Reviews

Here With Me by Samantha Young

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justalazyreader's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

amdamsgard's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

talkwordytome17's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The characters felt 1 dimensional. It was still a fun read, but I felt like everyone I was reading was literally the same character. I feel like it would have been better if it was condensed to a smaller book, so that there was a bit less fluff between the action.

lilyya's review against another edition

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4.0

4 stars

"I am gentle breeze, I am fertile. I am peace, I am tranquility. But I am mighty, I am storm. I am thunderous, I am valiant.
That was the Highlands.
A perfect dichotomy."

The story was your classic small town romance mingled with mystery and quite a bit of family drama. The location, on the contrary, was a surprise, a breath of fresh air; The Highlands. Albeit the Scottish folklore wasn’t well exploited in the storyline, the scenes, on the other hand, were caricatured with breathtaking backgrounds and settings.

"It made it hard to trust people when the ones you trusted most proved to be the most unreliable."

Robyn, the female main character, had a traumatic past that was closely linked to her former police officer’s fonction. A year after a near-fatal altercation while being on duty, she decided to fly overseas and confront her biological father in his homeland; Scotland.

"But that’s what you do for family. You never give up on them, even if they give up on you."

Lachlan, the male lead, ran a private domain dedicated to the Hollywood elite in the Highlands after abandoning the spotlight of his blooming acting career. He was best friend/ boss of Robyn's father and accomplice, the principal reason why the two of them had no healthy father/daughter relationship ~~at all~~.

"Robyn.
Something primitive, something base within him, recognized her as his.
She belonged to him."

Lachlan and Robyn's first encounters were filled with hatred feelings managed by a push and pull dynamic stained with tension. They didn’t like each other for most of the storytelling. But their sort of ennemis with benefits situation that was drawn as a slowburn was mostly enjoyable.
Lachlan was protective of his family and sensed Robyn as a threat against their well being —mostly Matt’s, her biological father, —
Robyn didn’t like what 'Lachlan Adair persona' involved in general; a notorious and authoritarian man with the world at his feet.

"One of the most magical things about you is your bravery. You follow your gut, and you face your fears because, like you said, you realize the fear of fear itself is much worse than the actual fear. And believe me, regret, too, is so much worse than fear."

The mystery was a constant part of the storyline that involved some explicit, gory scenes. The culprit was easily deduced cuz’ the author led us with evident and clear indices to it, however, the motives behind it were the actual surprise.

" I’ve spent my whole life fighting the feeling of being not good enough, not lovable enough. Because of you. And because of her. But you were worse, Dad.”

Robyn’s bond with both her parents was a hard and emotional aspect of her story. Hopefully, her relationship with her father will be more explored and well developed in his own book cuz even if it was an important part of this storyline the execution felt fast-paced and the forgiveness was rushed.

"I felt empty without him, though.
It was survivable.
But it was awful. "
"I think that’s what love is: the person you most look forward to seeing.
The person you looked around for when something funny happened and you wanted to share it.
I wondered if I’d ever really laugh again."

Oh man.. the third act breakups near the end were never-ending, those poor characters were never catching a break and that didn’t help with Lachlan’s issues. Honestly, I’m incline to overlook the mess that was the last chapters cuz the story in its entirety was worth every scene that provided pure hurt.

" The truth was my parents weren’t perfect. Whose parents were?"

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