Stay With Me by Nicole Fiorina

Review by Sasha Holy Crap! I can’t believe that Stay with Me is Nicole Fiorina’s debut novel. Her writing comes off as if she’s been publishing books for years. This emotionally charged story will have you captivated from the second you pick it up and make it nearly impossible to put down. The spectrum of emotions that you feel going through the story will have you questioning your own sanity for a minute, and feeling as if you need to take a breather before moving on to something else. It’s a dark, twisty novel that is filled with secrets that you wouldn’t dream of working within the pages of this novel, but in that magical way seem to line up perfectly. It opens with Mia Rosa, a not so typical troubled teen, as she is sent away to a reformer school, Dolor University, that is meant to straighten out kids with problems. She’s lost to the world, simply numbed to her feelings and the world around her. Her actions have lost their value and her parents can’t handle the antics anymore. The school seems like the best option, and if she can keep her head down, study hard, then maybe her time here will fly by. Enter Ollie, the cute boy who is going to make it virtually impossible for Mia to fly under the radar. While Mia feels nothing, Ollie is her mirror and feels everything around him. The spark is instant and try as she might, Mia can’t get Ollie to leave her alone. He demands that she feels her emotions and come back to reality. Both burdened with secrets, it’s unclear if Mia and Ollie are destined to help each other or burn each other down. I haven’t read a book that had me full-on sobbing while reading in a long time. I don’t mean like a couple tears running down my cheeks. I mean it was actually a full-on sob fest with me clutching my phone to my chest and simply trying to breathe a little. The writing is so beautiful that I found myself taken aback by some of the lines. They hit you in such a powerful way and it was so refreshing to have to stop and let a line or two sink in completely. I believe that by bringing out these emotions in her writing, it allows the themes she is writing about to come across in a stronger way. Many psychological and mental health issues are touched on and by creating such a strong emotional connection with the reader, the issues become more poignant. I’m so happy that this is the first book in a series and that I get to come back to these characters because I need more of them and Fiorina left us all dangling from a truly horrible cliffhanger. ***ARC received in exchange for an honest review.***

Release Date: August 13th 2019

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