Waiting on Wednesday: Where She Went

Jill over at Breaking the Spine created the Waiting on Wednesday meme for us bloggers to showcase books we're waiting on.

This week the book I've been waiting on for a long, long time is Where She Went the highly anticipated sequel to Gayle Forman's If I Stay.

Is that cover not GORGEOUS! Simple but so powerful from the model's expression to the background.

In case you aren't familiar with the first book, here's the blurb about If I Stay from Publishers Weekly

The last normal moment that Mia, a talented cellist, can remember is being in the car with her family. Then she is standing outside her body beside their mangled Buick and her parents' corpses, watching herself and her little brother being tended by paramedics. As she ponders her state (Am I dead? I actually have to ask myself this), Mia is whisked away to a hospital, where, her body in a coma, she reflects on the past and tries to decide whether to fight to live. Via Mia's thoughts and flashbacks, Forman (Sisters in Sanity) expertly explores the teenager's life, her passion for classical music and her strong relationships with her family, friends and boyfriend, Adam. Mia's singular perspective (which will recall Alice Sebold's adult novel, The Lovely Bones) also allows for powerful portraits of her friends and family as they cope: Please don't die. If you die, there's going to be one of those cheesy Princess Diana memorials at school, prays Mia's friend Kim. I know you'd hate that kind of thing. Intensely moving, the novel will force readers to take stock of their lives and the people and things that make them worth living.

And then here's the blurb for Where She Went

It's been three years since the devastating accident . . . three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever.

Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Juilliard's rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia's home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future-and each other.

Told from Adam's point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

If I Stay was AMAZING! I found myself laughing and crying through the story. The way Forman captures the essence of grief and loss and love and romance is phenomenal. The characters were so memorable from Mia and Adam to Mia's grandparents. I also enjoyed that we got to know the parents and brother in reverse through the flashbacks. It made the pain of their deaths all the more evident.

With that said, I can't wait to see what happens in Where She Went....Frankly, I'm gonna pitch a fit if she and Adam don't end up together in the end.