Well, I haven’t cried like that for a long time. Thank you, author Sarah Everett. Not only did I sob so hard the last couple of chapters that the kittens came to check out what was going on – the shyest of the two actually brought his face super close to mine and sniffed me for a while – I basically felt like crying from about the halfway point on.

Because from that point you knew something dreadful must have happened to Jessi and her adoptive family the Cohen’s including Rowan, her best friend, Mel, the mother she always wanted, and Luke, her first crush and the boy she dreamed about, but you didn’t know what. But you knew what Jessi was doing to herself and you also knew that whatever happened, she completely blamed herself. It also caused her to doubt her entire life with the family she thought was her’s. And that is completely heartbreaking. My heart broke for Jessi more than it did for the others.

The young adult book is called Some Other Now and the Alberta author did an amazing job of shifting us from the Then and Now so we knew something happened but didn’t actually know what it was until far into the book. During those two points in time, we get to learn about a host of secondary characters who are all great too. I especially liked Ernie, the older man Jessi visits in his retirement home.

“It’s almost been a year since Jessi last visited the Cohen house. She lost Rowan. Mel is sick. And Luke hates Jessi for the role she played in tearing his family apart.”

Luke comes home from college and asks Jessi to pretend to be his girlfriend for the final months of his mom’s life.

“Jessi finds herself drawn back into the world of the Cohens. Everything’s changed, but Jessi can’t help wanting to go back, even if it means breaking her heart and losing them forever this time.”

What makes this book so great is Jessi. She is an amazing character who you want to find and hug and not let go. I want to make the world better for her.

Despite the copious amount of tears shed, the book was beautiful with an important lesson – people control their own actions. You can’t always take the blame.

Some Other Now is from Raincoast Books and retails for $24.99.

A copy of this book was provided by Raincoast Books for an honest review. The opinions are my own.