Be With Me

Siena Amato has had a hard knock life. She’s a new high school senior in King City where she and her sister are living in the care of the father who walked out on them when they were babies. Years earlier, her C-list celebrity mother dumped them with a neglectful aunt to fend for themselves. The book opens at one of the aunt’s debauched parties where Siena’s sister, Gia, kills a man in self-defense. Siena takes the blame and arrives in King City from juvenile detention after she is cleared. She is determined to fly below the radar and stay out of trouble in her new life. On her first night she meets tough, loyal, gorgeous Jason Parker, and sparks fly. After just a few weeks apart, Gia has gone off the rails, and much of Siena’s time is spent bailing her out of trouble, tracking her down at wild parties and cleaning up her messes, with Jason more than happy to help. Through no fault of her own, Siena makes multiple enemies who are determined to publicize her past and destroy her life.

Be With Me is Cunsolo’s fourth published book set in the fictional King City. It builds upon the popularity of her first story, Stay With Me, which achieved success as a free read on the Wattpad platform before becoming one of Wattpad’s early print projects. This book has not appeared on Wattpad though Cunsolo continues to explore aspects of her universe in episodic online format. This context is relevant because the book still reads very much like an ongoing web-based soap opera. It appeals to a narrow readership, but one which includes many voracious readers. It has little substance but will be compulsively readable for some.

Cunsolo excels at creating likeable heroines. They are aspirational rather than relatable, and, though few would wish for Siena’s problems, her dramatic life can be attractive to teen girls. Siena is strong, hard-working and loyal. She doesn’t care what people think about her. She has made the best of a life without parents, caring for her younger sister. She is also beautiful and, as heroines often are, unaware of her own beauty and its affect on others. She is a little too good to be true. She has big big problems, but aspects of them (lack of trustworthy adults, dealing with rumors and gossip, navigating first romance) will be familiar to readers. Siena has a definite voice and perspective, though she is not particularly introspective.

The other strength of the writing is Cunsolo’s ability to create chemistry between two characters. Siena and Jason are fascinated by each other from their first meeting. Most of their meetings culminate with a car chase, a fist fight or Siena’s losing her shoes and becoming covered in mud (some of the boys call her the “hot muddy girl”). Their romantic connection is over the top, building despite many obstacles, and creating drama of its own. It is fun to experience their bond, though it is, like almost everything in the book, overdone. The moments of joy, for example when Jason and Siena dance in the rain, are palpable and temporarily suspend the non-stop danger and conflict.

Be With Me is flawed by complete lack of nuance. Characters are either saints or sinners. The villain is Brandon, a huge football player who may be responsible for the disappearance of Siena’s neighbour, Lily. He attempts to sexually assault both Siena and her sister, and he believes that every girl wants to have sex with him. The police target Siena with no good reason. The principal of her school is trying to get her suspended or expelled. Jason is absolutely captivated by and devoted to Siena. Siena’s mother is a selfish train wreck who abandoned her. Her father is a cold and heartless man who has zero interest in Siena as a person. In a way, the most complex character is Siena’s younger sister, Gia, who, at 15, is already a self-aware lesbian and a hedonist. She drinks and parties, letting Siena take the blame for her mistakes while still adoring her sister. Siena sees Gia as a child and victim, but the reader can perceive that she is more complicated than that.

At almost four hundred pages, this is a long novel. However, not that much happens as many scenes are very long and drawn out, as copy written for the web often is. The book has no conclusion and presumably will continue in another volume, though that is not stated anywhere. Despite a plan to steal Brandon’s phone to look for evidence, there are no clues about what happened to Lily. Siena and Jason share only one kiss near the end of the story as their romance remains largely unspoken and chaste. Hints that Siena’s mother is secretly watching her have come to nothing. There is not much plot progression or character development after so much writing. Readers who love plowing through pages of psychodrama will enjoy the extreme drama of Siena’s story.