Book Review // Waiting for You by Allison Williford
Waiting for You
Women's Fiction
Create Space Independent
Paperback, eBook
260 (print)
Enchanted Book Tours
This day would always be burned into her memory, an ugly brand leaving its scar.
Losing a loved one to death will always leave a gaping hole in our hearts — something 23-year-old Kylie Lewis knows all too well. But do we allow it to destroy us, leaving us terrified of ever loving again? Or do we force ourselves to pick up the pieces of our shattered hearts and continue with our lives?
Kylie’s quiet, rote life — working as a columnist at the Charleston Herald, hanging out with her best friend, Cat, and downtime with her mother — is soon turned upside down. Cat drags her to a concert, where she meets Adam Bell, an aspiring musician with a history of his own loss. Shortly after, her mother receives a devastating diagnosis of terminal breast cancer.
Stricken with the fear of her inevitable loss, Kylie struggles with her budding relationship with Adam. But with the help of Adam’s empathy, can she learn to grieve her mother without shutting out the world, as she once did after her father’s death? Can she learn to love in spite of her losses?
Waiting for You is a story of loss, grief, and love.
Although author Allison Williford clearly writes that this is “a story of loss, grief, and love,” this is not a sad story. After having the opportunity to read Waiting for You, it really is a story of hope for two people finding and offering happiness to each other. As you read below, I almost put it down, but I didn’t, and glad that I kept going.
My likes:
Flow of reading: Once I was able to really get into this book (see below First pages) the flow of reading Waiting for You was quite easy and allowed me to finish reading within one sitting. I didn’t find reading jumpy or parts of the story that were out of place. It was smooth sailing because the story, and how it was written together, made sense!
The love story: It’s broad because the underlying story that blossoms into the full story is all about love. Two people meeting with a connection not yet fully developed, where one is sure and the other is not. Of course there are bumpy spots along the way as with every growing love story and it eventually it takes a love loss for Kylie to wake-up and see what readers figured out a long time ago.
My dislikes:
First pages: The first three to five pages – the pages that should grab you – were the most difficult for me. I was not “hooked” within the first three pages especially because the relationship between Kylie and Cat seemed forced – almost unrealistic in some ways. I eased once the chapter begins to enlighten us about Adam and as a reader I started to create my own story about the two people, Kylie and Adam, that would eventually meet.
Kylie, to some degree: At first Kylie is a bit irritating and whiny. I found myself wanting to yell at her, “snap out of it!” One note about this – Kylie is an introvert and IMO she uses this trait as a crutch. I understand that Kylie’s trait is what helps to develop her story and the relationship between her and Adam, but it can still be a trigger to readers that may not like the “damsel in distress” feel that sometimes goes along with a character like Kylie.
Kylie’s previous relationship: One question I had for a long time, “Why is Kylie so against a relationship with Adam?” It’s not only because she is a bit of an introvert. Well, there is a small mention of a previous relationship and how that relationship ended… cheating. It really is one line. I wanted to learn a bit more about this relationship and see if maybe this had a larger role in her being an introvert and not wanting to fall in love again.
Final thought:
My dislikes really are just a speck of nothing in the grand overall story of Waiting for You. I really did like this book and was thankful that although I almost put it down because I wasn’t hooked within the first few pages, that I didn’t because it really did develop into a story worth my time and worth reading. Definitely 4 out of 5 stars.
Allison Williford is a Women’s Fiction author, blogger, and all around nerd. She is the owner and operator of The Sentranced Writer, a blog dedicated to helping other writers.
Originally from upstate New York, she now lives in coastal North Carolina with her husband and their dog, Wilson. In addition to writing, Allison is a mental illness awareness and suicide prevention advocate.
When not glued to her writing or with her nose in a book, Allison enjoys free time at the beach, boogie boarding, copious amounts of coffee, romps in the yard with her dog, and also saying hello to every dog she meets.
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