I'll Be There
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
Emily believes in destiny. She's waiting for the moment her real life begins.
Sam wishes he could escape. He's spent his life being dragged from place to place by his father. But he could never abandon his little brother Riddle.
Then everything changes. Because Sam meets Emily.
This tender story of star-crossed love is both romance and thriller, and a compelling exploration of the power of human connection.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Screenwriter and director Sloan delivers a cinematic, psychologically nuanced first novel of star-crossed love and the power of human empathy and connection. Sloan excels at crafting memorable characters and relationships, from the central, transformative romance between 17-year-olds Sam and Emily, who meet after her disastrous church solo, to finely sketched cameos. Sam and his sensitive, possibly autistic younger brother, Riddle, live an isolated and itinerant existence, subject to the whims of their violent and deranged father, Clarence. Tension escalates as Emily's family becomes attached to the boys, growing concerned for their well-being, and an unstable Clarence takes off with his sons once again. It's agonizing but thrilling reading as Sam and Emily try to surmount the many obstacles Sloan throws at them. Her skills as a writer are never in doubt, though the story can at times feel melodramatic, especially as it turns into a survivalist epic, and a plot thread about a classmate enamored with Emily devolves into slapstick. But Emily and Sam's romance is that of the against-all-odds, meant-to-be variety, and while the ending is too perfect, it is unquestionably earned. Ages 12 up.
