I'll Be There

If I was writing the book, I would have written it so that it was Sam and Emily's switched perspectives in 1st person.

I knew I didn't made a mistake when I bought this book. It has this beautiful cover (one of my favorites), the blurb screams pain and devotion and it got an advance praise from Gayle Forman, Sara Zarr and A.S. King.

This is a story about brothers, Sam and Riddle who were kidnapped by their scumbag father when they were very small. They travel all over the country, staying in their truck or in old houses, while their father steals and scams. Sam is the older brother and he takes care of Riddle who spends his time drawing in phone books. Sam works hard not to be like his father, he helps strangers to unload their garbage for a couple of dollars so they could have anything to eat.

Everything changes one day in church when Emily sings I'll Be There while looking at Sam. They fall in love and her family warms up to them when they find out the boys are harmless. Soon, their father sees things changed, he follows Sam and sees he replaced him so he leaves with Sam and Riddle. Everything goes wrong from there. They find themselves in the mountain badly hurt. Sam and Riddle are all alone and they need to learn how to survive in wilderness without food, a warm place to sleep and with broken bones after their father abandons them.

I'll Be There is written in third person omniscient point of view which means we get to read about a lot of characters, even the really small ones. I don't usually read books with this type of narrators so it was pretty new and refreshing. I liked it very much. It wasn't hard at all to follow what was everyone doing and what they were feeling at the time.

This book does have a fairy tale quality. At times I felt like I was watching the movie where characters go through hell, only to be reunited in the end. This usually doesn't work for me because I dislike the fact everything wraps up so perfectly but in this case it was so well deserved. It made me wish certain heartbreaking books *cough* The Storyteller *cough* had a happy ending.

The cover is gorgeous. Neil Swaab created it and he's made a lot of beautiful covers for other authors.

This is a book to savor. It made me laugh out loud; it made me cry. It's Sam and Emily's story, but even more, it's the story of family. It's their story, but also a story of how people can change each other's lives in many ways. There's adventure, heartbreak, suspense, and vindication. It's a wonderful book that will make you feel good about the world.