Released: In Australia on August 1st 2012

Synopsis: “I wait for him, the cold seeping through my clothes, until it finally dawns on me that he’s not coming back. And I wonder why he chose her instead of me? Why he went looking for her when I was right there.”

Tai and Juliet have been best friends forever – since they met at kindy and decided to get married in first grade.

They understand each other in the way that only best friends can.

They love music, beach walks, energy drinks and, they are slowly discovering, each other.

As they dream of adventures beyond the HSC – a future free of homework, curfews and parents, a life together – their plans are suddenly and dramatically derailed.

For Tai is sick.

And not everything you wish for can come true.

A poignant story of first love, hope, grief, family, and the twistedness of life.

Review: Oh wow… I sobbed throughout the last 20 pages of this book, which I honestly didn’t expect to do. Jessica Davidson tells the powerful story of a young teenage couple based in Australia (which I appreciated). She tells the story of Tai and Juliet. They have been best friends since kindergarden and realise now at 17 that they feel more for each other and they become each others first love. And then Tai gets sick… cancer sick. And it’s inoperable. The remainder of the story goes into detail about not only what Tai has to go through, but also what his family is experiencing as well as Juliet.

The thing I liked about this story was that the chapters alternated between Tai’s perogative and Juliet’s perogative. We get into both of their minds and understand what it is they are each feeling. I didn’t feel that the story itself focused strongly enough on their relationship to start with as by page 35 we understand Tai is sick, and then it’s all about the fallout and the sickness from there and not so much on the relationship side of things. That being said, towards the end of the book I looked at it differently and felt like I’d been on a journey with Tai’s sickness myself and I got quite emotional. So I feel as though this book is written intentionally this way.

It’s an extremely detailed and poignant look at cancer and how it affects people.. not only the person who is suffering from it, but everyone around the person suffering as well. Jessica writes with brutal honesty, and we see Tai as his most vulnerable. She goes into detail about his hair falling out, his paper thin skin opening up and bleeding when his brother flicks him as a joke, him falling over and passing out and almost breaking his wrist playing with this brothers, and towards the end, Tai having to pee into a cup in an undignified way because he has no strength to stand up and go himself.

It’s also the story of having to say goodbye, and letting go - even if it’s the one person you never want to have to say goodbye to. Honestly it broke my heart, and I sat there crying for some time after.

Most definitely worth the read, I strongly recommend this story - especially for Australians.. the language is very relatable and I smiled at some of the terms that Jessica used throughout the book as they hit close to home. That being said, this story would be enjoyed worldwide as it’s a universal story for so many. This book will be in stores on August 1st!

Rating: 5 out of 5