Stay by Deb Caletti

Stay by Deb Caletti
Release Date – April 5, 2011
Publisher – Simon Pulse
Pages - 313
My Rating- 6.5/10

Here is the Goodreads synopsis

Clara's relationship with Christian is intense from the start, and like nothing she’s ever experienced before. But what starts as devotion quickly becomes obsession, and it's almost too late before Clara realizes how far gone Christian is—and what he's willing to do to make her stay.
Now Clara has left the city—and Christian—behind. No one back home has any idea where she is, but she still struggles to shake off her fear. She knows Christian won't let her go that easily, and that no matter how far she runs, it may not be far enough....

I really liked the premise of this novel. It sounded a little different from other books I had read and I was curious to see how this would unfold.

I thought it was interesting to see how love could be consuming and intense. It also showed a serious issue that should be talked about. It was realistic and nothing that happens between Christian and Clara seemed “over the top” or unlikely.

I thought Clara was good character. She seemed pretty realistic and acted like I would expect someone in that position to. She made mistake, and sometimes they had consequences, but she realized them and tried to learn from them. She was frank and honest in her part in what happened as well. It did feel a little like she was trying to take the blame, at some points.

Her relationship with her father was something that really shined in the book. I really liked her father, and how close they were. He tries really hard to keep her safe, and to help her deal with Christian when things go bad. They had a friendship, but it never felt like the father-daughter relationship wasn’t there as well.

As it is told from Clara’s point of view we don’t really get to know much of what Christian is thinking. He, to me, seemed very typical of a “villain’. I think I wanted more out of him than was there. He was just a creepy guy, who cared way too intensely and couldn’t let go. He was almost obsessed with Clara.

I did like that the other love interest in the show was the complete opposite of Christian. It showed that love can be good, and how tender it can be. However, I thought her moving on as quickly as she did and with little pause didn’t feel genuine to the situation. I would have been scared to be involved with anyone, especially that soon.

I liked the little “footnotes” throughout the book that gave us more insight into things, or just clarified things. It was a nice unique touch.

While I did enjoy parts of it, I had a harder time getting into this one than I expected to. It did provide some great examples of warning signs that people should look for when dating someone, and I did love that her father was not missing from the story like so many are in other novels.