I had high hopes for But Then I Came Back. It sounded like something completely different than I had read in a long time. A story that mixed love, personal struggle, tragedy, and mysteries of the beyond sounded like such a great read.

The story mainly followed Eden as she awakens from a coma, unable to talk, with a LOT going on inside her head. While the plot sounded really good, the delivery on it was not what I was hoping for. I struggled with a lot of confusion in the first half of the book. I had a basic understanding of what was going on, but it all came in a very choppy format and just general confusion from a readers stand point. Part of me believes this was author Estelle Laure's goal to make the customer feel how Eden was feeling. However, as a reader I do not like to be confused by the content. Suspense is good. Piecing together the puzzle is good. But confusion on what is going on make a book far less enjoyable. Unfortunately due to this I was, for the first time in 2017, unable to even finish the book.

I'm sure I would like other work by Laure and I do think the concept behind But Then I Came Back was a brilliant one, I just did not like the execution. I would still encourage others to try it as everyone has different taste. This one just wasn't for me.

Unable to download book so cannot give review even though approved.

When I saw that my request to read But Then I Came Back got accepted, I squealed around the house from joy until my brother came to see if I was alright. This was my first major request I did on NetGalley back in January and you can’t imagine how happy I was to get a copy of this book. It took me a couple of weeks though to start reading it because I had a lot of respect of the sequel. I had enjoyed the first book so much, I was scared that the second wouldn’t live up to my expectations.

My fear was proven unnecessary because the sequel was even better! I loved it so much, it made me question my feelings towards This Raging Light. It was quite a new concept to me to read a sequel in a series where the point of view changes entirely because the protagonist is somebody new. And although I think it’s a pity that Lucille (protagonist from This Raging Light) fades into the background, I appreciated reading from Eden’s POV so much. Her voice was so honest and totally different from Lucille’s.

Eden is in my opinion more ‘adulter’. She questions everything. She questions life, death, the meaning of coming back from The Inbetween. Lucille was way more stressed about surviving in her own way. Having to work and pay for everything herself because her parents abandoned her, having to look after her younger sister. Her “boy troubles” with Digby… Eden just has different flow in her life.

I can’t imagine how it must be for someone to come back to life from a coma (and I really pray that neither I, nor any of my family or friends, ever have to make that experience). Reading about Eden’s story gave me so many feelings I don’t even know where to start to describe those. It wasn’t easy for her to adapt to life again, but I really like the way how she did it and seeing her going down that path and fighting her problems so bravely.

One thing I really love about her is how immediately Eden accepts her “situations” without thinking it through. When she thought she was dead, the first thing she did was think Oh cool, I’m a ghost. I can haunt people now and scare them. Or when she thought that she might have psychic powers her first reaction wasn’t to question it but to try to make a painting fly off the wall. When she thinks she might not be alive, but only dreaming, she immediately tries to will herself to fly. It’s that carelessness - if you can call it that - that I like about her.

I didn’t expect to like But Then I Came Back so much. It didn’t let me go and I read it in like two/three sittings. In my opinion you don’t have to read This Raging Light to be able to pick up the sequel, which is way I really recommend you to get yourself a copy of this great book!

(This Review was originally posted on my blog (Thursday March 30, 2017) and has been shared on all my social media as well as uploaded on Goodreads and NetGalley.

Thanks so much to NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book. I liked it, but I don't know if I understood it.

Basically, the story follows a girl named Eden. After slipping and almost drowning, Eden was left in a coma. But she eventually wakes up. While she is in something she calls the In Between, she sees another girl with her. She awakens to find that that girl, named Jaz, is with her in the hospital, also in a coma. She can't figure out why they are linked or why she keeps seeing these black flowers all over the place. As Eden tries to re-integrate herself into the world, she struggles to open up and figure out what is really going on.

Like I said, I did enjoy this book. Eden's character and backstory become well-developed and I found myself invested in her story. I read the book in one sitting, so there must have been something to grab me.

I also liked the romance between Eden and Jaz's friend Joe. I thought it was a good, slow burn that was complicated enough to keep things interesting. I can't put my finger on it, but something about Joe felt off. I don't know if that's just me or what.

