...the next thing you know, they are in a terrible car accident, and Kim doesn't survive.  Or so Kyle thinks...He spends a year mourning her loss and trying to move on.  He meets Marley and falls for her.

And then he wakes up.

WHAT?

I had to go back and reread everything to make sure I understood what exactly I was reading.  Then I thought, "OK, No way is this story going to explain and/or redeem itself."

Yeah, I was wrong, because it so did.

I read this one in less than 2 days, because I needed to be sure Kyle got that HEA.  It was questionable so many times...but I'm ok with the way it ended.  The last bit was a bit touch and go (literally and figuratively) but I liked it overall.

Sometimes you just have to read a YA story with all the usual tropes. I think this is one of those books that you should read without knowing what's going to happen, and also be willing to stick it out. Without revealing any spoilers, I started out being really annoyed by Kyle. As one of his friends said at least once, "It's not always about you." So yeah, I was really annoyed by him. Fortunately, he does slowly learn his lesson, but it takes many tries with a few false starts. But I loved the surprises that the authors put into the story (no, I did not think it was predictable), and I really liked the ending. In many ways, this was like a Grimm's fairy tale, including the darkness and the happily ever after. If you get annoyed by YA tropes, then maybe this is not the book for you, but if you like realistic sad fiction, then you should definitely give this book a try. I had to pull out the tissues for this one!

FTC Disclosure: Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) provided by the Author and Publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Rating 4.5 

The book "All This Time" by Mikki Daughtry and Rachael Lippincott was a beautiful story. I will be honest this book did not grab me from the beginning and only after a few pages I almost put it down. However, I forced myself to keep going and I am so glad I did. The main character Kyle survives a car crash that killed his longtime girlfriend Kimberly. Throughout the story we see Kyle going through the grieving process, trying what he can to heal. His character felt full of emotion and so genuine one could tell the author's did their research or have dealt with trauma in their life. I couldn't imagine going through what he did but by reading this story in a way I felt like I was right there with him during that painful time. I also loved how is character grew towards the end of the story learning from past mistakes. I loved Marley's character and how she interacted with Kyle. I loved that she had her own personality and wasn't  your typical female lead. Without giving too much away I will say I noticed small details in the beginning of the story that later led to the ending. But even though I started to figure it out in no way did it take away from the story or that official moment. In my opinion, this book would make a great movie and I believe the author's wrote it with that intention. 

Should you read "All This Time"?
Yes! It is a well written story but be aware it does deal with mental illness and the emotion in this story is strong! Some parts of this book can feel slow but overall it was such an enjoyable book. I can honestly say by reading this story I have a better understanding of grief. 

**Received an advanced copy through NetGalley in return for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **

Kyle is a high school senior who has it all: plans to play football at UCLA, a beautiful girlfriend of several years, and an amazing best friend. After suffering a football-ending injury, at least he still has his best friend and his girlfriend, Kimberly, who plans to attend UCLA with him. But on the night of their high school graduation party, tragedy strikes, and Kimberly is killed in a car accident which also badly injures Kyle. Kyle sinks into a deep depression and cannot seem to go on with life without Kim - until he meets Marley. Life with Marley is wonderful, but then there's a twist. And then another twist. This book was completely unrealistic and a rollercoaster of emotions in the last several chapters, but luckily, sometimes you need a little bit of an escape from reality. It's a little bit like Stranger Things and The Sixth Sense in terms of things not always being what they seem. I don't think this book will go down in history as a must-read YA book, but it was a quick read that I neither loved nor hated.

Maybe I'm the only person on Earth who hasn't read or seen "Five Feet Apart", so I wasn't on the Mikki Daughtry train before reading this book. But now I can understand the hype a little more.

YA Contemporary as a genre for me is usually hit or miss, mostly because it relies on too many tropes, which many young readers eat up. They don't know any better; most won't have read that many books to know how overdone some of them can be! But unfortunately for this age-ed reader, most of this book was unsurprising, and thus a bit unengaging.

Kyle (the former quarterback for his high school football team) and Kimberly (captain of the cheerleading squad) are high school sweethearts, bound for the same college and a cloyingly sweet future together. But Kim breaks the news, on graduation night no less, that she won't be going to the same school, and she thinks they should see other people. (Predictably) out of nowhere, a truck hits Kyle's car while they are in the midst of this life-changing conversation, leaving him severely injured and Kim dead. Kyle must deal with the grief and guilt of losing his (ex-)girlfriend, his identity without her after six years together, and being the one who gets to move on. This is all made even more complicated when he meets Marley, a girl dealing with her own grief, and they have an instant connection. 

This book was an easy, casual read for me. The writing style was precise and simple, but still engaging. While the first half of the book took a bit to unfold, the last half flew by. And I really liked the ending. 

Now, while I know that tropes are often an inevitable part of fiction, this book just had a few too many for me, and some that came straight out of soap operas! It made it a bit too difficult to suspend disbelief and engage completely with the story. But overall, I enjoyed the pacing and romance in this novel enough to recommend it to my younger high school readers. I'm sure they will eat this one up!

