Welcome back to Reading, Reading, Reading!

Over the past few weeks, I have found myself reading books about very similar themes and/or characters. I have been on an adult rom-com kick lately, so I was happy to pick up I’M NOT DYING WITH YOU TONIGHT by Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal, in an effort to change up my reading. Thanks to Raincoast Books for the ARC and inviting me to participate in the blog tour!

Synopsis (Goodreads.com):

Lena and Campbell aren’t friends.
Lena has her killer style, her awesome boyfriend, and a plan. She knows she’s going to make it big. Campbell, on the other hand, is just trying to keep her head down and get through the year at her new school.
When both girls attend the Friday-night football game, what neither expects is for everything to descend into sudden mass chaos. Chaos born from violence and hate. Chaos that unexpectedly throws them together.
They aren’t friends. They hardly understand the other’s point of view. But none of that matters when the city is up in flames, and they only have each other to rely on if they’re going to survive the night.

Even though I was really excited for this book, it came up a little short.

The story was very plot driven and fast paced. I have been reading a lot of character driven stories lately, so I had to get used to the change of pace right from the gecko. The story takes place in under 24 hours, which obviously makes the story go by very quickly. I tend to enjoy books that take place over a short time frame, but I felt that due to the timeframe, we didn’t get to know the characters as much as I would have liked to.

For me, the characters were nothing special. I thought that they were very under-developed, and I would have loved to read more about their backstories. Lena was a great character to read from/about, but she always annoyed me whenever she was talking about her boyfriend, because she kept ignoring red-flags. This felt uncharacteristic, as she is supposed to be a strong, independent teenager, although she felt very weak when it came to her boyfriend.

My favourite aspect of this book was the writing. It was very descriptive, which made me feel as if I was with the characters at all parts of this story. I could always recognize the point of view I was reading from, which is crucial when reading a book written in dual perspectives.

Upon reading reviews for this novel on Goodreads, I noticed a lot of people did not enjoy the ending. I actually quite liked it, as I typically don’t mind open endings. This one in particular led to a lot of follow up questions, so even though I didn’t mind the ending, I would have loved to have read in epilogue at the conclusion of this story. I would recommend this book for YA and Adult book clubs, as there could be a lot of great discussions that come from it.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this book and gave it 3/5 stars. Thanks again to Raincoast Books for the ARC and allowing me to participate in the blog tour! Make sure you head on over to everyone else’s blogs to see their thoughts on this book!

Good Night Book Owls!