Now comes the part where I get a little unclear in my idea of the story. Part of me wants to say that this is all a delusion of comatose-Eden. The other part of me wants to say that Joe and Jaz didn't exist, but then how would you explain the hospital staff talking about them? For a while, I thought maybe Jaz was a dissociative personality of Eden, but I'm not sure on the logistics about that either.

Something about this story just screamed unreliable narrator (she does, after all, have a brain injury). But I couldn't tell you I have any real proof of that. All I know is that things felt off.

Laure's writing style is brilliant, it drew me in right away and I didn't put it down until I was done.

I was not aware this was the companion novel to This Raging Light, so maybe some of my concerns are cleared up in book one. I think this book stands alone fine on its own, not having read the companion novel, I can't say if it would be better to read them "in order" but I think this one is complete by itself.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I just felt like there was something a little deeper I was missing.

I'm sorry I'm not able to review this Halley as it wasn't available in the Kindle format.

I loved this story, how everyones different lives and situations melded together in this captivating novel.

4.5stars
When I started reading this book I didn’t even know about This Raging Light. Only when I ended this, I saw that they are connected. The main character changes in this book, and I feel that there’s only so little that we miss. That said, I don’t think that it’s needed to read the other book prior to this one.

I really liked this book and especially the theme. I read it all in one day, which is saying a lot since I still had work, but somehow I still managed, which surprised me!

This book starts in a way that made me a bit lost but it still managed to grip me pretty soon and I just wanted to know more and more of what was going on! I will try not to enter in much details but mainly, this book talks about during and after coma experiences.

Now, not everybody believes in the same things and certainly not everybody passed through it. I never lived anything remotely similar but I always found the theme really interesting and intriguing.

The story was made really believable, although it also talked about channeling, which is once again not something everybody believes. It might be difficult for some people to connect with the book, since a lot of the themes are very controversial. I did like that part tho, it makes it a bit more mysterious and I like to believe that is possible, although I’m a bit skeptical.

The characters were all very realistic and interesting, and after some pages I was already rooting for Eden and Joe. They are just so cute together! I really liked all the characters and all the support Eden got from them, after her accident, but that at the same time they wouldn’t let her just act stupid with them. I liked that she was not treated like a vegetable. I also really enjoyed that the hospital environment was very helpful – it would be amazing if it was always like that in real life… And I obviously have to mention Jasmine in here, because I really liked her part in the book, it was simple but it was beautiful!

This book made me cry once in a while and I thought it was extremely adorable. It also had a slightly bittersweet aftertaste, which I was quite happy about. I do think it might not be a book for everybody but I definitely recommend it!

Please note: review will not be live until 1 week before pub date.

While it's not necessary to read This Raging Light to be drawn into But Then I Came Back, this book is a close companion to Estelle Laure's debut, although very different in tone. If you've read it, you already know what the prologue tells you--that Eden Jones, the cool girl in a cool leather jacket, fell. She fell into a creek after cracking her head on a rock, and then fell into a coma.

In a completely undramatic way, Eden wonders if it wouldn't be better if she had died that night. Not because she's terribly depressed (although that's an undercurrent she refuses to examine) but because the In Between maybe-afterlife of her coma was so blissful. She was free of care, free of the heartache of her failure to impress the Bolshoi dancers on her audition. She didn't have to cope with her twin brother dating her best friend, or the tragic mess her best friend's life had become. But mostly, she didn't have to change. The peace she felt was sufficient to her, and she to it.

But then, as the title says, she came back.

I am extremely skeptical of books that tackle the afterlife. So often it becomes trite or obvious, or becomes some kind of supernatural adventure that isn't actually about Death--that huge unbearable thing we all have to grapple with--at all. One of the few books I really like that deals with it is the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix, which acknowledges the terrible and frightening aspects of coping with death without succumbing to the temptation to make death itself frightening. But Then I Came Back is the inverse of that, painting death as such a glorious alternative to the messy, unfortunate chaos of life that going on living is the real challenge.

Eden's recovery is rocky and uninspiring, full of pain and disgusting nutrition shakes. Everyone around her is supportive and grateful for her recovery--and Eden hates it. She doesn't know why she's back if her dance career is probably over. What's her purpose? Why bother being alive if she's only going to be moody and broken and life on the Other Side is so much better?

