My Life After Now is a touching and eye-opening YA contemporary that deals with HIV. I haven't read a book about this topic before and it was really interesting, yet saddening, to read about a young girl who has to try and get through it.

Lucy is an actress with big dreams ahead of her. She has a lovely boyfriend, great friends and two wonderful parents. But things start to go downhill when she is not cast as Juliet in the school play, but her worse enemy, Elyse, is. And Lucy's boyfriend is cast as Romeo. Soon after, her boyfriend dumps her for Elyse and Lucy is left in tatters. One night and one mistake changes her life completely. Lucy has HIV. And she doesn't know how to accept that, let alone think to share it with her family or friends.

Lucy is a bold character who I really felt for. She made one mistake and now it's going to effect her for the rest of her life. It's not fair... but they again, illnesses are never fair, are they? One of things that also shocked me was the way that she was treated by others when they found out about her illness. They looked at her differently, afraid to touch or go near her because they were scared of "catching" her illness, even though HIV cannot be transferred that way. But that is the reality of the situation, isn't it?

You can tell that the author has done some good research for this book. It has informed and opened my eyes to the topic. Why should mature issues like HIV not be in more YA books? It educates you and also carries advice if you're ever put into that kind of situation.

My Life After Now is a book packed full with emotion and tender moments.