Here by Denise Grover Swank

Sixteen year old Julia Phillips buries herself in guilt after killing her best friend Monica in a car accident. Julia awoke in the hospital with a broken leg, a new talent for drawing and false memories of the accident, in which she dies and Monica lives. The doctors attribute this to her head injury, but no one can explain how a bracelet engraved with her name ended up at the scene of the accident. A bracelet no one has ever seen before. Classmate Evan Whittaker paid Julia no attention before the accident, let alone after. Now suddenly he’s volunteering to tutor her and offering to drive her home. She can’t ignore that his new obsession started after his two-day disappearance last week and that he wears a pendant she’s been drawing for months. When the police show up one night looking for Evan, he begs Julia to run with him, convincing her that Monica is still alive. Julia agrees to go, never guessing where he’s really from.

I’ve been sitting here for the past 30 minutes staring at my notes trying to decide how to even attempt this review. This is a book when even the mention of the genre could be considered a spoiler. Of course, this is my opinion, many other reviewers have gone much more into detail! (Check out Goodreads or Amazon for those if you are curious! :) ) I avoid as many spoilers as possible here on Letters Inside Out.

Here opens up with a broken main character, Julia. Her best friend died in a car accident that she has no recollection of. I can’t help but feel for her; this is a girl who has been through hell and has no one for support. Her younger sister is kind of mean. Her parents are frustrated. Everyone either seems to hate/blame Julia for what happened or expects her to be smiley and happy after something so tragic! Even as she improved, they continued to be kind of awful.

There was one thing that irritated me some, and that was the “love” aspect; Evan is OBSESSED with Julia. Sure, at times, it’s cute, but he starts saying things about how he can’t stand to be without her and waiting outside the library during her tutoring session. It was creepy! In Julia’s defense, she was put off somewhat and uncertain by his affection. (There was an explanation, but I don’t want to get into it for spoiler reasons!) I do have to say I *love* Reece, who appeared very little in Here, I’m hoping he’ll be a bit of a bigger focus in the sequel There. I sense the startings of what could potentially be an interesting love triangle.

The premise behind Here is so unique and kept me guessing and trying to figure out why the book began with an intense scene seemingly unrelated with the storyline. I was kept guessing the entire time as to what was going on. I really enjoyed Here and would definitely recommend picking it up if you are in the mood for a different type of read.

I received my copy of Here: On the Otherside Series, Book One from the author and AToMR Book Tours in exchange for my honest opinion.