All This Time by Mikki Daughtry and Rachael Lippincott, is a sweet love story that twines its way through a maze of medical trauma, brain injury, and self-discovery. After a tragic car accident following a breakup with his childhood sweetheart, Kyle grieves, mourns, and moves on with the girl of his dreams, only to discover that nothing is what it seems. This quick read is about the power of stories to save and build lives, exploring them as a kind of third space – a necessary refuge to go to for healing, growth, and centering. 
I recommend this story to readers who enjoy YA romances as well as mysteries or magical realism.

I’ve never read Five Feet Apart, but after reading the new novel from Mikki Daughtry and Rachael Lippincott, I may have to go back and rectify that situation. 

All This Time, the newest offering from this pair of authors, introduces us to golden couple Kyle and Kimpberly.  They’ve grown up together, they’ve been together, they have plans to go to college together.  But a car accident on prom night changes all of that.  When Kyle wakes up in the hospital with a head injury and learns that Kimberly is dead, he’s devastated. 

But then he meets Marley, a quiet, shy girl who has also experienced loss – they meet in the cemetery – in the form of her twin sister.  She’s holding on to the belief that her sister’s death was her fault.  Kyle and Marley begin a tenuous friendship, and as they work to heal each other, their relationship strengthens. 

And then things go terribly wrong.  And I am screaming that I want to explain EVERYTHING, but that would mean revealing spoilers that I don’t want to do.  But I will say that this story took twists and turns that left me alternately grinning, cheering, and crying.  Daughtry and Lippincott weave this amazing world that feels like a fairy tale – in fact, Marley is a teller of stories and fairy tales are her favorite.  I wish I could gush about all that is so RIGHT about this book, but without spilling details I really can’t.   

Just know that if I could, I would read this book fresh over and over again and love it more every time.  So good I did not want it to end.  And even right up to the end, the authors keep you guessing whether it will be a tragedy or comedy.  READ THIS BOOK.

Although I have never read Five Feet Apart, I have heard good things and was excited to read the authors’ new book. At first, it appeared to be a typical love story without much substance, but then there was a twist and it became much more.

I was intrigued to read a YA book with the voice of a teen boy, as most of the books I read are mainly voiced by girls. Kyle has to come to terms with who he is, both after being unable to play football anymore as well as without his long time girlfriend Kim. He has to face the fact that he may not have been a great friend or boyfriend and he has to learn to be a better person overall.

I could relate well to the parents in this book, especially to Kyle’s mom as she watched her son struggle and tried to help him through. She was a wonderful mother figure and the mother / son relationship was nice to read about. Marley’s character was also one that I enjoyed reading. She is also coping with grief and expresses herself through  writing stories, which I could also relate to.

This book wasn’t as meaningful as some of the YA books I’ve been reading that address a wider issue like racism or body positivity, but it was a quick and entertaining reads that I think teens will love.

First published September 1, 2020 (Booklist).

Kyle and Kimberly have been a couple for years, and with their best friend, Sam, they are graduating from high school. It should be a time of celebration because the three of them will attend UCLA together in the fall. But Kim reveals she’s attending Berkeley instead because she wants to know who she is by herself. Kyle, upset, takes his eyes off the road as they continue their disagreement, and they end up in a massive car wreck that results in Kim’s death. Grieving, Kyle blames himself and withdraws, while experiencing hallucinations and flashbacks of Kim before her death. Once he finds the courage to visit Kim’s grave, he meets a girl named Marley, who mourns the death of her twin. In an unsurprising move, Kyle and Marley fall for each other, but the plot twist, which surfaces almost too late in the story, saves the day. Is there a happy ending? It’s not a spoiler to say yes. Readers who loved the writing team’s Five Feet Apart (2018) will eat this one up.

Kyle's story of recovery from tragedy is filled with flowers and fairy tales. Some might consider those two things to be useless in the face of grief and suffering. What this story reminds us of is the power of storytelling and the restoring power of hope. Filled with lush descriptions of flowers and evocative scenes of redemption and reconciliation, this book is surely on its way to the big screen. I would love to see Kyle, Kim, Sam, and Marley tell us their story in technicolor. For readers who are happy to suspend reality a bit, this will be a welcome emotional rollercoaster. In the end I was glad I jumped on.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Disclaimer: I received this arc and e-arc from the publisher for a tour. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: All This Time

Author: Mikki Daughtry and Rachael Lippincott

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 3.5/5

Recommended For...: romance lovers, second chances romance

Publication Date: September 29, 2020

Genre: YA Contemporary

Recommended Age: 15+ (romance, death, PTSD)

Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers

Pages: 336

Synopsis: Kyle and Kimberly have been the perfect couple all through high school, but when Kimberly breaks up with him on the night of their graduation party, Kyle’s entire world upends—literally. Their car crashes and when he awakes, he has a brain injury. Kimberly is dead. And no one in his life could possibly understand.

