She’s With Me is an entertaining read about a teenager who transfers to a new school to run from her problems, only to find that trouble still manages to find her. She finds more than she expected whens she breaks her own rule of not getting involved and not drawing attention to herself.
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Title: She’s With Me
Author: Jessica Cunsolo
Genre: YA Contemporary
Publication Date: January 7, 2020
Publisher: Wattpad Books
Rating: 
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I received an eARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
Jessica Cunsolo’s She’s with Me is a kaleidoscope of modern day teen romance, revenge thriller, and over-the-top excitement. It’s Mean Girls meets Gone Girl meets The Client, as the story twists and turns around its fierce female lead, leading to a heart-racing cliffhanger . . .
Telling the truth is sometimes harder than keeping a secret…
Standing out as the new girl is hard enough, but add in Amelia Collins’s dangerous past, and her life depends on sneaking through senior year unnoticed. But when she crashes into the school’s most infamous heartthrob, Aiden Parker, on her first day, she’s suddenly on everyone’s radar, and as Amelia becomes immersed in a new group of friends, keeping a low profile won’t be an option—even if it’s a necessity.
Trigger warnings: alcohol, slut-shaming, death, bodily injuries
Amelia Collins is starting her Senior year at King City High School a month and a half into classes. She and her mother have been forced to move yet again due to Amelia’s dark past. All she wants is to lay low, graduate, and move on with her life. Yet the moment she crashes into Aiden Parker, that is no longer an option.
One of my favorite things about She’s With Me is how the cover is reflective of a standard YA contemporary yet the story manages to still be something unique in its own right. Here we have a broody love interest, best-friends-like-brothers group, and queen bee of the school; at the same time, we also have a snarky and assertive main character, an original reason for moving mid-semester, a slow-ish burn, and a deep, dark secret.
I am not exaggerating when I say that I devoured this book in a day. There was soo much drama and I was excited to read what else could happen. Let’s just say the stakes raise several times. Some not in ways you may expect. I appreciated that it was cohesive and that most of it tied up at the end. The rest, hopefully, will be explored in the sequel!
While based on the genre, it would be easy to assume that romance would be the focus of the book, many people will be surprised to find that Amelia and Aiden’s personal problems play a more significant role.
The main issue I had with the book was slut-shaming. It was mainly name-calling but it’s unhealthy that we still have character shaming others without ever addressing this problematic behavior. On a related note, I also didn’t like Kaitlyn’s characterization. She’s not fleshed out beyond fitting the Queen Bee stereotype. Furthermore, she was slut-shamed and slut-shamed herself. Neither of which is okay. The drama that ensued from confrontations between her and Amelia were incredibly petty. Even the characters acknowledged it themselves. However, it was nice to see that Amelia knew where lines were being crossed.
She’s With Me is a solid budding romance interwoven into the drama of two teenagers trying to survive. I definitely recommend if you’re in the mood for a quick contemporary.
Jessica is an indecisive university student from a small town near Toronto, Canada. She published her first young adult novel She’s With Me, on Wattpad under the name “AvaViolet” when she was 17 years old. In just over 2 years, her story has amassed over 61 million reads and has reached the number one spot in teen fiction more times than she can count. Her story She’s With Me won the 2016 Wattys “Talk of the Town” award, as well as The 2016 Fiction Awards “Best Teen Fiction.” She also won The 2016 Writer Awards for Novelist of the Year and Wattpad Writer of the Year.
Jessica enjoys hiking, the outdoors, and trying to sneak her way out of inevitable awkward situations. She can often be found daydreaming about scenarios which have a 5% chance of actually happening to her. But she doesn’t mind, since she can transform them into awesome stories which she can vicariously live through.
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