646#Love Note ~ [Book Review] By My Side

 
By My Side by Alice Peterson is a heart-warming book. When I was reading this book, it reminded me of Me Before You and Another Way to Fall. It didn't make me cry like when I read Me Before You, but the message was the same.

Read: From September 5 to 7, 2015

Rating: 4.5/5

One step can change everything...

Cass Brooks wishes she could turn back time. She'd go back to that morning and retrace her steps. Her boyfriend, Sean, would still be with her. Her mother wouldn't be nagging her to plan a new future when all she wants is her old life back.

But when Ticket, the most loyal golden Labrador, bursts into Cass's life, she dares to dream that she can be happy again, that maybe she has a future after all?

Charlie Bell is single. Why can't he commit? Following his latest break up, he finds himself sitting next to a young woman called Cass on a flight to Colorado.

She is unlike any woman he's met before...

Cass Brook's life abruptly change within a few seconds. At first, she is cuddling with her boyfriend Sean, seconds later she finds herself could not walk any longer. 

Cass is a medical student from King's College. After the dreadful accident, she abandons her dreams of becoming a doctor. She becomes a T12 paraplegic, a wheelchair-bound. Luckily she has two supportive parents and an annoying but loving brother who has always been by her side. Her mother introduces Cass to Canine Partners, where she falls in love to a golden labrador named Ticket. Ticket's presence in her life makes Cass happy and feel alive again. Ticket helps her to regain her independence and hope.

It's not long after Cass decides to go to a Back Up course. Back Up is a wonderful organisation aiming to make people like Cass enjoys a seemingly impossible holiday like skiing. Besides boosting her confidence after she has done a great job with the skiing, Cass meets Charlie there. Charlie is a normal, ordinary guy who quickly becomes her friend despite her disability - becomes her inspiration and motivation too.

In a book with the same theme as Me Before You, maybe you would think the plot would be the same. No, it's not. By My Side has its good, own plot which I didn't read in any book before. Cass' hope to be independent again is not only a hope. She works to achieve her goals. She learns to be independent, not letting people to look at her with sympathy. She doesn't throw tantrums every time she fails. She doesn't let her disability be in her way.

But, would she go back to her love for medicine?

When Cass' thinking about being a wheelchair-bound doctor, she becomes afraid. She's afraid if she could not become a good doctor. If she would become a nuisance in a busy hospital.

This book is not in heavy genre but you could still find inspiration in it. Do check it out ;)

Till then.

Wassalam.