This was an emotional read. I personally wasn't drawn into it but it is one I think my students that enjoy the romance/drama genre would enjoy reading. It wasn't very long and was easy to read. The plot moved along well.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Another great read for me, this was such an emotional read, made me feel all the things. Highly reccomend

Heavy hitting and made me sob, which I usually don't expect from YA novels being in my 30s, but this one pulled at the heartstrings. 3.5 rounded up.

Alex Light is an amazing writer. This book was so beautifully written and the characters really felt like real people with real and complicated emotions. I’ve never been in a situation like Eden or Truman, but I understood them. I also loved how she humanized Katie. She wasn’t just their loved one that they raised on a pedestal because she wasn’t with them, since she had flaws too. Flaws that still impact her best friend and her brother.
I also loved Eden and Truman’s chemistry. I thought they were really sweet.
My problem is that the plot doesn’t really start until like 70% through the book. I would have loved to see Truman and Eden interact in the present day more than we do.
I also usually don’t like an ending like that, though, it did feel right for this situation.

Rating 4/5
Plot 4/5
Spice 1/5
Writing 3.5/5
Character Development 4/5

[I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book]

“Meet Me in the Middle” by Alex Light tells the story of Eden and Truman. Eden and her best friend Katie were inseparable. Katie’s older brother, Truman, is an artist and Eden doesn't know much about him however when they finally do get to know each other and test their relationship, it is also the night of Katie’s terrible accident. With Katie in the hospital, Truman flees to grieve his sister, and Eden is left alone dealing with the pain. When Truman returns, Eden is unsure if she should let him back into her life.

This book is a heartbreaking yet beautiful YA contemporary romance. It will have you sobbing by the end. I truly enjoyed the plot, characters, and story. That being said there was a bit of the miscommunication trope and the “we shouldn’t… maybe we should… maybe we shouldn’t” trope. Other than that, this book was amazing!

I'm really disappointed in my reaction to this book. I really enjoyed The Upside of Falling and how it mixed romance with some painful topics, so i was looking forward to picking up Stuck in the Middle. This book seemed to try replicate that formula, but it was definitely a lot heavier than Light's first book. I also would say that the label of romance is an ill-fitting category for this book. It is most definitely not a romance but rather a piece on how two different people cope with tragedy and process grief. Stuck in the Middle was not what I was expecting, and i don't
really meab that in a good way... Certain parts were very wordy and the characters were really unlikable at times. I almost DNFed around 60%... overall it was a bittersweet story, but I was not the target audience for it.

I don’t quite know how I feel about this book so here’s generally where my brain is at right now and why 4 (or probably 3.5) stars. I mostly really liked this. It reminded me of a combo of The Sky is Everywhere and I’ll Give You the Sun, which are two of my favourite books. It was also beautifully written, capturing the grief of Truman and Eden so perfectly. I loved how aggressively Canadian this was (even though every Fahrenheit mention annoyed me to no end. Seriously, HarperCollins Canada, why are we doing that?). I even loved how Truman and Eden’s story ended and would kind of love a book about them a few years in the future. What I didn’t love was how the timeline didn’t quite match up, how we don’t get any resolution on the side character’s stories (especially in the aftermath of the last few chapters), and honestly just something I can’t quite put my finger on that was off for me as a whole. Overall, thought this was very good, I think I just wanted more and also less confusion.

#netgalleyarc This was a decent story about love, loss, grief and guilt told from two different points of view. I enjoyed reading the story from the POV of the two different characters, but sometimes it was hard to keep track of when they were in the present or when the salty was referring to the past. Overall, a good YA book without being super cheesy.

This book is all the feelings. All. The. Feelings.

Be prepared for this story to break your heart and give you hope. And repeat.

Eden and Truman will have you feeling everything with them but for me it is Truman who made me have all the feels. He makes you feel everything as if you are right there experiencing every moment with him.

Highly recommend reading this book if you don’t mind fictional characters destroying you 🥹

Also. Would definitely love a follow up book, especially to see how the not main characters lives went (especially Manny and Mona 😍)

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for a review.

Meet Me in the Middle follows Eden and Truman who are on the bring of starting an epic romance when tragedy tears them apart. Eden has always had her best friend Katie at her side and needed no one else. But Katie’s older brother, Truman, the elusive artist with the gorgeous eyes, was always at the back of her mind. They never really interacted—until the night of Katie’s accident. With Katie in the hospital and Truman fleeing from his grief without so much as a goodbye, Eden is left to deal with her own pain and guilt about that night on her own. But when Truman returns to the city, will she be able to let him back into her life after their first kiss blew their world apart?

What struck me about extraordinary in this novel was the depiction of grief and learning how to live with a loss that you don’t know whether it’s going to be a permanent one. Both Eden and Truman still hope that Katie will wake up, but both have to come to terms with the fact that it might not be the case and that they’ve lost her for good. The way both Eden and Truman drift through life without really taking anything in (until they meet again) felt so relatable. Navigating the circumstances and the grief of Katie’s accident is terribly difficult and Light depicts this grief with an expert hand. As we follow Eden and Truman, we get to see just how impossible it feels to process the unexpected loss and how to relate to the other. Eden and Truman have very differing reactions and coping mechanisms to deal with Katie’s absence and I loved that we got to see these seemingly oppositional ways of dealing with grief and how they slowly begin to understand why the other is handling it the way they are. To me, this was definitely the strength of this novel: showing that grief is complicated and isn’t always the same experience for everyone but that it can, ultimately, bring people together and engender true support and empathy.

There’s also the compelling storyline of Eden feeling guilt over Katie’s accident because she associates it with Truman and her finally getting involved. Grief taints everything it touches and often skewers perspectives and even though as the reader you know that’s not what caused the accident, it makes for great storytelling to watch Eden gradually accept that it wasn’t her fault the accident happened. Similarly, I really enjoyed the plotline with Truman expressing his feelings through his art—there was a lot to glean from the loss of control he felt and I think that will resonate with a lot of readers, especially if they’re grieving for someone who is still very much alive.

Honestly, my only gripe with this book is the pacing. Some choice made for the trajectory of the novel didn’t make much sense as I was reading—for example, without spoiling too much, the first half of this book felt incredibly drawn out with key moments that could have been condensed to up the pacing whereas the ending to Meet Me in the Middle was so rushed that I was kind of stumped and wondered where the rest of the narrative’s resolution ended up. All that being said, though, I did read this book in one setting because I was so invested, so while the pacing wasn’t my favourite, it also didn’t make me put down the book.

All in all, Meet Me in the Middle is a thought-provoking and poignant exploration of the ways in which we grieve and how tragedy can bring people together in the most unexpected of ways.

I really liked Eden and Truman as characters and how the author handles grief, but I didn’t enjoy this one as much as their debut novel. I also enjoyed the representation of Alzheimer’s in TBR book. My main problems however, we’re the lack of character growth throughout the story. I still recommend this for others but for me, I enjoy a bit more growth in the characters

3.75


I cant say I didnt enjoy this because I did. I liked reading about Eden & Truman as well as the side characters they were fun! The writing was good too. However I do feel like the characters pasts could have been explored more. I don’t want to spoil anything but for instance, there was an event which altered the life of Eden’s family and it was only mentioned once and explained in a paragraph.

**This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange of an honest review**

I finished Meet Me In The Middle in two days this story grabbed me from the very first chapter and I couldn’t put it down. It’s such a heartbreaking well written story that you keep thinking about long after you finished the last page, The only thing I hated was the ending because it left me wanting more.