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tatiannareads 's review for:
Stay with Me
by Nicole Fiorina
Stay with Me is the first book in the Stay with Me trilogy, as well as [a:Nicole Fiorina|19241479|Nicole Fiorina|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1616977099p2/19241479.jpg]'s debut novel. It's a contemporary college romance with pretty dark themes, high angst and an ambitious exploration of mental illness.
Potential triggers: heavy sexual and psychological trauma, mental health institutions, PTSD, panic attacks, emotional detachment disorder, emotional dysregulation, suicidal ideation.
Mia Jett is sent away from her home in Pennsylvania at the age of 19 to Dalor College, a type of diversion institution in the United Kingdom for troubled minds where therapy and mental healthcare is blended with post-secondary education. Mia has difficulty feeling emotions or empathy. Labelled as a sociopath of sorts, she is just looking to put in her time and avoid being institutionalized. It's at Dalor where she meets Ollie Masters, a boy with emerald green eyes and relentless kindness. What follows is an intense and all-consuming romance as he starts to chip away at her defences.
Fiorina's writing is absolutely breathtaking and poetic; she is able to capture such strong and intense emotions and chemistry between characters with a unique writer's voice and honestly it was love at first sentence. I have so many damn highlights, I struggled to even pick some for this review. If I was rating this book on the the writing and romance alone, this would have a perfect score. The romance between Ollie and Mia absolutely captivated me, set my heart on fire and broke it multiple times. I am desperate to follow their journey in this trilogy.
The reason I did not give this five stars is that I found some parts of the setting unrealistic or nonsensical, though this is probably because I have first-hand experience working in mental health. Most of the other mental illness elements were well-done (in my opinion) and clearly well-researched. I also thought some specific choices made by the main characters didn't make the most sense to me.
I actually read this book with a friend, and both of us thought this book was going in a specific direction only to be proved very wrong. I ended up loving the journey and also found myself sideswiped by a great plot twist that I did not see coming!
The "stay with me" motif that is built throughout this book struck me so hard emotionally; I am sold on Fiorina's artistic storytelling ability and can't wait to read the rest of her backlist!
I also wanted to note that music is used to help tell this story, with specific songs attached to specific scenes. There is an official playlist on Spotify that I definitely recommend pairing with reading.
Potential triggers: heavy sexual and psychological trauma, mental health institutions, PTSD, panic attacks, emotional detachment disorder, emotional dysregulation, suicidal ideation.
Mia Jett is sent away from her home in Pennsylvania at the age of 19 to Dalor College, a type of diversion institution in the United Kingdom for troubled minds where therapy and mental healthcare is blended with post-secondary education. Mia has difficulty feeling emotions or empathy. Labelled as a sociopath of sorts, she is just looking to put in her time and avoid being institutionalized. It's at Dalor where she meets Ollie Masters, a boy with emerald green eyes and relentless kindness. What follows is an intense and all-consuming romance as he starts to chip away at her defences.
"The calm in his lips, the slow caress of his tongue against mine, and the way it was so powerful yet tame transformed a heart of gray back to color."
Fiorina's writing is absolutely breathtaking and poetic; she is able to capture such strong and intense emotions and chemistry between characters with a unique writer's voice and honestly it was love at first sentence. I have so many damn highlights, I struggled to even pick some for this review. If I was rating this book on the the writing and romance alone, this would have a perfect score. The romance between Ollie and Mia absolutely captivated me, set my heart on fire and broke it multiple times. I am desperate to follow their journey in this trilogy.
"The mood shifted from taunting and torturous to what always came of our bond—a connection so pure, all the angels in heaven would be jealous."
The reason I did not give this five stars is that I found some parts of the setting unrealistic or nonsensical, though this is probably because I have first-hand experience working in mental health. Most of the other mental illness elements were well-done (in my opinion) and clearly well-researched. I also thought some specific choices made by the main characters didn't make the most sense to me.
I actually read this book with a friend, and both of us thought this book was going in a specific direction only to be proved very wrong. I ended up loving the journey and also found myself sideswiped by a great plot twist that I did not see coming!
The "stay with me" motif that is built throughout this book struck me so hard emotionally; I am sold on Fiorina's artistic storytelling ability and can't wait to read the rest of her backlist!
I also wanted to note that music is used to help tell this story, with specific songs attached to specific scenes. There is an official playlist on Spotify that I definitely recommend pairing with reading.