What's Left Of Me by Amanda Maxlyn ~ Review

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Synopsis:

Life works in mysterious ways.

Four years ago I became known as the girl with cancer.

I refuse to cry.

And I refuse to give in.

A relationship with a man is the last thing I’m looking for right now, but one night with Parker changes everything. He is persistent, and he knows what he wants. Me.

He doesn’t treat me like I’m fragile.

But he doesn’t know, and I’m not ready to tell him.

What if it changes everything?

Tragedy found me when I was seventeen.

Love found me when I was twenty-one.

My name is Aundrea McCall, and this is my journey.

Review:

“If everything that represents who I am is gone, then what’s left of me?”

When I first saw the blurb of this book, it got me hooked. A woman with a cancer, a guy with no clue. I was prepared for the conflict (guy knowing about the cancer) and the climax (girl knocking on the doors of death waiting to see if it’ll open for her)—or so I thought.

Aundrea McCall was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Cancer when she was eighteen. All of a sudden her normal life was thrown out the window and the struggle to live is knocking on the door. Everyone treated her like a china—fragile and sensitive. I admire her strength and determination in not letting the cancer control her life. She never gave in, though there were a few close calls. It’s just amazing how Aundrea fights it all. I feel like she represents someone in real life, that her bravery is not just fictional.

What I wasn’t prepared for is the emotions that bleed from every word. The author’s choice of words in expressing the happenings, the thoughts, the emotions of the characters is astonishing. The words went straight to my brain as if I was there in the book; as if I’m the one experiencing it. Every word drips with feelings. I don’t know what kind of coffee this author drinks but I want to try it in hopes that I can express what I felt in this book properly. The characters’ predicament, feelings, and thoughts, it all assaulted me. What’s Left of Me is unputdownable (if that’s even a word; if it isn’t, it should be just to describe this book!).

And what did me in was the epilogue! I would’ve cried, except that my younger sister has let it slip so it kind of squished the suspense and pain. Still, it was written beautifully—that I can guarantee. I wish the rest of the book was that powerful, but I’m satisfied with how the story unveiled. The epilogue is just perfect. Maybe Amanda Maxlyn should be thankful that she isn’t within punching distance of her readers because she might just get it after putting her readers in an emotional roller coaster like that.

This book is just written beautifully. I wonder how those other reviewers have written their reviews because I can’t seem to write anything that makes sense. This book just left me in a mess. I can barely wait for the sequel. ;)

~ Zee