Title: By My Side.
Author: Wendy Lou Jones.
Publisher: HarperImpulse.
Genre: Contemporary Romance.
Release Date: June 5, 2014.
Source: Netgalley.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Purchase: Amazon UK

Betrayed by her boyfriend and best friend, Lena is left empty; trapped under a weight of guilt and loneliness. Then, at her lowest point and when she needs it most, a mysterious stranger comes into her life with a tale of friendship, family, and finding love in the most unexpected of places…

Katy Heath is definitely not thinking of love when she comes across consultant, Adam Elliot, berating some poor patient on the ward one day. In fact it is Dr Peter Florin who quickly has everyone’s hearts aflutter with his easy smiles and practised charm.

Yet Katy comes to realise that there’s more to Adam than his determination to push everyone away and it’s not long before she finds herself longing to reach out to touch the man within, healing the pain of his past.

As Lena is drawn into Katy’s story, she begins to learn – just as Katy does- that the course of true love never did run smooth.







If ever a cover perfectly epitomises its book, By My Side would be the one. The cover is absolutely stunning and the novel is too. Wendy Lou Jones’ gorgeous writing and the intriguing format the story is told in really did make this a special kind of novel.

I loved the concept of By My Side. At the beginning, we’re introduced to Lena, who after a failed suicide attempt is at a massive low point in her life. She meets a stranger who tells her the main story in the book – the story of Kate and Adam, and Lena begins to learn the impact this story could have on her own life. I was fascinated with Lena’s character from the start but would have liked the book to have been brought back to her a few more times throughout By My Side, just so her character could be a little more developed and so I didn’t find it so hard to let go of Kate and Adam’s story.

It was Kate and Adam who I completely fell for. Their journeys were dramatic, beautiful, chaotic and combined, a bit of a tearjerker. I never quite knew where Wendy was going to take them and I love that – the unexpected and the guessing really kept me eager to read more and just one more page was never actually one more page when I was reading. When we first met Adam, I pretty much had the same opinion that Kate had in that he was rude and a bit of a bully. I expected him to win me over but not as much as he did – his character really grew throughout and his past was unveiled faultlessly. Kate for me was always easy to like – she felt real in the typical speaks-without-thinking and second guesses every action kind of way. Other characters we meet like Sophie and Rich and Peter were all great to read too.

Powerful and emotional is how I would describe By My Side, added to the fact that I just did not want this story to end. I loved the ending but as I was approaching it, I had to slow down my reading because I wasn’t ready to let it go just yet! Every step in Kate and Adam’s story was striking and important and at times, I felt like I was reading with a lump in my throat. Combined with Lena’s involvement, towards the end this book was always going to be a little different and unlike so many other emotional romance novels, it was the perfect ending.




Review also posted on Goodreads | Amazon UK

4 comments:

  1. I can't wait to read this and love your review! And this time it won't cost me anything because I already have the book :). x

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  2. Sophie, thank you so much for this lovely review. I've just got back from my summer holiday to a sea of emails and dirty laundry and this has absolutely made my week! It means so much to me that you liked the ending and thank you again for sharing. <3

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    1. Hi Wendy! You're very welcome and hope you had a great holiday, too! :) <3

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