If He Had Been With Me is a fictional romance novel written by Laura Nowlin. It was published in 2013 and has attracted a lot of attention in the past year! It’s a very sweet but heartbreaking romance story. The main characters are Autumn Davis and Phineas Smith. The story starts by explaining things from Autumn’s point of view in her first year of high school. Autumn and Phineas were childhood best friends up until middle school when they started to drift apart. They both grew up with father issues, and so were naturally closer to their mothers who happened to have been best friends since their middle school days. Autumn and Finny both have their separate relationships throughout high school as well as different friend groups. 

At one point their friend groups were enemies with each other, which makes Autumn and Finny speak to each other even less than before after that. When certain things happen in each group, it causes them to reconcile with each other. It becomes apparent to Autumn and Finny that others, including their friends and mothers, have wanted them to be together. After highschool is when there really becomes a shift in their relationship with each other. 

I have a few personal opinions about this book: When reading this, you think it’s going to be a simple, sweet story about “childhood friends to lovers” romance, and it is at moments! Other moments, though, definitely made me a bit emotional. It’s a very addicting read and constantly made me want to keep reading. This book has short chapters, which makes it an easier option to pick up and read, but also causes you to feel overwhelmed by the number of chapters. Some of my favorite parts were essentially all the cute moments between Autumn and Finny. I liked reading the flashbacks that Autumn would have and how easy it was to understand their flashbacks. The author makes a great relationship between Autumn and Finny and Sasha and Jamie by showing how similar their circumstances were and how Autumn and Sasha were in the same situation. Towards the end of the book that I thought was great. You could see multiple characters’ perspectives or experiences through the eyes of one character. 

There is a sequel coming out February 6th 2024 named If Only I Had Told Her. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes romance, or even who is in a reading slump!