Review: One Moment by Kristina Mcbride

Author: Kristina McBride

Publisher: EgmontUSA

Publication date: June 26th 2012

Source: Received an ARC from publisher via NetGalley.

From Goodreads:

This was supposed to be the best summer of Maggie’s life. Now it’s the one she’d do anything to forget.

Maggie remembers hanging out at the gorge with her closest friends after a blowout party. She remembers climbing the trail with her perfect boyfriend, Joey. She remembers that last kiss, soft, lingering, and meant to reassure her. So why can’t she remember what happened in the moment before they were supposed to dive? Why was she left cowering at the top of the cliff, while Joey floated in the water below-dead?
As Maggie’s memories return in snatches, nothing seems to make sense. Why was Joey acting so strangely at the party? Where did he go after taking her home? And if Joey was keeping these secrets, what else was he hiding?
The latest novel from the author of “The Tension of Opposites,” “One Moment” is a mysterious, searing look at how an instant can change everything you believe about the world around you.

My Review

Let me just start by saying, I don’t think I have ever had my heart broken quite so bad by a book. One Moment is the most heart-wrenching book I’ve ever read.

But I loved it.

Sure, the opening was a little tough going, because the reader is introduced to so many characters from the off (all 6 of the main players), but it doesn’t take long to organise them in your head—and it takes even less time to be slapped with a horrible sense of foreboding.

From the off, the reader knows that something bad is about to happen.

Likewise, pretty early on, the reader can figure out that something regarding the ‘perfect Joey’ is definitely amiss—which only makes your heart break even more for poor Maggie.

I also had my money on the right person for the ‘betrayer’—because what she’d done was a betrayal, of the worst possible kind.

But despite this book being slightly depressing, and tearing me apart, and leaving me sniffling and as nauseous as Maggie for all the same reasons she felt that way, I still absolutely loved watching the depth of friendships that had been created. The way they all supported each other. How they all dealt with the ‘missing limb’ and the development of how this changed them—not just within themselves but as a group in its entirety. The entire read just seemed so ‘real’.

Anyone who reads this though should be aware that it’s not an easy read. I don’t mean the writing (because there was little to gripe about there), and I don’t mean the plot (because it was pure awesomeness). I mean how deeply this book is going to leave them emotionally rocked.

I recall getting to around 60% and tweeting for someone who’d read it to assure me the book had some kind of happy ending, because I doubted I could have dealt if we were left with even more heartbreak to boot.

So did I get my happy ending?

Well, I adored a certain someone from pretty early on, and hoped and hoped that all would be resolved for Maggie and this person. And it was. Though, damn, the author made me wait until the final few paragraphs before my mind was put completely at ease. Thought, thanks to my already being an emotional wreck from my single-day-gripped-by-the-book read of this title, I even blarted like a baby over that.

So, if you can handle having your heart broken by a book, then you should absolutely, definitely, 100% check this out. Because, for titles dealing with heartache, and ‘growing pains’, and friendship, and loyalty, and self-discovery, growing up, as well as finding your inner strength, One Moment tops the lot. Like I’ve already mentioned: Pure Awesomeness.