Living Two Lives - Book 1

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Reviewed it on September 30, 2023

I cried of MADE me think

dparks54

GREAT STORY

Reviewed it on June 5, 2023

Realistic characters and a good story telling.

pamed1979

Very informative about the effects of cancer on children

Reviewed it on October 1, 2022

Part one sets the stage for the changes to Andrew from having cancer and recovering. The physical effects were horrid but the mental effects were worse. The two young women that he meets during is last chance to beat cancer changes his life. The next 24 books tell how it affects him.

I have been to Edinburgh. It's depiction in this and the following books makes me want to go back and see more of it.

Liked the Book

Reviewed it on September 20, 2022

so far I really like this book and intend to read the full series. I can relate with the main charter. I had the same problems when I grew up with people outside my family

rob_3324

Too Real

Reviewed it on September 20, 2022

I am a cancer survivor, two times. The scenes talking about watching others coming, and going, while you are waiting for your prognosis were chilling to read. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I was in a single room, so I didn’t have the close interaction detailed in this book. I cried a lot during my read. I don’t know the authors history but he obviously has a lot of background in children’s cancer. The parts about everyone not telling you the truth about your chances are very accurate. I had a 15% chance of surviving and no one told me, not even my wife. I still don’t know if I would have rather known or not.

The book does a good job of portraying a complex character coming of age. I recommend the whole series. It is a binge reading tour de force, buy them all!

Donato

I very much enjoyed book -1

Reviewed it on September 18, 2022

Definitely no sex in book I and when I purchased this book I was surprised to see how many follow on books there are. I’m glad the cost is reasonable for each book. I cried many time in reading this book. Based on the preview in SOL. I looked at each older female as the one to mentor Andrew. But now I’m just going to stop thinking that each older female is the one and just wait and see how things progress. I also was expecting the Lectures about girls and sex to get hands on learning it never did. So I don’t know if any of these books will lead us in to sex with Andrew and with who knows whom. But the last words of book I were “with girls”. So I’m hoping the worm will gradually turn toward sex.
In the end I hope love between Leslie and Andrew will grow and blossom.
This is a series of books that if you love to read ongoing full story this is for you.

WOW!

Reviewed it on September 15, 2022

“Coming of Age” amp; “Tearjerker” said the tags and they weren’t lying!

Maybe it is being Scottish and male but empathy for the young protagonist was almost painful.

yumacolonel

A Remarkable Read

Reviewed it on September 14, 2022

I would have read this entire book just for the tears I shed reading about Faith, Andrew amp; Leslie.

jebsdad

High quality realistic coming of age story.

Reviewed it on September 12, 2022

I liked that Gruinard kept this coming of age story realistic without some over-the-top fantasy elements to it. I enjoyed the mix of drama, humor, sadness, and laughter. Gruinard made Andrew a main character that I could like and root for. I much look forward to the future books. I feel most readers who like coming of age stories would like this book.

ah08010-storiesonline

Good story, obviously incomplete

Reviewed it on September 13, 2022

The ending of this book came as a surprise - literally. I was not expecting it to end, it didn't seem like a good ending spot, and I was sure that there was a browser problem.

The story itself is of a boy growing up in 1970's Scotland. I can't speak for Scotland in the 70's, but overall it seems pretty good. The kid gets into some interesting situations, and does NOT turn into a 30-year-old in a 13-yo skin.

That said, there's a lot of present-day morality and attitudes leaking through in the story. You wouldn't expect a story set in 19xx to have someone asking "What pronouns do they use?", and that line doesn't appear here, either, but the point is that a lot of things have changed in 50 years, and the story doesn't filter them all out.

There are a few errors that recur. There are a few instances where "he" becomes "my" in text, and apparently there was a search and replace for "His" -> "HIs" because that HI shows up a lot. There are some other errors, but they are mostly innocuous - some homophones, some just bad word choice.

I'm looking forward to reading volume 2.