By My Side - Wendy Lou Jones - 4*'s Book Review

Ok this is a weird one for me as I loved this story... loved it... but I hated the ending and didn't see the need for the beginning either so I am awarding it 4*’s. (Contains spoilers so I can explain what did and didn't work for me)

Here are the reason why I initially gave it 5*'s.

• I sat up too late reading this story and couldn’t wait to restart it the next day, that is a 5* in my eyes. 

• I was invested in the characters, felt twinges in my heart, got offended and frustrated when they did... so 5*’s.

• The author was a doctor so her medical terminology is spot on for the times and she has insider knowledge of how fast gossip spreads around the hospital.

Why did it lose a star? 

Mainly the fact I hated the ending and that was a big sulking moment for me. I could have taken away more stars for the bits I will mention below, but seeing as I loved Katy and Adam's story it was worth 4*... if it had just been about them and not Lena or the dodgy ending, I would have given full marks. Hell I would have give it 6* out of 5* ;) Remember 4*'s is a nothing to be sniffed at!

The Author is Wendy Lou Jones, she came up with this story after seeing a redhead in a Chemist. She recently hunted her down and freaked her out by confessing she used her as a character in her book. Oh and made her pose for a photo (I am sure an injunction has been issued haha) Wendy is also obsessed with Richard Armitage so I think he is her 'Adam' in this novel, as the descriptions match.

I like to picture Katy and Adam like this in my mind. ;)

THE BLURB

The blurb was a bit confusing, I was expecting to read a story about a woman who had been cheated on and how she overcame it with help from a stranger. Then there was a bit underneath where two people are mentioned 'Katy' and 'Adam' and I realise they are the love birds... so who is Lena and why do we need her in the story... let me clear it up for you. Lena is a character who had been cheated on, failed her exams and attempted to kill herself to escape it all. Despite that her mother takes her to a funeral of a stranger. There someone begins to tell her the love story of Katy and Adam, who met shortly after Katy's Grandfather funeral, and how they were destined to fall in love as they were perfect for each other... not exactly what you want to hear at a funeral, let alone when you have had your heart broken and recently tried to put yourself in a coffin because of it. It just seemed really inappropriate and insensitive, plus her mother taking her to a funeral and leaving her alone to get her ears chewed off was weird. 

My main gripe with the book blurb is that I don't think it sells this book, it is misleading as Lena is not the main character she is more like a witness or a walk on character with maybe six lines throughout the entire book. To have the blurb based on her and not 'Katy' and Adam' was a misleading in my eyes.

SHELF APPEAL

The book cover doesn’t do the story justice and I am not sure the title is right either. I would have preferred Bed Side Manner as that was mainly what was in question from the start. Katy is not happy with Adam's bedside manner and he is well known for being a grump.

By my side, doesn't sound like it is a romance novel set in a medical profession and neither does the cover. I know a number of people who look for medical romances, especially my friends who work in hospitals or the medical profession, so it is missing a marketing opportunity there. ‘Bed Side Manner’ would have been more suitable. 

The cover is a hand holding a butterfly, I have no idea what that refers to other than a soul visiting at a funeral, and whilst we start this story at a funeral, there is far more scope for a cover set in medical romance. Even something basic like a stethoscope in a heart shape on a pair of scrubs, or hanging around a doctors neck would draw in those medical romance lovers. 

Yes it is a beautiful cover but I didn't feel it was relevant to the story and to me books with covers and titles like that usually hold a depressing story about abuse or trauma. I avoid them. This had a depressing ending but the main story was a delight to read.

ENDING - WHAT WAS THE ISSUE?

I mentioned I didn’t like the ending but I won't say exactly why, as it is a huge spoiler. It is safe to say the entire Lena part of the story was a put off for me. I would have preferred the story to just be about the protagonist Katy and her love interest Adam. Set in a hospital... simple. 

I didn’t like the jumping back and forth in time like the Princess Bride meets the Note Book, to someone being told a story at a funeral and I most certainly did not like the end. In fact the words ‘are you F***ing kidding me’ were yelled at my kindle. Good on the author for making me do that but the depressing ending wasn't explained either, I was left wondering what the hell happened. Like I nodded off and missed the end of the movie.

If I had my way, I would chop the end off and get rid of the third person, Lena, as she wasn’t needed. It turned a beautiful romance into something morbid. It felt a bit like the story was being turned it into a Greek tragedy for the sake of shock tactics. In romance the whole point is to see a happy ending without the macabre side. That detachment and melancholy of having a story end with uncertainty or tragedy is not for me. I would start it where Katy is at her grandfathers funeral, cut out Lena, embellish the two of them finally admitting they love each other and give me a 'they live happily ever after but argue frequently' ending.

In the debut novel from this author I struggled with the damage inflicted on the characters health and felt it was unnecessarily grim but hey life is cruel sometimes. I was hoping for a healthier outcome in this case so to see that type of ending again, and to the extreme, made me realise I am never going to get a happy ending from this author. There will be a tragic or fragile ending. No rainbows and unicorns here.... more like life’s a bitch and it’s gunning for you so get shagging everyone before you die.

FRUSTRATION

I spent hours reading this and wishing they would hurry up and sort themselves out. Admit their feelings and have hot make up sex which ends with a marriage proposal and kids... Yep I am that soppy.  Look I even picked out a baby grow.

When I got to the sex, it faded to black... I wasn't happy. To top it off when the characters are to all intents and purposes going to have 'the talk’... it was skipped and replaced with ‘but we had tonight’. Effectively booting me, the reader, who has invested hours in this book over the space of two days, out of the story and closing the door behind me. Only to be replaced with a time jump back to Lena and an ending I could throw rocks at.

I didn’t get to see what they had to say to one another, after ten chapters of ‘will they’ or ‘won’t they’. I felt robbed. I would have preferred to leave that door open and witness what was being said. Jeeze we read romance for confessions of the heart, not narrative from a third party sometime in the future. I want to be there, in the room like a fly on the wall when they confess their love for one another and get naked.

Plus I then had to read the ending that makes your blood run cold and your mood turn from happy to ‘what was the point in reading the story’. You can’t fan the flames of passion, snuff out the light and thrown dirt on it without readers feeling like your story has been hijacked by George R Martin and turned into an episode of Game of Thrones. It was an unnecessary twist of fate for the characters, which was cruel and disappointing. I felt like it was for shock tactics, even though I had an idea it was going all Bruce Willis a few chapters in. I just hoped the author didn't take that road... boy was I disappointed.

I had envisaged the characters singing songs like this at their wedding... No such luck.

I would recommended it, but with a warning to skip the ending as I wish I had. I even forced a friend who works in A&E to read it immediately to see if she felt the same about certain parts and 'yes,' she did. I didn't even tell her what niggled me and she sent near verbatim feedback in her email... like me she loved it, just not the Lena bits or ending. Oh and the skipping the 'talk' made her mad.

So I am going to pretend this is the ending... (the dancing bit before the shoulder tap)