[Elizabeth’s Review]: All This Time by Mikki Daughtry and Rachael Lippincott

All This Time
by Mikki Daughtry, Rachael Lippincott
Pages: 336
Release Date: September 29th 2020
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Fiction, Romance, YA
Source: Publisher
Format Read: ARC, eBook
Goodreads

Kyle and Kimberly have been the perfect couple all through high school, but when Kimberly breaks up with him on the night of their graduation party, Kyle’s entire world upends—literally. Their car crashes and when he awakes, he has a brain injury. Kimberly is dead. And no one in his life could possibly understand.

Until Marley. Marley is suffering from her own loss, a loss she thinks was her fault. And when their paths cross, Kyle sees in her all the unspoken things he’s feeling.

As Kyle and Marley work to heal each other’s wounds, their feelings for each other grow stronger. But Kyle can’t shake the sense that he’s headed for another crashing moment that will blow up his life as soon as he’s started to put it back together.

And he’s right.

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

All This Time is a story about loss and overwhelming grief and how to move on. Kyle has always been sure of his life and his future, and that was Kimberly. The duo has been best friends for as long as they can remember and a couple all the same. The one thing Kyle is sure of as he graduates high school and prepares for life at UCLA is that Kimberly will always be there, until all of a sudden, she’s not.

A night of truth that has him reeling and broken and a car accident that leaves Kimberly dead, Kyle is left in the ashes of a life he thought he knew and wanted.

I have not read Five Feet Apart, but I have heard of it, and with the same authors taking on All This Time, I had an idea as to what to expect from the book. This book was a rollercoaster of emotions. When I first began, I had been reading the book slowly because I wanted to take my time in reading Kyle’s story and the journey he would undertake but about a little over halfway through the book, there was a significant twist that changed absolutely everything. So, obviously, I had to stay up until 2 am to finish it because wow.

There were many things about this book that I could find the appeal that others would have towards it. The story felt unique in itself, and I was curious to see where it would lead and how Kyle would navigate in his grief with the death of Kimberly. Kyle was an interesting character with many flaws that felt realistic in a person his age, especially in the beginning of the book. It had me wondering how Kyle’s character would develop and change with not only having to live a life without Kim, who he’s loved since the third grade but also knowing that she had broken up with him that same night.

One thing that struck me in this book was the suddenness of it, and how the accident happens practically in the first chapter of the book. We’re thrown into this world somewhat quickly, and because of this, it was a bit hard to catch the emotional weight of Kyle and Kimberly’s relationship more-so because we didn’t know Kimberly, besides the one interaction at the beginning, and Kyle’s memories of her. In addition to this, we slowly come to find that there were so many issues hidden in the corners of their relationship and how Kyle comes to deal with what he can no longer resolve and the truth of Kimberly’s last words. With this, the aspects of grief and loss felt the most realistic in that sometimes things never can be fixed no matter how much you wish to turn back time and react differently, and Kyle comes to face this.

As I got more into Kyle’s story and the emotions he goes through after Kim’s death, I was a little unsure about his relationship with Marley. I’m still a bit conflicted. There’s a lot of growth for Kyle, but at times I felt that the book continued to balance on a thin line between realistic and unrealistic, and it slowly seeped into the romance for me. Many of the issues for me lie in the way Kyle’s character was designated to develop after Kim’s death, and it all intertwines within the romance he has with Marley, the explosive twist we’re left reeling from, and everything that comes afterward. By the end, the only word I felt that could describe what I felt was: conflicted. The story had morphed into something that I hadn’t been expecting, and while there was some resolution in my earlier criticisms, new issues arose and stuck until the last page. Therefore, because of these issues, they blurred what I had come to terms with early on in the book, and it practically transformed the entire story into something completely different, along with the emotions I had come to feel for the characters.

In simple words, the story was riveting, and it held my attention. I cared for the characters, and I wanted to see where the plot would take me. If you have read Five Feet Apart, loved the film, or loved both, then I would recommend All This Time. It has a certain feeling that will capture the hearts of many readers with the magic and overwhelming feelings and emotions of finding yourself and finding love after everything has been destroyed, broken, and lost. It is a heartfelt book that will hold your heart close and will take you on an unforgettable journey through unthinkable loss and grief, and finding the words to say goodbye.