Title: All the Ways You Saved Me
Author: Jamie Howard
Author: Jamie Howard
Publication Date: November 1st, 2016
Publisher: Swerve
Bianca Easton is the perfect senator’s
daughter.
Law school? Check.
Camera-ready smile? Check.
A dull and boring existence? Double check.
But that was before. Before she lost her best
and only friend in a tragic accident. Before she found that friend's unfinished
bucket list. Definitely before she turned her life upside-down by deciding to stay
in New York for six months to finish it.
It's while she's checking off her first item on
the list--buy coffee for a stranger--that she meets Ian Mathis. Between the
tattoo sleeve curling up his right arm, his guitar-roughened fingertips, and
the secrets shadowing his past, he's a complication Bianca doesn't need but
desperately wants.
With every item they cross off the list
together, Bianca uncovers a piece of herself that she's buried under what's
expected, all the while breaking her own rules by falling hard for Ian. But
when her six months run out, Bianca has to decide if she's willing to risk her
empty but picture-perfect life for a chance at real, messy love.
JAMIE HOWARD spends her days as a legal and
compliance specialist. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Art from Ramapo
College. When she's not tapping away at the keyboard, you can find her
devouring books and perfecting her gaming skills. She lives with her husband,
son, and three dogs in New Jersey, and is almost always awake early enough to
see the sun rise, even on the weekends.
4 “Present meets Past”
Stars
ARC via NetGalley
Thank you, Swerve.
Jamie Howard wrote one of my favorite 2016 reads, Until
It’s Right, so when her publisher contacted me about her new book, I went
into fangirl mode. Seriously, guys, if you still haven’t read Until
It’s Right, go get it. Now. And get a copy of All the Ways You
Saved Me, too, because it’s also sooooo good!
All the Ways You Saved Me has a different vibe from
the author’s first two books, but it made me *feel* just the same. I mean…
While Until We Break got me all worked up because I wanted to
hit the MC, and Until It’s Right made me fall in love with the
LI so fast and so hard that I appointed myself as the President of Kyle’s fan
club, All the Ways You Saved Me made me tear up more than a
couple of times, which is so rare.
This book is much more emotional than the other
two, and its structure reminded me a lot of Ugly Love by
Colleen Hoover, which I also LOVED.
The best way to go into All the Ways You
Saved Me is knowing as little about the plot as possible, so I’ll try
to keep this review spoiler-free. To do that, I’ll focus on the characters.
The MC, Bianca just finished Law School and she’s
ready to go back home to Texas, where her Senator father and her uptight mother
expect her to take the bar and work at a law office they picked for her.
Bianca’s life is all planned for her; all she has to do is live it the way her
parents want her to and keep her head down. That’s what she’s been doing her
whole life, so how hard can it be?
The first thing that might come to mind after
reading the last paragraph is: why is a grown, soon-to-be lawyer woman, still
living the life her parents planned for her? Why isn’t she doing what she
wants? I know a lot of people will assume she’s too comfortable with the money
her parents give her and the privileged life she’s lived since she was born;
but those people are wrong in assuming that about Bianca.
Jamie Howard did an excellent job showing how
Bianca didn’t really care about material things--she didn’t even blink when her
parents cut her off; she immediately started looking for a job and a way to
support herself. Good for her! The author also made sure we understood all
Bianca really wanted was for her parents to love her. She wanted to please them
and see them proud of her so bad, that she worked extremely hard to see that
happening. She put aside her wishes to fulfill theirs, but she was still not
good enough to be loved by them.
It was heartbreaking to watch a smart woman like
her so broken and insecure because she couldn’t move past her need to be loved
by her parents. I’m not saying that as if it’s a bad thing. We all have things
that hold us back. For Bianca, that was the lack of love from her mom and dad.
Her journey was pretty clear from the start: Bianca needed to realize she
didn’t need her parents to feel loved or to be who she was. A sad, but
necessarily conclusion for this character.
That journey started the night before Bianca was
supposed to go home. Her best friend dies, leaving behind an incomplete bucket
list. The things written there aren’t all that extreme, but for a person like
Bianca, they were life-changing. Challenging her parents for the first time in
her life, Bianca decided to stay in New York and complete the bucket list. That
was her first step toward becoming an independent woman. I was already rooting
for her at that point.
The second step was meeting Ian, the mysterious man
who helped her complete the first item on the list, and then stuck around to
help some more. With Ian, Bianca was a little less the perfect senator’s
daughter and a little more herself. Sure the changes were gradual, but we
could see her coming out of her shell. I liked the way she went into that
relationship knowing there was a chance it’d lead to nothing, but she still let
herself go. For someone like Bianca, I could tell that was a big deal.
As Ian and Bianca start spending more time
together, the second POV kicks in. Ian’s point of view takes us back 08 years
and… no, I won’t tell you what happens because it’ll ruin the rest of the
story. Let’s just say that it shows us why Ian is such a mystery, and knowing
the reason behind it will probably break your heart. Ian, baby, come here and
give me a hug.
Ian’s past will also introduce you to some amazing
characters. Since this book is part of a series, I can’t wait to see whose
story we’ll see next, but I’m definitely anxious to read more about Ian’s
brother, Ben, and Ian’s best friend, Rachel. I need to know what happened that
day at prom, and how Ben feels about Rachel, because I know she still feels the
same about him as she did years ago. She has to, right? ‘Cause I need those two
together.
So, as much as the similarities between All
the Ways You Saved Me and Ugly Love made me nervous
about this story at first, Jamie Howard wrote a story with unique elements and
made choices about her characters and their lives that made this book different
from Colleen Hoover’s story. So if that comparison worries you, just relax and
give All the Ways You Saved Me a chance. I don’t think you’ll
regret it.
Once again, Jamie Howard wrote a book that will go
straight to my “made-me-feel” list. As long as she keeps doing that, I’m ready
for whatever she writes next.
*If you liked this review (or not), if you read the book (or not), come say hello and leave your comments bellow.
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