Author: Becky Hunter

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

ISBN: 9781538741757

Evie Jenkins has been fighting with her best friend, Scarlett, and hating every minute of it. Evie and Scarlett have been inseparable since they were girls. They went to university together and then decided to be grownups together by moving into an apartment in London. But now, it seems, Scarlett is ready to move on without Evie and all because they’ve started seeing life differently.

Scarlett wishes Evie would understand. She certainly doesn’t want to move on from Evie; not in the least. But ever since Evie’s diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, Scarlett has watched her best friend shrink back from the world. A change—one that includes both of them—will do Evie a world of good, even if Evie doesn’t know it yet.

Except Scarlett never gets to put her plan in motion. On the day when she’s counting on everything to get better, she gets into an accident. The witness to her accident is a stranger named Nate Ritchie, but after Scarlett’s death his name is branded onto Evie’s brain.

Nate is beside himself with grief and guilt. He starts reaching out to Evie to express his hurt and to share hers, but Evie wants nothing to do with him. Nate took away the girl who was her dearest friend; her sister. The person who understood Evie and pushed her and supported her through everything in life. The one who has been there through her best and worst moments. Why on earth would Evie want to have anything to do Nate?

But Nate is persistent, much to Evie’s surprise and frustration. He continues to pursue a friendship of his own with Evie. Evie, to her even greater surprise, starts to soften toward Nate. 

In the mix of all this is Scarlett herself. Despite her death, she’s stuck in some in-between place. Now she can see and hear her loved ones; she can even go back to old memories she’s shared with the people closest to her. Yet she can’t reach out to them now. She can only watch as Evie struggles with her grief and Nate continues to call on Evie. Along the way, she learns about how others have seen her in the past and comes to some important realizations about herself, true love, and what friendship means.

Author Becky Hunter hits the deepest notes of grief and the struggles of forgiving one another with pitch perfect precision. Scarlett and Evie’s relationship rings with truth and heartbreak. Readers who have experienced a similar loss will find solace in how each of the young women deals with Scarlett’s death. The title is apt; Hunter offers proof how a single moment in time changes the lives of everyone involved.

Unlike other ghost stories, Hunter doesn’t focus on how Scarlett can exist after her death. Instead, she gives Scarlett a character arc that is almost harder to read than the others because of the fact that Scarlett can no longer be with those she loves most. Even with that obstacle—or possibly because of it—readers may find Scarlett the most endearing character of all. 

Evie has her own winning character traits. Her loyalty to Scarlett, even with their disagreement and the things Evie discovers later, remains absolute even through her anger. Evie’s flaws make her that much more relatable. Her MS is in the early stages, giving readers the opportunity to watch the immediate aftermath of the shock of Evie’s diagnosis. Hunter leads readers through Evie’s grief of losing her life as she knows it and losing Scarlett, letting both progress in tandem at a steady but heart-wrenching pace.

While the storyline with Nate may feel inevitable, Hunter keeps several surprises for readers along the way. Just when it feels like the plot has settled into a straightforward rhythm, Hunter drops in another unexpected note that changes the tune of the story. Readers who appreciate a book about found family and love that is truly earned will absolutely want to read this one. I recommend readers Binge One Moment by Becky Hunter.