Review and giveaway: Watch Over Me by Tara Sivec

Synopsis

Addison Snow is your typical teenager. She has a family that loves her, friends that make her laugh, and she's wrapped up in the excitement of graduating high school and going off to college to pursue her dream of becoming an author. When her mother, who also happens to be Addison's best friend, dies unexpectedly, her world comes to a crashing halt.

Death changes everyone...

To make the pain go away, Addison and her father travel down separate, dark paths. She chooses to end her grief forever, while he drowns his sorrows in the bottom of a bottle. How do you learn to live again when the most important person in your life is gone?

Addison struggles to pick up the pieces of her life. Instead of getting back to being the carefree teenager she once was, she's stuck handling all of the responsibilities that should have been her father's. She has no time to grieve, no time for emotions, and no time for happiness...until Zander Reinhardt walks in. All it takes is one little handwritten note on a napkin to kick-start her back to life and help her realize that maybe there's more to that life than pain.

But can it really be that simple? Can she really trust this man who makes her feel alive again for the first time in a year?

Addison and Zander both have secrets they aren't ready to share. When the truth finally comes out, is it enough to tear them apart or has something bigger than themselves always been watching over them, pushing them together, making sure they both get their happily ever after?


4.5 star review 

Death changes everything.

For Addison Snow death did change everything.  It changed the way she lived, how she felt, it changed her ability to trust people and let them in.  Addison's world was shattered when her mother and best friend suddenly passed away.  And at the young age of 18 she was left to pick up all the pieces.  Her father was just as shattered but he chose to turn to the bottle to get past the grief and pain.  Addison chose a different alternative, one that would leave her feeling numb and no longer having to deal with the pain.  Addison was saved that night where she tried to end it all and it's now 10 months later and Addison is still dealing with the pain and grief of losing her mother.  Her father has been in and out of rehab more times than she cares to count.  Her other family and friends have managed to let her down as well, leaving her all alone to deal with not only her own grief but the responsibility to taking care of the house, the bills and her mom's bakery that she was so proud of.   She feels that she cannot trust anyone and shuts anyone out who tries to get close to her.  She sees a therapist and goes to group therapy as well, but she just sits there and listens to other people.  She is just going through the motions of everyday life and has learned to do that by shutting her feelings off. Until she meets Zander Reinhardt.

"I wonder if I've just found my safety net." ~ Addison

What can I say about Zander, other than he is complete perfection.   Zander has become a regular in her mom's bakery.  He has been admiring her from afar and one day leaves a little note for her on a napkin that says;   "You're beautiful when you smile.  You should do it more often." - see perfect!

Zander begins leaving notes for her each day and they begin to develop a friendship.  Zander is there for her when she breaks down, when she needs a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen.  He slowly brings back that spark in her life that has been missing since her mother passed away.  Addison knows that she is starting to fall for Zander but she is still a little hesitant to move forward because she is afraid of being let down by Zander, just like everyone else in her life.  She is afraid to open up her heart to him only to have it crushed.  Through therapy though, she learns that she needs to live for herself for once.  She needs to do something for Addison, something that will make her happy.  She slowly starts opening up to Zander and their friendship turns into something more.  But Zander is hiding something from her and is afraid that when she finds out what it is that she will run.  Zander has fallen in love with Addison, he has no intention of hurting her.  He wants to be there for her, to help her heal and see her beautiful smile.  But when his secret is revealed can she forgive him and move past it?

"I have loved you from the first moment I saw you."  ~ Zander

Zander and Addison were so great together.  Zander understands Addison, he "gets" her like no one else does.  He cares about her and wants to make her happy, wants her to believe that everything will be OK. He never pushed her, instead he just let her know that he was there for her.  That she didn't have to do it all on her own.  He was sweet and caring and totally swoon worthy.  He thought she was beautiful and stunning and wanted to make her smile.  The notes he left her will make you smile and the scenes with the Legos will completely melt your heart.  While Zander and Addison's love story is a beautiful one, the main focus of this story goes much deeper than that.  It is the heart breaking journey of a young girl trying to cope with the loss of her mother.  She is trying to learn how to live again, how to move past the hurt and the pain. Learning how to live her life again with feeling and emotion.  With the help of her therapist and Zander she learns how to heal and how to be the girl that she once was.  They both believe in her, believe in the dreams she has for herself, but Addison needs to believe in herself.  She needs to learn that it is ok to be afraid and at the same time it is ok to let people in again. 

"YOU'RE STUNNING WHEN YOU SMILE AND LAUGH. ADDISON!"   he yells to me.

"I'm 5'4 with boring, brown, wavy hair that hangs past my shoulders, unless it's in my usual messy ponytail....But Zander thinks I'm stunning.  He sees something that I've never seen."

Tara Sivec has written a very emotional story that is both heart wrenching and heart warming at the same time.  This story is told from Addison's POV, going back and forth from present to flashbacks of Addison and her mother, to her sessions with her therapist.  Addison's story will touch your heart.  The emotions that she goes through are real and raw and intense.  And as the reader you will be going through those emotions along with her.  I think Addison was an amazing heroine and I admired her in a lot of ways.  At one point she made an attempt to give up,  but once she had a second chance at life, she did everything she could to embrace it.  She was 19 years old and carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.  Her journey to healing was a bumpy one with a few twists and turns along the way.  But in the end she learned how to get through it all.  Amazing job by Tara Sivec!

"You can still pick up the pieces, Sugar.  They fell apart for a little while, but it doesn't mean anything is damaged.  Everything can be fixed.  And you don't have to fix it alone.  There's always someone who will help you rebuild."





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