I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Meet Me in the Middle by Alex Light Published by HarperTeen on 7/12/22
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 378
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
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Eden had her best friend Katie—she didn’t need anyone else. But then there was Truman.
Katie’s older brother, the artist. The recluse. The boy with the innocent smile and the dangerous eyes.
Eden had never really known Truman—not until the night of Katie’s accident. That was the night they’d finally let each other into their orbits—only to have the sky come crashing down on them.
With Katie in the hospital and Truman fleeing from his grief without a word, Eden is left alone to grapple with her own pain. But when Truman returns to the city, can Eden let him back into her life knowing that their first kiss is what tore their world apart?
Short and Sweet Review
Edens best friend is Katie and all Eden needs is Katie, but Katie is in a coma and now Eden needs to navigate life without her best friend. Truman is Katie’s older brother and after her accident he left for a couple of months but he’s back now and Eden is trying her best to avoid him. Both of them are dealing with guilt but what they really need is someone who understands. But can these two be in the same place long enough to talk about everything that flipped their world upside down?
The book goes back and forth between Eden and Truman’s POVs. I didn’t connect with either character, I think that was mainly due to how they talked to their friends and people who cared about them, Eden could have been a lot better to her roommate Ramona. I don’t feel like a lot happened in this book. We see Eden try to go through life day by day and we see that she’s either thinking about Katie or Truman. Truman on the other hand is back in town and he’s an artist so the book explores that. The romance between Eden and Truman fell flat for me, it’s the basic girl has a crush on her best friends brother, but what made this worse is that after the accident Eden says she wants nothing to do with Truman but she can’t stop thinking about him. I didn’t like the back and forth between this relationship and there were too many negative feelings involved for this relationship to ever work out. Eden also works at a restaurant with a guy named Manny and that restaurant was one of the main settings. Manny and Ramona start a project towards the end of the book and I was upset to see that it wasn’t mentioned ever again.
Overall this was an okay book. I feel like it covered the characters grief well and it was interesting to see how Eden dealt with Katie being in a coma vs. Truman. I just wish the characters didn’t feel so flat there was no character growth and the back and forth romance didn’t work for me.
