IF SHE HAD STAYED by Diane Byington

This book was not a favorite for me. It was slow and the main characters, Kaley and Scott, were more like young college students than a grown woman and man. Their interactions and the way they talked was just off. Scott was not at all likable and was one to not be trusted from the beginning. Kaley, who was suppose to be a very smart young woman did not have walking around sense after her boyfriend broke up with her and she got back in touch with Scott. It was like she wanted to relive their college romance, which was not that great from what I read.

Kaley reconnects with her college romance, Scott, after finding papers in a safe that belonged to Tesla. The journals contained his work on a time machine and told how he had gone back in time several times. It also said how it made him feel and it seemed to scare him to the point that he stopped using the machine. Kaley hasn’t seen Scott in many years yet she entrusts him with her most prized possession. Who does that. What intelligent hard working woman would do that. Scott was a stranger to her really. Not seeing him for so many years then jumping right into a relationship with him. He was unstable and to me it was obvious what he wanted from the start. Scott had personal reasons for wanting to stay with Kaley and go back to the past. He was just not who he appeared to be most of the time. It was just to obvious and what he did was expected. I saw it coming from the beginning.

I could not connect with any of these characters. I didn’t like them. They way they talked never seemed to change from college into adulthood. It was like listening to two kids with a kind of slang dialect in my opinion. Just not what I enjoy. Toward the end there was some thrills that kept me Turing the pages to see how it played out and I did enjoy that. There were some good things about this book but overall it was just not for me.

Thank you to #DianeByington for the ARC of this book.
I gave it 3 stars. I didn’t enjoy it but I would recommend you read it for yourself as I am sure a lot would maybe like this book. It seems anyway. I just didn’t. I’m sorry it was not one that I liked.