Before I Die- Review and Giveaway

Hey guys!

It's Thursday. You know what that means: giveaway!

But first, last week's winner:

NATALIE AGUIRRE!!!

Congratulations Natalie! Please email me (muchlanguage at gmail dot com) and let me know if you'd like a hard copy, or if you prefer a Kindle edition.

Today, I'll be giving away a copy of Before I Die by Jenny Downham

From Amazon:
Tessa has just months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, drugs with excruciating side-effects, Tessa compiles a list. It’s her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is Sex. Released from the constraints of ‘normal’ life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. Tessa’s feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, and her new boyfriend, all are painfully crystallised in the precious weeks before Tessa’s time finally runs out.

I might never have picked this book up if I didn't live in Japan. The English sections of bookstores here have a collection of literature from all over the world. And I might never have seen this book in Barbados because we (surprisingly) don't have a lot of British literature.

There's something about a book where you know the outcome. Especially when that outcome is the death of a teenager. (Doubt me- check out Jay Asher's Thirsteen Reasons Why.) As you get closer to the character, you wait for the miracle you know won't come.

Tessa refuses to just lay down and die. She makes herself a list, frivolous at first, and then more serious as she begins to discover what's really important. It's filled with hope, and not romanticised. Tessa's boyfriend is not perfect. Her best friend has her own set of issues. But they go through the list together.

But even with all that joy, curiosity, new experiences, expect that you will spend the last 20 pages, sobbing your eyes out.

To enter for a copy of BEFORE I DIE, leave a comment with something(s) you'd like ot do before you die.

Today's contest is open to followers only. (Non-followers can check back on the first Thursday of the month.)
Entries close on Wednesday at 11.59 EST.

Good luck.