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A review by spaceyfaerie
Just Like Fate by Cat Patrick, Suzanne Young
5.0
The concept of this book was quite interesting to me. I really didn't know how it would play out or if I'd like it, but it still intrigued me. Plus, I'd read other books by these authors, and loved them, so I thought this one couldn't be that bad if they followed their same pattern. And my expectations didn't fall short and were met quite beyond what I expected!
When I first read the blurb, I thought: Oh yay, a love triangle already set up with her and her crush finally getting together, but then this other dude thrown in just for added angst. So naturally, when Chris (the other dude, not the crush dude) was introduced, I was sure I wasn't going to like him. I was so rooting for Caroline and Joel (the crush dude) that Chris wasn't even a contender in my mind.
But, as I started reading the story, and learned a bit about Joel, I so did NOT like him. At all. And I fell completely in love with Chris. Seriously, he is. Such. A. DARLING!!!!!!!!
Ahem.
Anyways, romantic thread aside, the rest of this book is quite interesting! I thought I would be pretty confused by the changing of perspective of story from if Caroline had gone to the party or if she hadn't, but it was actually quite easy to read and follow along with the parallel(ish) plot threads. It was almost like getting into the writer's brain in this book, like "what would have happened if she did this instead of that...heck, let's just write both points! Let's have fun!" So again, I quite enjoyed the different perspectives...(although honestly I like the one where she went to the party because then it has me less angry at Joel...)
On that point with Joel, like seriously, what a jerk! He was only out for Caroline's physical love it seemed and that was it, screw anything else. And because she was so crushlove on him, she went along with it for a bit, and I was just like
CHRIS IS BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is much, much, MUCH more to this book than the romantic story parts, and those are I think, the best parts. This book doesn't gloss or glitter up family issues when dealing with grief. It doesn't shove them right in your face either with stark bluntness, but it is a realistic book. That's what I liked about it. I liked the struggles and pain and the way they were written, which made them feel just so REAL. Caroline's problems after her grandma died, no matter what choice she took, both gave her heartache and grief...but both taught her the same things. And that's what really made me fall in love with this book, is that no matter what choice she took, things kinda ended up turning out the same. Now, there were a few things that she could have saved herself in either choice, either path giving her equal amounts of regrets and pain, but in the end, I guess it seemed that it didn't really matter.
Which made me quite happy, because no matter what path, she ended up with Chris. I did wish she hadn't ended up giving her virginity to Joel in that one choice thread, but still at least he got what he deserved in the end of both choices, and Chris and Caroline ended up together, so I was happy.
When the epilogue came along, it showed that both paths had kinda melded and it really wrapped up the story, instead of leaving it hanging. I was thinking that a more open-ended conclusion would come, simply because of the two different "what-if's" story threads, but I'm glad it ended the way it did (see spoiler above for reasons exactly why) and totally am going to buy this book so I can re-read whenever I want! Loved it!
When I first read the blurb, I thought: Oh yay, a love triangle already set up with her and her crush finally getting together, but then this other dude thrown in just for added angst. So naturally, when Chris (the other dude, not the crush dude) was introduced, I was sure I wasn't going to like him. I was so rooting for Caroline and Joel (the crush dude) that Chris wasn't even a contender in my mind.
But, as I started reading the story, and learned a bit about Joel, I so did NOT like him. At all. And I fell completely in love with Chris. Seriously, he is. Such. A. DARLING!!!!!!!!
Ahem.
Anyways, romantic thread aside, the rest of this book is quite interesting! I thought I would be pretty confused by the changing of perspective of story from if Caroline had gone to the party or if she hadn't, but it was actually quite easy to read and follow along with the parallel(ish) plot threads. It was almost like getting into the writer's brain in this book, like "what would have happened if she did this instead of that...heck, let's just write both points! Let's have fun!" So again, I quite enjoyed the different perspectives...(although honestly I like the one where she went to the party because then it has me less angry at Joel...)
On that point with Joel, like seriously, what a jerk! He was only out for Caroline's physical love it seemed and that was it, screw anything else. And because she was so crushlove on him, she went along with it for a bit, and I was just like
CHRIS IS BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is much, much, MUCH more to this book than the romantic story parts, and those are I think, the best parts. This book doesn't gloss or glitter up family issues when dealing with grief. It doesn't shove them right in your face either with stark bluntness, but it is a realistic book. That's what I liked about it. I liked the struggles and pain and the way they were written, which made them feel just so REAL. Caroline's problems after her grandma died, no matter what choice she took, both gave her heartache and grief...but both taught her the same things. And that's what really made me fall in love with this book, is that no matter what choice she took, things kinda ended up turning out the same. Now, there were a few things that she could have saved herself in either choice, either path giving her equal amounts of regrets and pain, but in the end, I guess it seemed that it didn't really matter.
When the epilogue came along, it showed that both paths had kinda melded and it really wrapped up the story, instead of leaving it hanging. I was thinking that a more open-ended conclusion would come, simply because of the two different "what-if's" story threads, but I'm glad it ended the way it did (see spoiler above for reasons exactly why) and totally am going to buy this book so I can re-read whenever I want! Loved it!