Meet Me in the Middle

by Alex Light

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

This heart-rending read about a budding romance torn apart by an unexpected tragedy will break your heart in the best way possible. Best read beside a box of tissues.

Fans of Jennifer Dugan and Laura Taylor Namey will fall in love with this latest YA romance by Wattpad superstar Alex Light, author of The Upside of Falling.

Eden had her best friend Katie—she didn’t need anyone else. But then there was Truman.

Katie’s older brother, the artist. The recluse. The boy with the innocent smile and the dangerous eyes.

Eden had never really known Truman—not until the night of Katie’s accident. That was the night they’d finally let each other into their orbits—only to have the sky come crashing down on them.

With Katie in the hospital and Truman fleeing from his grief without a word, Eden is left alone to grapple with her own pain. But when Truman returns to the city, can Eden let him back into her life knowing that their first kiss is what tore their world apart?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063136212
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/11/2023
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	187,525
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Alex Light grew up reading too many books and listening to too many Taylor Swift songs. Now she writes books that make people laugh (and sometimes cry). Alex began writing as a teen. She shared dozens of love stories online, which have now been read over 150 million times. Shockingly, she graduated with a BA in English literature, giving her the perfect excuse to read even more books when she wasn’t busy writing her own. Alex lives in Toronto, Canada, with her three furry friends. She’s an avid donut eater, sometimes baker, and lover of the frozen winter months.

Editorial Reviews

"Light has done it again—this is a great YA contemporary romance. The writing is heartbreakingly beautiful. Readers will immediately be drawn into this interestingly painful journey as the characters try to find their way out of the darkness, alone and together." — School Library Journal (starred review)

"A compelling look at complicated grief." — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

★ 07/01/2022

Gr 8 Up—Light has done it again—this is a great YA contemporary romance. Eighteen-year-old Eden is a Portuguese girl newly living and working in Toronto for a few months before her freshman year in college begins. This was always the plan for her and her best friend, Katie (white). However, plans change one tragic night when Katie is injured in a car accident that leaves her in a coma. Now, five months later, Katie is still in a coma, and Eden is riddled with guilt and sadness because she was with her secret crush, Katie's brother Truman (also white) when the accident occurred. She and Truman haven't seen or spoken to one another since everything happened, and now, after a mysterious absence, Truman is back. Eden doesn't know how to deal with his return or how to live her life without Katie by her side. This story focuses on the trauma and grief experienced when someone suffers a loss, made unique because the person being mourned is neither dead nor alive, but in limbo. Readers are privy to both Eden's and Truman's points of views as they attempt to navigate their mixed feelings about themselves, each other, and Katie's fate. VERDICT The writing is heartbreakingly beautiful. Readers will immediately be drawn into this interestingly painful journey as the characters try to find their way out of the darkness, alone and together.—Lacey Webster

School Library Journal

2022-04-27
A young woman grapples with trying to move forward in her life after her best friend’s accident.

Eighteen-year-old Eden is taking a gap year after finishing high school, waitressing and sharing a downtown Toronto apartment with a roommate, instead of the original plan: going to university and living with her best friend, Katie. Instead, Katie is lying in the hospital in a coma after a car accident. Truman, Katie’s older brother, has just returned from Montreal after disappearing for two months to attend an art workshop that was more a means of coping with his sister’s state than about developing his art. The night of Katie’s accident, Eden and Truman were sharing their first kiss, something they haven’t discussed, and they’ve been doing their best to avoid each other. Now, the city seems determined to connect the two as their paths continue to cross. In this novel told in their alternating points of view, each feels responsible for Katie’s accident. Eden’s grief still contains a painful element of hope; it feels palpable as she navigates figuring out who she is when so much of her identity was wrapped up in her friendship with Katie. While Truman’s chapters don’t carry the same emotional depth and can feel bloated, they do offer moments of levity that help round out the painful and confusing circumstances. Most characters read as White.

A compelling look at complicated grief. (Fiction. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews