Blog Tour| All We Could Have Been – T.E. Carter

When looking up new releases for April, All We Could Have been stood out. What happens when your life is flipped upside down after your brother commits a horrible crime? So when I saw the blog tour sign ups for this one, I knew I needed to give it a try! Thanks to Fantasic Flying Book Club and the publisher for providing me with an ARC to read and review!

All We Could Have Been

by T.E. Carter

Publisher: Feiwel Friends

Release Date: April 23th 2019

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

 

Synopsis:

Five years ago, Lexie walked home from school after her older brother failed to pick her up. When she entered her house, her brother sat calmly, waiting for the police to come arrest him for the heinous crime he had just committed.

Treated like a criminal herself, Lexie now moves from school to school hiding who she is—who she’s related to. She struggles with loving her brother, the PTSD she now suffers from, and wanting to just live a normal life. But how can she be normal when she can’t even figure out how to just live?

This is a powerful look at the assumptions we make about people. Lexie’s emotional journey to separate her brother’s horrific act from herself is stunning and heartbreaking. This is Lexie’s story and journey—not her brother’s—and it will stay with you long after you turn the last page.

 

BOOK LINKS

REVIEW

Lexi has been running for five years. Ever since she came home that day after school and watched her brother being taken away by the police. When people see her now, all they see is what her brother did. They say Lexi has the same thing inside of her and aren’t very nice about it. Hoping to start over again, she moves in with her Aunt for senior year. No one knows who she is here and she wants to keep it that way!

It’s clear that pretending is leaving a mark on Lexi. She has lots of anxiety, doesn’t want to get too close to people, has to wear a certain color on a certain day and she’s afraid to let slip who she really is. This author really wrote this so well. I felt all the emotions Lexi was going though! Her grief not only for what happened to her brother who was her best friend, but the question if she could’ve known it was going to happen?

All Lexi wants is to feel normal. She feels guilty for feeling that way though. Why should she live normally when the family her brother devestated is left picking up the pieces. Especially when people find out and start looking at you differently, blaming you, thinking you’ll do the same thing. I thought the author described this well. In the world these days, people are so easy to judge. Your family member did something, so you automatically are the same. It’s so unfair to Lexi, because they don’t even want to see what she’s going through.

It was nice seeing Lexi find her own normal. Being friends with Ryan and joining drama, even the beginning of a relationship with Marcus. While I would normally say that love doesn’t really fit into a story like this, it’s perfect in All We Could Have Been. Lexi needed to find someone that she truste, felt comfortable with, who didn’t turn away when they found out the truth. Marcus doesn’t have the most normal life either, so he was perfect. Lexi could start feeling normal and start to trust again.

I think my favorite part of this book was seeing Lexi grow. Starting to come to terms that she is allowed to live her life. She isn’t responsible for what her brother did and shouldn’t feel bad for wanting her own normal. Just because something awful happened, that doesn’t define who she is. Lexi is her own person and gets to be happy.

I loved that the author built up to us finding out what Lexi’s brother did. It shouldn’t matter what he did, because it has nothing to do with her. All We Could Have been doesn’t end with the typical happily ever after and that is a good thing. Stories like this aren’t magically better in a few chapters. Not everything is perfect, so why should the ending be that way?

BLOG TOUR

Of course, there are many other amazing blogs participating in this blog tour. Click here to check out the tour schedule. This schedule is updated daily with the links to the tour posts!

GIVEAWAY

During this tour, US readers have the chance to win a physical copy of All We Could Have Been. Click here to enter the giveaway!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TE Carter was born in New England and has lived in New England for pretty much her entire life. Throughout her career, she’s done a lot of things, although her passion has always been writing. When she’s not writing, she can generally be found reading classic literature, playing Xbox, organizing her comic collection, or binge watching baking competitions. She continues to live in New England with her husband and their two cats.

 

This book was very intense, but I thought it was beautiful. All We Could Have Been is the first book to show what happens to a sibling after their brother/sister does something no one wants to believe! I will definitely be keeping an eye on this author!

2 thoughts on “Blog Tour| All We Could Have Been – T.E. Carter

    1. I hope you think it’s as interesting as I did! It’s definitely an unique story ?

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