She becomes slightly obsessed with the girl in the bed next to hers, another coma patient who hasn't had the mis/fortune of waking up. Because while Eden has the oft-resented blessing of her friends and family, her mysterious roommate only has Joe, an astonishingly handsome not-brother-not-boyfriend who nonetheless brings her bouquet after bouquet of flowers.

Joe is handsome and might just understand her in a way that her doting family doesn't. He's not some stereotypical bad boy or anything. He's just different. And different is how Eden feels all the time now, so maybe they can help each other understand how to go on living when that coma bed still looms so large in their minds. They try everything from psychics to sky diving, all in the hopes of getting back to the place they used to be. Only--maybe they can't get there. Or maybe they can get somewhere better.

I wish there had been more interactions between Eden and Lucille. I miss Lucille from the first book, This Raging Light, and I want to know more about how she's managing. She seems good, but there's still a lot for her to deal with. Plus, there are few purer moments than the deep and gentle affection that they share. As Eden tries to understand her new self and Joe's whole situation, it's clear how precious and amazing this friendship could be, if only Eden would take more time with it. But--and I suppose this is painfully true to life--they each have their own stuff going on, and a lot of it. And it's just really hard. Growing up and staying connected is really friggin hard.

Laure is no stranger to hardship--This Raging Light ached with it, and now Eden's story brims over with suffering, too. Laure doesn't seem to have any blinders on when it comes to the afterlife, complicating it because it seems so good, because it seems so unbelievable. (Believing in the possibility of an afterlife is not a blinder, whatever your religious affiliations or lack thereof. But that's another discussion I will gladly have in the comments.) She's also not trying to argue with anyone. She's just trying to tell this story as fierce and true as she can.

The language is still just so beautiful. Somehow it manages to be both meticulously edited to its most pure state, but also raw and untamed. Reading it, you feel like you have acid in your veins--the corrosive kind, not the hallucinogenic, although a bit of that too--just scouring you down, making you more and more sensitive even as things get more and more painfully intense. It's gorgeous. Few YA authors can touch Laure for sheer writing skill. As for the psychotropic, well, Eden actually does begin to see black flowers that crowd out her field of vision and weep petals on significant people and things. So it's a little trippy, but in a way that bolsters the story's message: that life is frightening and strange and really, really difficult, and near-death even more so, but also kind of amazing.

eden jones doesn't know where she was when she was in a coma. she just knows she wasn't here. she knows she saw her family. she knows that her past was closer to her than ever before. she knows that the other girl in a coma in the hospital ward was there too. and she knows that jasmine is trying to tell her something.

but then i came back is about eden's recovery. it's about how trauma changes you. it's about how one thing can change everything about you, except it can't change who you really are. she's experienced something so outside of anyone's realm of understanding. her friends, her family, they are trying, but she can't help but feel closest to jasmine, the girl still in a coma and joe the guy who holds her fate in his hands.

the book opens with eden's accident. an out of body experience told in the second person. and then we are in the during, as she comes back and figures out how to start living again. the hardest thing is figuring out her relationship with her twin brother. she's lived through something she can't share with him and in the time she was in a coma he found closeness with eden's best friend lucille. so when she does come back the relationship she shared with the two closest people in her life has irrevocably changed.

and so the connection she shares with jasmine, as someone else who has been in the in between place between life and death becomes so important. and the acceptance and understanding she gets from joe lets her feel less crazy and more grounded in the now. something she craves desperately because coming back has left her feeling disconnected, disassociated from herself, from her life. figuring things out with joe, beginning a relationship with joe, opens her back up to feeling, to living.

and inasmuch as there is pain and loss and grief and hurt and anger in this story, there is also a great amount of beauty. sometimes everything must break apart before it can be put back together. but when it does come together, it can be stronger and more beautiful than ever.

Seventeen-year-old Eden Jones survived a near fatal accident. As she tries to recover, she forms a relationship with a boy named Joe. He is not a fellow patient in the hospital but a frequent visitor to a friend, Jasmine. Somehow Jasmine and Eden communicate with each other in a magical way. (At least I think so...)

If my description above sounds confusing, it is because I was! But Then I Came Back has a good premise of recovery and friendship building. But the beginning started off so confusing. I continued reading on the strength of the author's other novel, This Raging Light, only to be disappointed with it falling flat.

