Name: If I Live
ISBN: 9780310332558

Terri Blackstock

It started with the USA TODAY bestseller If I Run, continued in If I'm Found, and now Casey Cox's story reaches a thrilling conclusion in If I Live.

If I Live

Mary Horton

Hmmmm . . .

I guess, for me, I feel slightly disappointed by this series. It was so hyped-up, but it just kind of fell flat for me.


  Lovely Things:


- The realistic characters. Casy and Dylan were smart, sensible, reasonable people for the most part - but they did have FEELINGS. They didn't fit into either stereotypical thriller character archetype: the "I'm a completely clueless jellybean" category or the "I'm so perfect and emotionless that I'm not human" category. :P I liked both of the main characters in this series for the most part! Just, uh, not together. LIKE WHY DID THEY BECOME A COUPLE??

- The intensity. WELL THEN. To say the death toll went up considerably in this book is an understatement. It was so intense. I had difficulty putting this book (or the first two in the series) down. Looooots of intense things.

- The themes. It dealt with some real issues in this series. Hard things. Like abuse, grief, suicide, PTSD, etc. Yet for all the hard topics this series addressed, there was always an undercurrent of hope. A light at the end of the tunnel. A hand pointing to Jesus. It's clear that the author had no intention of making her books "empty" thrillers, but instead poignant explorations of real-life issues.


  Not-So-Lovely Things:


- The romance. UM AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO COULDN'T STAND THIS?? It felt like it came out of nowhere, to be honest. Almost like the author felt they HAD to become a couple at the end of the second book because there were two main characters of the opposite gender. (Because heaven forbid if they *gasp* are just friends!) I didn't see that much chemistry between them. It felt like a whirlwind of emotions with WAY too much kissing (though not described) and too much talk about "feeling empty" without the other person. It was SO RUSHED and SO BORING. (view spoiler)[Plus, Dylan talked about wanting to get to know more about Casey once they were back in a normal setting. But then the next chapter, he spontaneously proposed and they got married three days later?? Because "life is short," oh yeah, that's original. *facepalm*  (hide spoiler)] Honestly, I think I've just become really cynical about romance the more I read about it. Romantic thrillers bother me. xD

-  I just . . . didn't connect emotionally. I don't know. The characters were good, the plot was good, but I never felt that INVESTED in the characters emotionally. I DON'T KNOW. I'm a tough critic sometimes. I guess thriller books never really get me invested in characters all that much . . .

So did I like it? Yeah, I did. But did it knock my socks off like it seemed to do to everyone else? HAHA NOPE. I'm a very finicky bookdragon sometimes. *apologetic smile* I think my favorite thing about this series, ultimately, is how aesthetic the covers are. xD

3 stars