Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Date of publication: February 9th, 2017

Genre: Contemporary, Magical Realism, Coming of Age, New York

Purchase Links: Amazon | Audible |Apple Books |WorldCat

Goodreads synopsis:

Growing up on Long Island, Shelby Richmond is an ordinary girl until one night an extraordinary tragedy changes her fate. Her best friend’s future is destroyed in an accident, while Shelby walks away with the burden of guilt.

What happens when a life is turned inside out? When love is something so distant it may as well be a star in the sky? Faithful is the story of a survivor, filled with emotion—from dark suffering to true happiness—a moving portrait of a young woman finding her way in the modern world. A fan of Chinese food, dogs, bookstores, and men she should stay away from, Shelby has to fight her way back to her own future. In New York City she finds a circle of lost and found souls—including an angel who’s been watching over her ever since that fateful icy night.

Here is a character you will fall in love with, so believable and real and endearing, that she captures both the ache of loneliness and the joy of finding yourself at last. For anyone who’s ever been a hurt teenager, for every mother of a daughter who has lost her way, Faithful is a roadmap.

---

I cried while reading this book. I—about as unemotional as a rock—cried. The heartbreak on the page is honestly mind-numbing. But what rises from those ashes? That part was something special.

The writing is fantastic. I love a story that pulls you in and makes you feel alongside the characters, and this one absolutely does. I felt deeply for Shelby. She’s broken, yes—but she finds a way to piece herself back together. Not perfectly, but perfectly for where she is in that moment.

The ending wasn’t what I expected, but it fit the story in a way that felt right.