Until Marley. Marley is suffering from her own loss, a loss she thinks was her fault. And when their paths cross, Kyle sees in her all the unspoken things he’s feeling.

As Kyle and Marley work to heal each other’s wounds, their feelings for each other grow stronger. But Kyle can’t shake the sense that he’s headed for another crashing moment that will blow up his life as soon as he’s started to put it back together.

And he’s right.

Review: For the most part I thought that the book was fairly well done. The book had a lot of emotion behind it and I thought that the characters were well done which is too good things that you want to look for when you are reading a ya contemporary. I also thought that the author did well with the pacing of the book.

However I really didn't like the storyline that well and the two characters relationship really drove me batty. I don't really think that they should have been together and the relationship feels very unhealthy. The book dry sound the point that these two are epic lovers but really it just feels very dysfunctional and something that I would see in divorce court within two years of their marriage.

Verdict: It was good, just didn’t flow that well for me.

This is a story about trying to find a new happy ending.

This was a lovely, quick read.  I didn’t feel especially attached to any of the characters, but the themes were very relatable (heartbreak, disappointment, realizing what you thought was perfect isn’t.  

3.5 stars, but rounding to 4 because of the mental health representation.

Umm...I think I'm just perhaps the wrong audience for these books. At one point in my life I would have loved them, so I'm rating them as I would have as a teenager.

** spoiler alert ** ~ Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an early copy in exchange for an honest review! RELEASE DATE: September 29 ~

'That's the first thing you said to me, remember? Once upon a time.'

This book really put me through the wringer. It started out so strong, such a great depiction of grief and learning how to accept one's feelings and then... then it got really, really dumb.

I appreciated so much of what was going on, what Marley was providing for Kyle, and that's when I had the thought, What if Marley isn't real? I thought that would be very fitting and a great way to symbolize Kyle's journey dealing with his grief. Unfortunately, this book simply took things too far.

As I kept reading, another thought crept into my mind, What if Kyle is dreaming all of this and he'll wake up back where he started? Lol that would be so incredibly stupid.

Little did I know that not only was this the case, but it got even worse and more over the top. More over the top than the whole thing being him in a coma? Yes. And no, I don't know how the authors managed to pull that off, let alone how it got past the editors.

Not only was he in a coma that whole time, BUT MARLEY WAS REAL AND WAS READING HIM THEIR ENTIRE STORY.

Yes. I did not make that up. Besides the obvious logistical problems this brings up (how did none of his family and friends- let alone the nurses!!- never see this random girl reading to him literally ALL THE TIME????), but it also just... rubs me the wrong way. Like. Why is it okay that this random girl chose an incapacitated boy to build an entire relationship with????? How was she even allowed in the room???? I just. No.

I thought the escalation would end there. It couldn't POSSIBLY get worse, right? Wrong.

Kyle buys her a dog. Yup, just buys it online and it shows up and he just gives it to her without consulting a single person for permission! Always good to give a dog to a person you just met without even telling them to get any supplies, let alone ask if they have the time and energy to devote to it. Anyway, as annoying as that is, it is NOTHING. I repeat, NOTHING compared to the what happens next.

Marley jumps in front of a car to save a child because she feels guilt about her sister dying in the same way. I'm not done yet. Then, when she's in the hospital, her injuries don't seem to be that bad, and the doctor says that she's simply choosing to die. I'm not even going to mention how harmful that could be to someone dealing with terminal illness or grieving, but you know what, it gets even worse. So then, MARLEY DIES. Yup, she straight up flatlines. And then- and here's the kicker!- she simply chooses to come back to life!!! She just wanted to say bye to her dead sister!! Haha! Yes!! So good to completely discredit every good lesson about grief previously provided by this book by romanticizing death!!!!

And then the book just ends.

So... yeah, I think it's fair to assume I'm not too keen to read more from these authors, though I do like their writing style. If the synopsis of their next work piques my interest I'd be willing to give it a try, but so much of this just had me in disbelief of how bad it got.

I'm giving it that extra star, bumping it up to 2, because up until he woke up from the coma this was a solid 4 star book. Marley being real brought it down to a 2.5, and then the whole her dying and coming back to life randomly in the last like 20 pages solidly drove it down into a 2.

Honestly I'd highly recommend not reading this book, but it was easy to read, and the beginning held some merit.

THIS BOOK. It was the rollercoaster of emotions that I didn't know I needed. Just when you thought it was too easy, Mikki and Rachael throw a wrench at you. THEN, just when you think you've made it through, RIGHT TURN. I flew through this in a couple of days and it's been awhile since I was so addicted to a book. I felt so broken along with the characters that I couldn't put it down...I NEEDED them to make it through this dark tunnel that is life. 

ALSO Nods to the hourglass style cover, the flowers, the glorious writing style, and these characters that I loved so much. 

*Thanks to the folks at Netgalley for an eARC*

WARNING: This review contains spoilers.

