Monday, April 29, 2013

Review- Please Stay by Denise Kim Wy

Goodreads Summary:

Kym isn't really thrilled about the idea of coming home if it isn't for her Dad's fiftieth birthday. After all, the reason she left seven years ago was to get away from the lie she told Ethan Richards, the boy she loved which happened to be the very same boy Kym's bestriend, Michelle loved as well. 

Now, as fate would have it, a chance encounter with Ethan brings back all the memories from their childhood along with bittersweet memories as they visit the places that witnessed their progression from childhood friends, to awkward teens dealing with love, peer pressure and entering the real world. As the day draws to an end, the question remains, has Ethan already moved on, or is he still waiting for Kym’s real answer to his question?

Please Stay is a young adult romance novel filled the awkwardness of young love, regret and second chances.


REVIEW:

*NOTE: We (The Readdicts) received a copy of Please Stay by author Denise Kim Wy in exchange for an honest review. We thank Denise for the book! 

That ending. Oh my God, that ending... 
I immediately accepted author Denise Kim Wy's request to review Please Stay as it sounded good and when I read that the book ends on a sad note, it sounded even better. 
I loved this book. I held onto my own hope and I had pictured the ending in many ways. But somewhere along the way, I had a feeling about where it was going and I was devastated. 
I usually don't go much into characters details in my reviews, but I have to do it this time, simply because I found myself understanding and comprehending and at the same time sympathising with each and every character.  
Please Stay is the story of childhood best friends Kym and Ethan, and Mitchell, who later joins the original duo. When Kym realises that her girl best friend has feelings for her guy best friend, she decides to let them be, in spite of her own feelings for Ethan and from there, everything changes. 
Kym has her own aspirations and I was glad to see that she firmly stood by what she wanted to do in life and went for it. Her love for Ethan was clearly visible even though she tried to feign ignorance. While I did like Kym as a person, some of the decisions she made and the things she did really made me want to blame her for her own sorrowful situation. Even though she had her own reasons and she wanted to protect the ones she held dear to her and I could easily feel bad for her about her mom's death,  it was really upsetting that she didn't even try to do something about her feelings and just left off, leaving her dad, her best friends and her town behind. 
Mitchell, Kym's best girl friend, was an okay person. It is so easy blame her for the sudden rift between Kym and Ethan but it is unfair on Mitchell's part to believe so. Like I said, Kym had a huge role to play that she didn't play so well. 
Ethan was an amazingly sweet guy whom I adored. He's been Kym's best friend ever since the two discovered their love for books and reading in school one day. Ethan was the one who pointed out to Kym that she'd started her period. He was a smart and funny guy who I wish had had a better and more fulfilling life. He really was an amazing person and friend. 
Please Stay, as a story, takes place in the course of a day. A lot happens in this one day and I loved reading every bit of it. The present description almost always ended on a cliffhanger and the next part took us to some really sweet memories that only showed how strong a friendship Kym and Ethan shared. I enjoyed reading the snippets from their past. 
Author Denise Kim Wy's writing is  clean, neat and understandable. Although I did find a lot of grammatical errors and confusion between tenses, I must admit that it was easy to ignore it all because of the simple beauty of the story. 
Please Stay is a beautiful read that had me feeling happy and sad and good and bad, all at once.  Another bittersweet tale about family, friendship, love and relationships, Please Stay, although it may seem like it, wasn't like anything I'd read before and I mean that in a good way. I loved this book much more than I thought I would although the end had me feeling depressed and tragical. Please Stay is a very beautiful story that I wish had ended differently, but the way it ended was amazing nonetheless. 

RATING:




2 comments:

  1. This is something new Sarika. I'm really happy to see that you enjoyed this book. Sounds like an interesting story and Ethan sounds like a sweet guy. Only how old are the characters?
    Great review girl :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I think the characters are somewhere in their twenties. Ethan was really sweet but God, the ending! Thank you, Tanja! I hope you get to read the book sometime. :)

      Delete


Thank you for stopping by and for taking the time out to share your thoughts with us. We really appreciate it!