Out of Reach by Missy Johnson

My best friend was dying and I was in love with his girl.

Andy and I had been best friends since we were eight-years old.
Watching him slowly fade away, ever closer to his final breath, made
me so incredibly angry. I knew there was nothing I could do to change it--I had given in to despair, but Andy had not. He had one last hand to play. 

He wasn't going to simply sit back and wait for Death to claim him--not Andy. He was going to live life until he couldn't hold his eyes open any longer.

Andy didn't want to die in some sterile hospital and asked me to take him and Emily to the beach. It would be our last road trip together.

Emily. Emily was a problem for me. 

I harbored a secret that would have torn our friendship apart. I was in love with Andy's girl, and had been since she'd walked into our sixth grade class, so many years ago.

So what kind of person am I? My best friend is dying, and it's
awful--but my heart still aches for his girl. I hate myself for
thinking beyond Andy's death and whether there could ever be a future for Emily and I, but I can't help it. 

I'm in love with her.

---

Review by Brittany

Let me preface this review by giving you a warning. You WILL cry. And if you don’t, then obviously you didn’t connect like you were supposed to to this book and these characters.

            Andy, Seth, and Emily have been best friends for fourteen years. They were inseparable from the moment they met. None of that changed when they found out that Andy had cancer. Melanoma. Yeah, the big C word.

            He first developed cancer at the age of seventeen, a few weeks after he and Emily started dating. He had rounds of chemo and went into remission. All was good until six years later, it returned. This time it was terminal. Andy’s life would be coming to an end soon, everyone knew that.

            To try and cope with the knowledge of his upcoming death, Andy has Seth and Emily take him to a beach house where he determines that the two of them will live out his bucket list since he is too weak to do so. That includes driving a NASCAR and cliff diving. These last few weeks of Andy’s life are memorable.

            Every last moment we spent together could well be out last, and that meant I had to make every moment count.

            As expected, Andy passes away. This is where you’ll be in tears. It was hard, so hard, reading the pain that everyone felt from his loss. More so Seth, since he was in love with Emily.

            Because if there was one thing worse than being in love with your dying best friend’s girl, it was telling her after he was gone.

            The last few weeks of Andy’s life were filled with fun, but Andy was also determined to make sure that the two people he loved most would be looked after once he was gone, even if it means they look after each other.

            I love Missy Johnson. I love anything and everything she writes. She is such a talented writing, amazing with words and feelings, I just can’t praise her enough. This is probably my favorite book by her, even though I cried like I never have from a book before. Really, one o’clock in the morning comes around, tears are streaming down my face. I’m trying to sob quietly since everyone’s asleep… again, a tip. HAVE TISSUES READY.

            Yes, this book deals with cancer. Yes, I knew someone that died from cancer. You probably do too. Yes, it’ll hurt, remembering them if they’ve passed away when you read the gritty details of Andy’s life, his pain. But this book is also a beautiful love story. It deals with having the strength to move on after the one who was your first love, your first kiss, your first everything, leaves this world.

            Emotion is something that I have to have to be able to give a book five stars. This book was filled with it. So yeah, of course Missy’s getting five stars from me. And the fact that she wrote this book so beautifully, even though it was filled with so much hurt and pain… it takes a lot of talent to be able to do that.

            I cry over books. I do, I admit it. But this was definitely my first ugly cry book. The one with snot pouring out my nose, tears streaming down my face. I knew it was gonna be hard to get through, but I was not prepared for this.

            I was scared to start this book, but it was worth it. This is definitely one of those life-changing books as well. I promise you will not regret reading this book. 

---

Goodreads

Amazon US

Amazon UK

About Missy Johnson

Missy lives in a small town in Central Victoria with her husband, and her confused pets (a dog who think she's a cat, a cat who thinks he's a dog...you get the picture). 

When she's not writing, she can usually be found looking for something to read.

---