“All This Time” is a young adult book centered around an incoming college freshman named Kyle, whose girlfriend Kimberly breaks up with her the night of their high school graduation party. Shortly after this happens, the two of them get in a car accident. Throughout the course of the story, the reader not only sees Kyle recover physically from the accident, but also sees him deal with grief, after he is told that Kimberly had died in the accident and that he had missed the funeral. In addition, Kyle is introduced to a girl named Marley, who previously lost her twin sister, and as the two of them befriend each other and help each other through their grief, Kyle feels like he might be starting to fall in love with her. Towards the end of the book, however, there’s a huge plot twist – Kyle had actually been in a coma for a year, and Kimberly is still alive. Kyle decides to remain friends with Kimberly, and tries to find and befriend the real Marley.

This book is definitely a very emotional one, but I still really liked it regardless. I loved the writing style, and I think that the way that this was written made the book even more interesting to read.

First off, this book is from the same author of Five Feet Apart and this one involves a kid in a coma. I think it’s an interesting premise and I look forward to seeing how it all unfolds. This book will be released on September 29th and I’ll have an updated review then. I think this will be a 4 or 5 star rating for me.

I went into this book not knowing much about it and was quite surprised by some elements of the story line. I highly recommend reading All This Time. It is a very quick read and definitely has many plot twists that I didn't see coming!

I received a free copy from NetGalley.  When your high school girlfriend says she is not only no longer going to the same college as you but breaking up as well your world changes.  It changes even more when you then get into a car accident killer her and severely injured yourself.  How do you recover?  Kyle not only has to recover, he has to decide to live again.  Maybe Marley, who he meets at the cemetery and has also suffered loss can help him.  But just when things seem to be getting better, can things now be too good to be true again?

So many twist and turns makes this story hold your attention.  Right when you think things are the worst, they get better.  Or when you think you have it figured out you don't!  Kyle is dealing with having been hurt in a car accident after breaking up with his girlfriend.  Kyle, Kim and Sam have been a trio since freshman year and have pulled each other up all this time.  It continues in the story through all the twists and turns. Emotions are portrayed in the characters to draw you in to the story to make you cry and smile.

This was a book I didn't personally enjoy, but I think my students might gravitate to it more than I did.  The cover is GORGEOUS, but the story just didn't work for me.  The first part of the book drew me in, but it got more teen-soap-opera-y as the story went on and I didn't buy the instantaneous love between Kyle and Marley. I will probably buy it for my classroom library, but it wasn't my personal cup of tea.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an eArc in exchange for an honest review. 

I'm not quite sure how to explain/review this book without giving things away, but I'll try my best. 

The premise of this book is very interesting. Kyle and Kim are seniors in high school who have been together forever (though sometimes their relationship is a bit on and off). But on graduation night, Kim reveals to Kyle that she doesn't want to attend UCLA with him like they had planned, but instead wants to go to Berkely and see who she is on her own. Kyle is upset, and when they drive home in a storm that night, they get in a car accident that leaves Kim dead and Kyle injured. Kyle doesn't know how to cope with this loss until he meets Marley, who is dealing with a loss of her own. This was my favorite part of the book, where we see Kyle trying to grapple with this loss, and trying to navigate his relationship with Marley. As Kyle and Marley's relationship deepens, I found the book getting a bit too cheesy. 

There is also a twist in this book (well, really a few twists). I actually really liked the first twist, because while it felt unexpected and almost unbelievable at first, the authors grounded it in a way that made perfect sense. But then everything else after that was just too..... strange. I thought the ending was weird and a bit heavy-handed and hard to follow. I definitely liked "Five Feet Apart" better.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book, but I loved it. Marley and Kyle had such a sweet love story and I was sad when the book was over. The author created such a beautiful world with her words. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

How do you explain a book that should start with once upon a time?  How do you review a book that should start with once upon a time?  Once upon a time, a woman picked up a new book to read.  She did not know what to expect and was surprised at how much she needed to find out what the book was about.  She liked the dual story lines and the characters. Mostly she loved how Kyle was not willing to give up. 

All This Time is listed as a young adult, the main characters are all older teens.  The book does have a major twist in it that was a wow and the end had another twist.  The book was well written and held my attention all the way to the end. All This Time by Mikki Daughtry and Rachel Lippincott is a wonderful read.

Thank you NetGalley, for the ARC in exchange for review.

Kyle had it all - football, the girl  - until he didn't. A car accident left him in physical pain and the death of his girlfriend, Kim, broke his heart. His mom and best friend, Sam try to bring him back to a life of hope, but he doesn't see it.

One day, visiting Kim's grave, Kyle meets Marley, a girl suffering loss of her own. The two find love in each other for the next year until one day, Kyle's world is upended all over again. 

I settled in for a teen love story, Everything went according to formula for the first 2/3 of the book. I appreciate when books surprise me and break the pattern. Daughtry and Lippincott take the reader on an unexpected journey and teens are sure to look at their own lives to take stock in priorities.

Recommended for high school and up.