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For fans of Nina LaCour's We Are Okay and Adam Silvera's History Is All You Left Me, this heartfelt and ultimately uplifting novel follows one sixteen-year-old girl's friend breakup through two concurrent timelines--ultimately proving that even endings can lead to new beginnings.
You can't rewrite the past, but you can always choose to start again.
It's been twenty-seven days since Cleo and Layla's friendship imploded.
Nearly a month since Cleo realized they'll never be besties again.
Now Cleo wants to erase every memory, good or bad, that tethers her to her ex-best friend. But pretending Layla doesn't exist isn't as easy as Cleo hoped, especially after she's assigned to be Layla's tutor. Despite budding friendships with other classmates--and a raging crush on a gorgeous boy named Dom--Cleo's turbulent past with Layla comes back to haunt them both.
Alternating between time lines of Then and Now, When You Were Everything blends past and present into an emotional story about the beauty of self-forgiveness, the promise of new beginnings, and the courage it takes to remain open to love.
"The author skillfully voices the pain of unexpectedly losing a close friend and explores the choice to remain open despite the risk of future heartache. A well-crafted story of resilience." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"It's a satisfying coming-of-age friendship story, with Cleo learning to stop seeing people as all good or all bad, and that change can be exhilarating rather than disastrous." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Change is a terrifying thing, but Woodfolk tackles it honestly. Cleo and Layla are flawed, but both have heartfelt moments that keep them both likable despite the horrible things they do to each other. Teens need to learn empathy and recognize the effects of thoughtless words or actions on their peers, making this novel all the more important." - Student Library Journal
"This book has everything I want and gave me a few things I didn't understand I needed. Wise and melancholic, gorgeously nostalgic, Woodfolk's stories pummel your heart and make you stronger for it." - Justin A. Reynolds, author of Opposite of Always
"A stunning story that speaks to the deeply human need to love and be loved in myriad ways—and to the power we each wield over those closest to us." - Nic Stone, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin and Jackpot
"A deeply nuanced portrait of friendship, growth and the intolerable discomfort of change, When You Were Everything may be a story about a fight but it's one where you find yourself on everybody's side. This is a heady, heart-squelching book. I loved it." - Mary H.K. Choi, New York Times bestselling author of Emergency Contact and Permanent Record
"Breathtakingly beautiful...Woodfolk has a way of making words sing and burst with light." - Tiffany D. Jackson, award-winning author of Monday's Not Coming and Let Me Hear A Rhyme
This information about When You Were Everything was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ashley Woodfolk has loved reading and writing for as long as she can remember. She graduated from Rutgers University with a BA English and currently works in children's book publishing. She wrote her first book, The Beauty That Remains, from a sunny Brooklyn apartment where she lives with her cute husband and her cuter dog. When You Were Everything is her second novel.
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