Sharing Sam: A Review

Blurb (and picture above are from Goodreads. I do not own them but am using them for review purposes only):  

How can you take the guy your best friend loves . . . when your best friend’s going to die?

 Alison Chapman has always believed she’d fall in love hard. And she does—with Sam Cody, a new guy with a gorgeous face and brooding eyes, a guy who’s impossible to resist. When Sam asks her to the Valentine’s Day dance, Alison is elated . . . until she finds out that her best friend, Isabella Cates-Lopez, has fallen for Sam, too . . . until she finds out that Isabella is dying. Now Alison wants Isabella’s last days to be her happiest ever—even if she and Sam have to hide their love. Even if, by sharing Sam, Alison risks losing him forever.

Title: Sharing Sam

Author: Katherine Applegate

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Publishing Date: 1995 (but reads like a current YA)

Source: Library

Cover: Very fitting for the story. It seems typical for the contemporary YA genre, but this time it makes sense. 

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance: The bittersweet edition. Sharing your new love interest with your friend because you’ve just found out she’s dying can lend itself to being heavy-ish material.

Plot: This book is really short--so short at its 155 pages that I almost didn’t pick it up. I tend to shy away from shorter books, doubting the book’s ability to engage me enough to care in so few pages. Sharing Sam was surprising in that aspect. The reader gets more depth of character than he or she might expect going into it. It may be predictable overall, but that doesn’t detract from its storytelling. 

Romantic Element: Yes, there was romance. It was quick but also believable. A few times I caught myself being pissy that Applegate chose to glaze over scenes, giving us a summary rather than a bird’s eye view, but I wasn’t too upset. Like I said describing the genre, the love in this book is bittersweet. 

Overall: I think you know going into the book if it’ll be for you or not, but for the little time it takes you to read it, the story is there. As a whole, I’d say this book is more like A Walk to Remember kind of Lifetime movie YA romance, and I also think that assessment will pretty much tell you whether or not you’d like the book itself. 

Goodreads

Amazon

So what do you think? Sound like it would be up your alley or many streets away? Lemme know below!

Now to leave you with a song to write by, "Hurt" by Christina Aguilera. Sniff. I <3 this one. 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!! <3