Review: Stay With Me by Paul Griffin

Stay With Me

By: Paul Griffin

Pub. Date: September 8, 2011

Publisher: Dial

Pages: 304

Source: Library

An urban romance that will capture your soul, break your heart, and restore your faith in the human spirit


Fifteen-year-olds Cece and Mack didn't expect to fall in love. She's a sensitive A student; he's a high school dropout. But soon they're spending every moment together, bonding over a rescued dog, telling their secrets, making plans for the future. Everything is perfect. Until. Until. Mack makes a horrible mistake, and in just a few minutes, the future they'd planned becomes impossible. In this stark new reality, both of them must find meaning and hope in the memories of what they had, to survive when the person they love can't stay.


From award-winning writer Paul Griffin, Stay with Me is both heartbreaking and uplifting, filled with characters (both dog and human) that will forever change the way you look at the world.

Stay With Me had everything I could have asked for in a novel. The characters were awesome, the plot was fast paced and realistic and overall, Stay With Me had me laughing and crying the entire time.

Mack had my heart from the beginning. His mother left when he was a kid and his father is an abusive drunk. Yet, Mack is 100% good. He puts others first. He is sweet and considerate and the way he treats animals is just amazing. Even after his "horrible mistake", I still only saw good, and understood why he did what he did. I think any animal lover would.  Cece was also great and I loved watching Mack and Cece get together. It was so amazingly sweet. Even the secondary characters were fantastic! Every single one was well written. I couldn't get enough of them!

Stay With Me will break your heart. The ending is bittersweet but it worked perfectly for the story. Parts of the story were definitely hard to read, but it was so realistic and well written. Everything was just so believable. My heart broke many times throughout the story, especially concerning Mack. I was rooting for him the entire time.

I honestly could not have asked for a better story. I fell in love with it and it's characters and will definitely be picking up my own copy!