The Other Side of Him

Note: This is my very first review so please bear with me, and hopefully I will get better at this.

This was sent to me for review.

Wanting to go into this book a bit blind-sided, I only read the first few lines of the synopsis, but that was all I needed to get hooked in. I'm not going to lie, when I was reading the first 20 or so pages, I truly thought I wasn't going to enjoy the book as much as I had hoped. I figured it would be a book with a simple plot and a lot of romance. But boy was I wrong! This book was such an emotional rollercoaster and I couldn't put it down.

There are so many things that I loved about this book:

1. The pacing is very fast, Alice Rene does not waste any time with unnecessary characters or information. Every single interaction and scene served a purpose, which was so refreshing to read.
The writing style was absolutely wonderful; it made the book such an easy read. It was so simplistic yet so addictive.

2. Not once did I find any of the characters insufferable, aside from Greg (for reasons I won't mention because, spoilers). The story is told from Claire Wagner's point of view and even though there were times she made unwise decisions (what 22-year-old doesn't), she learned from them and constantly tried to improve herself.

3. The family and friendship dynamic in this story was possibly my favorite part. Claire's family may not be perfect, her German mother is more interested in her marrying a man than her being an independent, working woman, and her brother was the cause for a lot of Claire's troubles. However, just like Claire, they both end up growing and learning from one another and from their mistakes. Barb, Claire's best friend, was my favorite character through out this book. They had such a strong friendship, constantly being there for one another and understanding each other's decisions. Differences aside, both family and friend rushed to Claire's side whenever she needed them, which I loved.

4. So much suspense! It comes out of nowhere, just smacks you in the face. One minute I was feeling so happy for Claire and was mesmerized by Greg's charm, then a few chapters later I began feeling scared for Claire and for the people around her. I couldn't put this book down until I knew what would to happen to them.

5. There is romance, but it's not overbearing and not the main focus of the story, instead it's more of a subplot.

6. So many 20th century pop culture references, such as actors, movies, music. etc. It really set the tone of the story and made me feel connected to the time period.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Whenever I put the book down I ended up picking it back up again within a few minutes, because I couldn't shake it off my mind. I highly recommend this book, and if you end up picking it up I hope that you end up enjoying it as much as I did!

There was just one thing I didn't particularly like, I'm posting this at the bottom because it's a spoiler:
I wish that we found out more about Dr. Carleton and how he ended up coping with every thing. I am aware that being around Dr. Carleton could have brought bad memories for Claire, but I felt they could have been really good friends and could have helped each other move on. He helped Claire a lot and I felt like he was important to her, but he ended up being forgotten.