What You Left Behind

 

Ryden Brooks used to be your typical popular high school jock. He was the star goalkeeper of his high school's soccer team, had girls throwing themselves at him left and right and had all but a guarantee of a full ride scholarship to UCLA. Everything was perfect and life was great until he met Meg. Meg had been crushing hard on Ryden since she first laid eyes on him, but figured she never had a chance. She wasn't popular, she didn't participate in any school sports and she was super focused on academics. Oh, and she also was fighting for her life after being diagnosed with cancer.

But one day, Ryden took notice of Meg and found himself falling in love with her. The two started dating, and eventually Meg had to tell Ryden she had cancer. Ryden was madly in love and vowed to be with her as she went through chemotherapy and battled cancer. But then Meg got pregnant and refused to abort the baby. During childbirth, Meg died and Ryden became a single father to their daughter, Hope.

All of a sudden, Ryden felt like his life was out of control. He was caring for his daughter Hope with his Mom's help, working at Whole Foods to try and help provide for his daughter and getting ready to attend his senior year of high school. With so much on his plate, including trying to keep up with homework and play varsity soccer, Ryden was starting to crumble. Then Meg's sister called Ryden saying she found a journal, with a checklist in the back with her name, Ryden's name and Meg's best f friend Alan's name. Ryden became consumed with finding the two other journals that Meg was constantly writing in, convinced they held information on how to be a better parent to Hope.

Then he befriended Joni at work, which started to develop into an unexpected romantic relationship. In an attempt to feel normal, he kept his history of Meg and the existence of Hope hidden from Joni. However, as expected, Ryden can't keep up with all of his lies and everything on his plate. Can Ryden let go of Meg and move on with his life? Can Ryden secure his UCLA soccer scholarship and both play college soccer and be a parent to Hope? Finally, can Ryden let Joni in on the truth of his life without losing her forever?

What You Left Behind by Jessica Verdi is a spectacular, emotional novel. This is not your typical high school love story. Verdi spares no one in her writing and her descriptively poetic writing pulls you in from start to finish. Confronting tough issues from cancer to teenage pregnancy and teenage parenthood, Verdi surprisingly makes the topics easy to emotionally latch onto and feel yourself in Ryden's shoes.

I gave What You Left Behind 5 stars, what about you?