Swear on This Life by Renée Carlino

When struggling writer Emiline begins to read the debut bestseller from the new writer J. Colby, it only takes her one page to realize that she knows this story. It is hers. The tale of childhood best friends, Jax and Emerson, who fall in love and dream of a world outside their miserable home lives and small town, is the fictionalized account of her own past and she knows that mysterious author J. Colby is really Jason Colbertson, her first love and the boy she hasn’t seen in twelve years. Emiline, furious that Jase has co-opted her painful past into a bestselling novel, she decides to confront him at his book signing in her city. But she isn’t ready for all the feelings she’s hidden for years to suddenly reappear. The plot told through Emiline’s point of view is interspersed with the fictional book as she reads it. It is a clever method of storytelling and done well. Renée Carlino has written an emotionally riveting story of healing and love. It has incredibly complex characters who are immediately memorable.