Don't judge a book by its cover. But Then I Came Back has such a beautiful cover. It's dark, yes. But the gray roses in 3D are striking. I was eager to open this galley and dive into the story within. Le sigh. And then I was so very disappointed. In a strange way, the storyline moved along slowly yet some of the characters descriptions were rushed making it hard for readers to relate. I waited a whole year for this hyped up companion novel?!

Happy Early Pub Day, Estelle Laure. But Then I Came Back will be available Tuesday, April 4, 2017. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend it to bookhearts.

LiteraryMarie

I'm sure this is a lovely book and I am going to purchase it for the library. I didn't realize it wasn't available on Kindle (on NetGalley) and I didn't download it but I look forward to reading it when it comes out.

Well... wow that was something. At least. I'm really sorry but this was so zero my cup of tea. I'm in awe that I finished it. I guess I just wanted to really know how this could end. The main character is horrible. The only person I cared about was Jasmin. And she was in a coma. I did like the idea of near death experience but everything that happened after she woke up was just... god was she bratty. Everyone tries so hard to please her and I just couldn't stand her anymore. At least I finished. So not all hope lost.

We don't see Eden a ton in This Raging Light, and something happens to her where we really do want to see what happens to her in But Then I Came Back. But my big problem with this whole book is that the whole premise is about how Eden is not quite in the now and is dealing with what the afterlife is and how she is trying to live a normal life after her accident.

I was eager to read this book because I enjoyed This Raging Light. I knew nothing about But Then I Came Back, except that Estelle Laure wrote it (and really that's all it took). I had no idea that this book would be a companion novel to This Raging Light but it was a delightful surprise.

Eden Jones is recovering from the coma that we saw her slip into before. Even though it has only been a few weeks, everything seems to have changed. Eden is struggling with finding her place among her old life. She feels distant from her twin brother and her best friend. When the one thing that defines your life (for Eden, dance) is lost, what are you left with? She also can't make sense of the flowers that creep into her vision or how she could have encountered the girl down the hall (also in a coma) in what seemed to be a dream, but felt real. With so much chaos and uncertainty, it would be an incredibly inconvenient time to also fall in love.

Book synopsis(via Goodreads)

Eden Jones, a 17-year-old girl, feels lost after surviving a near fatal accident. Unable to connect with her family and friends, Eden forms an unlikely relationship with Joe, a boy who comes to the hospital to visit Jasmine, a friend who may soon be gone forever. Eden is the only person who can get through to Jasmine, but is she brave enough to face a world that’s bigger and more magical than she ever would have allowed?

***Many thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Net Galley for the advanced reader's copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. This novel is set to be published in April of 2017***

This insomniac's opinion:

I truly enjoyed this author's novel This Raging Light, of which this novel is a companion to. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend that you pick it up.

While I admit that I did not enjoy this novel as thoroughly as This Raging Light, it was a fascinating read. Estelle Laure writes with beautiful, flowery language and is swept away into a story in which the author is unfraid to tackle such subjects as death, the afterlife and recovery after tragedy.

I think that young girls and women especially will enjoy this YA read.

Rating:

3.5 stars

Worth staying up all night to read?

Yes, particularly if you are a young woman.

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.
Thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the opportunity to read and review But Then I Came Back by Estelle Laure! Edna Jones almost drowned and was in a coma for over a month. Now she's trying to regroup, regain strength and weight and get rid of the confusion that surrounds her. When Edna is released from the hospital, she doesn't feel like she belongs back in reality and she's completely exhausted. Joe brings flowers to Edna's house and she feels the first sparkling of life again. Joe's friend, Jasmine, is in a coma after a motorcycle accident and he's her closest friend. So close that she made Joe her legal next of kin. Now, it's on his shoulders to decide whether to keep Jasmine on life support or not. For some reason, Edna is still connected to the limbo she was in during her coma and supposedly that's where Jasmine currently is. Joe is hoping Edna can talk to Jasmine and wake her up. A mix of strong personalities, a bit of psychic help, supernatural mystery and some romance brings the story together and I feel that I have learned from and have been inspired by this realistic fiction book. I rate But Then I Came Back 5 stars because I didn't want the story to end!