If I Stay

Author:  Gayle Foreman

Series:  If I Stay, Book 1

Year: 2010

Publisher:  Speak

Pages:  234

Goodreads Description:

On a day that started like any other,

Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, admiring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. In an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the only decision she has left. It is the most important decision she'll ever make.

Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting, and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.

Last year at Yallfest I was shocked by just how long of a line Gayle Foreman had. I'd never heard of this lady. I looked at a couple of her books on display but didn't buy any because quite frankly, the covers didn't sell me. Since that time I ended up with a copy of If I Stay and remembering the long lines, I decided to read it. Within pages, the book had me sucked in. I was dying to know what was going to happen with Mia. I sat the book on the corner of my desk the next day at work so that I could keep looking at it. It served as something to look forward to at lunch time. After lunch, it reminded me how much I couldn't wait to get home and finish the story. I understand the lines now.  The story was encompassing. I couldn't even tell you if I liked Mia as a character but I loved her family, friends and boyfriend. Foreman had this way of telling the story to where you learned about the people in Mia's life more than you did about her. Oh, and I most definitely went through a box of Kleenex.  Now I need Where She Went.