Review: Ryan's Bed by Tijan

Ryan's Bed by Tijan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this in a day. It was that gripping. This is my first Tijan book, but if they are all like this it won't be my last. It was recommended by several authors I love, but I have to say I was originally drawn in by that amazing cover. While this deals with a very sensitive subject, it is done in a respectful way.

This follows Mackenzie in the aftermath of her twin sister, Willow's suicide. Mackenzie's family has just moved to Oregon from Arizona, and on their 18th birthday Willow takes her life. Mackenzie finds herself spending the night with family friends while her parents try to make arrangements. Because she's in a strange house, she gets lost on her way back to bed in the middle of the night and finds herself in Ryan's bed. She finds some comfort there that she hasn't been able to find since the shock of Willow's death, and sleeps. She wakes up to a very confused Ryan, but she continues to sleep. After finally waking up with the determination to be strong for her younger brother Robbie, Mackenzie finds a friend in Ryan. He somewhat understands what she is going through, and while everyone else is grieving Willow's loss Ryan is the only one checking on Mackenzie to see if she is OK.

Mackenzie struggles with the loss of her twin, She goes through all of the stages of grief, and some post traumatic stress. She never knew Willow was at the point of suicide. Willow was the outgoing twin, popular, beautiful, she seemed to have everything. Mackenzie knew she had a dark side and about some of her struggles, but she didn't know they went so deeply. Willow never confided in her twin. While she struggles to come to grips with Willow's loss, she also has to deal with the way her family chooses to grieve, especially since Mackenzie is a constant reminder of her twin. It is hard for the whole family and none of them make good decisions.

When Mackenzie begins school, she is not only the new girl, but she has caught the eye of the most popular boy at school. She isn't part of the social pecking order yet, and she doesn't really care. She just wants Ryan because he understands her and he is her safe haven. Ryan doesn't seem to care much for the whole social scene, he genuinely was just a good guy trying to take care of his friends. This is not short on high school drama, there are some serious mean girls and Mackenzie faces off with them more than once before she put all of the pieces of herself back together. The high school drama gets a bit over the top, but kids are mean and this is fiction.

Hang on to your hats because the ending will throw you for a loop. I didn't see it coming until the last page, but after I read it, it wasn't all that surprising if you were paying attention. It was overall an amazing read. It is the kind of book you want to read again.

The only thing I didn't really like about this was towards the very end, it takes a turn towards new adult. This was pretty much young adult through out, and I prefer my YA to stay YA and my adult books to be adult. I'm a grown up so I read what I want and that stuff doesn't offend me, but my preference is if you are going to keep that stuff low level steamy or all the way steamy, keep it consistent throughout. This just got a bit too steamy at the end and felt out of place to me.

I'm using this for my reading challenge prompt that deals with death or grief, but it also deals with twins if you need a recommendations for that as well.  I highly recommend you checking this one out.

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