Kyle wakes up after an accident to find his girlfriend dead & his whole world turned upside down. When he decides it’s finally time to visit Kimberly’s grave he ends up meeting Marley, the only other person who understands his loss.

As the following weeks turn to months Kyle starts healing. His relationship with Marley makes him realize his relationship with Kimberly wasn’t true love and it took his time with Marley to see that he wanted to be with Kimberly because it was expected. He forgave Kimberly for breaking up with him & starts living the life she wanted for him.

Then his world is flipped upside down again when he follows Marley out into the rain one night.

This is a story about love, loss, and overcoming grief. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for their next YA Contemporary!

Everyone thought that Kyle and Kimberly would live happily ever after. They were the stereotypical football player and cheerleader couple who have dated since middle school, until the night that Kimberly broke up with Kyle before dying in a horrific car accident. Kyle is heartbroken and suffering from many injuries as a result of the accident that killed Kimberly, and he can't picture moving forward with his life, until he meets Marley. 

Marley is grieving the loss of her twin sister, in an accident that Marley thinks she could have prevented. Can Marley and Kyle work together to overcome their grief, and will they fall in love in the process? 

All This Time is as much a story about healing and grief as it is a romance. Beautifully written and contains some unique elements that will make this very popular with fans of The Fault in our Stars and If I Stay.

This endearing YA novel features graduating senior, football playing Kyle.  He is a confident romantic who forces everyone to love him, even the reader.  He's charming, he's flawed, he is kind, but he is also, like most teens, fairly self-centered.  The novel begins like a shot, full of action and contradiction of expectations.  He's on the cusp of adulthood, his girlfriend is breaking up with him (again), and a car accident changes the trajectory of his life.  What follows is a story full of stories, healing, and new-found love.  But can his life possibly get any better than it is right now with Marley, the girl he met in the cemetery, who helps him process his loss and pushes him forward to living past the grief?  
Daughtry and Lippincott weave a tell that is full of surprises.  The pieces of the puzzle that didn't add up to me made sense in the end and I valued the way they pulled it together.  Nicely crafted YA romance.

Kyle is excited to graduate high school and start his adult life at UCLA with his childhood sweetheart, Kimberly. But not only does she break up with him the night of their graduation, they get into a terrible car accident that leaves Kyle in the hospital with serious injuries and Kimberly dead. When Kyle wakes up, he has no idea how to process a life without Kimberly - -they were together since middle school and were best friends since they were little kids. His supportive mother tries to help, having had a similar experience when Kyle's father passed away, but Kyle just feels so lost in his grief and his uncertain future. Then he meets Marley, a young girl facing the same grief and sense of loss as Kyle. Marley and Kyle can feel each other's pain and spending time together gives them a sense of comfort they can't seem to find with anyone else. Despite enjoying their time together, though, Kyle's debilitating headaches still plague him, he keeps having visions of dead-Kimberly in the strangest places, and something just seems "off" even though Kyle can't quite figure out what it is and he's the happiest he's been since the tragic accident. No one can stay this happy after such a devastating loss...

Thoughts: This is one of my top favorite books of 2020! I don't even know if I can describe what this story will do to readers. The grief Kyle feels is almost tangible, that's how beautifully it is portrayed on the page, and Daughtry and Lippincott have weaved together such an amazing story with a plot twist readers won't see coming. I certainly didn't! Readers will love every single character and will keep turning page after page experiencing Kyle's highs and lows right along with him. I can't wait to share this book with my high school students! It's not easy to find a really "deep" YA novel from the teen boy perspective that covers tough topics, so my only wish is that the absolutely gorgeous front cover would be altered a little to be slightly less feminine. It's a beautiful cover and I adore it, but it's going to make it hard to "sell" to my teen boy readers, reluctant or not.

This book has left me feeling conflicted. Mainly because I'm not sure what genre I would place it in. I get that it is meant to be a contemporary romance, but I just didn't particularly find much romantic about it. I think this definitely has teen appeal-it is certainly a quick read. The characters have parts that are relatable as are the relationships between them.

That being said the relationships are where I'm struggling here. The codependency between Kyle & Kimberly is addressed, but that same level of obsessive codependency between Kyle & Marley is made to seem somehow more acceptable and like it represents the ultimate love story. To me it just seemed rather unhealthy.

For libraries: If you have die-hard fans of Five Feet Apart, this one will do very well in your teen collection.

I didn’t love this book. The characters lacked dimension. It was hard to empathize with Kyle. Although I did love the way he rose to the challenge of accepting responsibility for his own life and grief. Overall, it may be a suitable book for a teenager but it wasn’t a love affair for me.

Really enjoyed this and would definitely purchase for my library's collection.  Unique story line, and definitely similar to Five Feet Apart as it felt like it was written to be a motion picture.

I think the main reason I wanted to pick up this book was the cover. It is gorgeous. But as I was reading this book, it was a struggle to keep my interests. The synopsis sounded heartbreaking and bittersweet. But the actual plot was a little unbelievable in a way I just couldn't get on board with. I generally like YA novels, but this one kind of let a lot to be desired.