Title: If I Fix You
Author: Abigail Johnson
Publisher: Harlequin TEEN
Release Date: October 25th, 2016
“That was the thing about me and Sean Addison: I wasn’t in love with him anymore, but if I was, it would be entirely his fault.” –Abigail Johnson, If I Fix You
Another book that was sent to me for review, this one is a little different than the things that I normally read, mainly because I would classify it as a romance. Don’t get me wrong, I like romance once in a while, but I don’t often willingly seek it out. This book was related to Sarah Dessen, who I read on occasion, so I decided to check it out! While it took me a bit to get into the story, by the end, I was invested in Jill’s story.
When Jill’s mom suddenly leaves one day, only Jill knows the actual reason that she left. But she’s afraid that if she tells anyone, especially her dad, that it will only make her situation worse. As Jill tries to make sense of her new reality, a new guy moves in next door–one with a myriad of scars. Jill throws herself into trying to make life better for him, until she realizes she can’t fix anything for anyone else until she fixes herself.
The things I thought were great about this book: the complexity of the characters and of the relationships. The way that Johnson writes them feels realistic, and I found myself feeling sympathetic for the characters, especially Jill, Sean, and Claire. They all have their own issues to work through, their own things they are struggling with, and I think Johnson does a great job of making them all very realistic and relatable characters.
At first, I had a hard time making sense of the story because the timing at the beginning was a little unclear. I wasn’t really sure if a flashback had happened, or if we had moved on from the initial event at the beginning. It took me a couple of chapters to get caught up to where the story was. Additionally, while I thought the characters were very realistic and their problems were relatable, at times I found myself getting irritated with Jill for being so repetitive and constantly only focusing on the bad. While this irritated me within the narrative, I still believe that it was a realistic quality for the characters.
Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good romance or enjoys books similar to what Sarah Dessen writes, but it wasn’t necessarily my cup of tea.
3/5 stars