mel ☽'s Reviews > Stay With Me

#1: stay with me ↠ 5 stars
#2: even when i'm gone ↠ 3.5 stars

A heroine who supposedly doesn't feel anything and think she's a sociopath and is then shipped off to a boarding school for delinquents somewhere in the UK, then falls in love with a person who feels everything intensely?



so the prologue (set in the future) had me hooked because apparently the H, Ollie, was the one who ended up letting her go or something.

”Stay with me," you had said over and over. Who would have thought you would be the one to take a step into oblivion?"

but then it started to become slow for the first few chapters UNTIL we meet Ollie and his friends, and then it was all drama galore from there and i was H-O-O-K-E-D.

im not gonna say anything bout the story because it’s better to read it but just know that boarding school + crazy characters = GREATNESS.

there is insta love here and i really don't like this trope at all because i prefer a realistic progression but i actually find it very endearing here. and don't get me wrong, there's definitely progression but insta love is still present, especially in the H's side. this is definitely more character-driven than action/adventure type of book so if you like that, i definitely recommend this.

Mia (h):
im gonna be real here, she annoyed me in the beginning. her pushing away from the H was frustrating as hell, especially when she did things to deliberately hurt him (sleeping with two OM, and kissing OM in front of H after they've already met and kissed.)

i feel this way because Ollie was the sweetest, most innocent boy out there and he would say all these swoony things that would just make me melt, and the h wasn't that likeable so far, sooo i was kinda biased.

listen, i really dislike when either h or H is intimate with OW/OM after having strong feelings for their love interest or that they were already intimate with them, especially when this is not a second chance romance and there are no time jumps. im selfish like that ok? how can i believe they really love their love interest if they're intimate with another person when the love of their life is literally RIGHT THERE?

yes, yes i know this is fiction and this happens in real life and nothing is all sweet and perfect but still! a girl can dream...

and the fact that these OM sex scenes are shown and not told? yeah... not my cuppa.

so, i didn't really like her in the beginning because i was biased towards Ollie. but then, her walls started to crumble and her character development? fucking AMAZING. Game of Thrones writers should learn a thing or two from the author.

she went from someone that annoyed me to someone i admired. we get to discover wtf happened to her and why she is the way she is and it was heartbreaking af.

and when she finally opened up to Ollie?


MY HEART COULDN’T TAKE THE CUTENESS !!!

when they were finally together, i was like OM who??
and that plot twist towards THAT certain OM? i was actually shook. i did not see that coming AT ALL. anyways, i just wanted to punch those two OM because they were just assholes, who clearly have no idea what consent means. fuck them.

Ollie (H):
this boy is just too cute and swoony for words, so imma leave it at that. BUT imma tell y'all that he calls Mia, "my love" AND he read The Notebook to her while he cuddled her! if that doesn't make you swoon and fall in love with him right then and there idk what can phase you. we all need the love of our lives to read to us, lets be real here.

”I'm not going to save you, Mia I don't want to be the one. I'm going to show you how to save yourself."

the whole setting of this book reminded me of hogwarts and vampire academy. is it because they're in a boarding school? yes, definitely. so, this book made me feel all nostalgic and im all for it.

“Sometimes even the darkest parts of us can become beautiful when seen through a different set of eyes.”

the writing here was so good and tbh, i don’t say this often but i really do think this should be adapted into a movie?? i can just imagine the oscars the actors portraying the MCs will be receiving.

this book does end in a cliffhanger and i can't wait to read the next one because DAMN that ending just left me so empty, but also, since im addicted to drama, im also so happy with it.