Here I’ll Stay

“Here I’ll Stay”, is a book about a girl named Daysie Flores, who grows up in a hard situation. It took me a couple chapters but the book chapter names have a reason being there. They are the reasons she has to live.

“I wanted to give up.
I wanted to give into the hurt and not look back.
I wanted to let my demons win and succumb to the pain.
I didn’t want to live because leaving would be easier than dealing with it all.
But leaving wasn’t an option.
Not when my best friends held onto me for dear life, and not when my heart had found one more person to beat for.
I was going to fight.
I was going to love.
I was Daysie Flores and I was going to find every reason in the world to live- to stay.”

Those powerful and intriguing words on the back of the book, are exactly what got me sucked into this book. I started the book and the very next day finished it. It was just that good. It is a book about friendship, hope, love, life, pain and change. It is more than just a love story, yes you find love in this story but that is on the back burner. It is a fictional story but it might as well be real. It’s not something that is impossible, it so happens that something like this story is very possible and if you can’t relate to the whole thing, I am sure you can relate to a part of it.

Reading this book was amazing to me. Brought me to tears in some spots, had me on the edge of my seat in others, and most importantly had me routing for someone that would be considered the underdog.

This book will change lives! It is a MUST READ for anyone and any age!!! Extremely powerful, relatable and recognizable. “Here I’ll Stay” by Dominique Laura is in my top 5 books of ALL TIME!!!

This was the first book I had read of Dominique Laura’s, and she absolutely hooked me. “Here I’ll Stay” is in my top 5 reads of ALL TIME, and I normally read close to 300 books per year. I was so impressed with the flow of the storyline, the deep connection the author had to her reading audience, and the topic of this story was so in line with societal issues many of us face today. This was a strong, emotional, perfect MUST READ for anyone, young or old. It was relevant, accurate, and inspiring.

Dominique’s characters were real, relatable and familiar. Her main female character was Daysie. I loved who Daysie was, how her character was developed, and what she stood for. I also really appreciated that Daysie was an 18-year-old girl, a Senior in high school, who was on the verge of adulthood, getting ready for college and whatever was to come next in her life, and she struggled to see positivity. It was about how Daysie saw her life and figured out all of the reasons she should STAY in this world that seemingly continued to push her down. She was the girl who had a very tough home life with a mom whose career was her main priority and importance, no matter the sacrifice and detriment to her family, and her dad was an abusive drunk/addict and just an all-around bad person to be around. Daysie was constantly being abused at home, and she was also bullied all of her childhood, adolescent, and her near-adulthood school life as well. There wasn’t much good Daysie could find in her life, and she was continually asking herself what reasons did she have to STAY in this life. Her struggles were dampened only by her two closest friends who were the stability in her life, and the threesome friendship was her saving grace. And then she met an unlikely someone, a boy no less, who she not only thought was super cute with amazing dimples, but he helped save her, too. Because so many people gave up on her, abused her, hurt her, and let her down, Daysie was apprehensive about Brenton, this amazingly cute boy she met in a chance encounter. It also didn’t help matters that Brenton’s cousin, Jason, was the main bully Daysie had to put up with through her entire school life. After finding out Brenton and Jason were two very different people, Daysie gave Brenton a chance. She found out Brenton was another reason she should STAY.

This entire story was so real, so relevant, so perfect and extremely poignant. I was smiling in parts, giggling in some, and most certainly crying and aching in others. I also thought what Dominique Laura did so well with this book was make it relatable. There were several things I saw of myself and some of the circumstances I had growing up. I think anyone who reads it will be able to relate at some level. I don’t want to give away any more, but this was the story and life of a young woman struck with frustration, emotion, devastation, depression, and the ups and downs of life. She suffered negativity in nearly every layer and at every point of her life and had to find reasons to STAY. This was an extremely powerful, emotional and perfect read. I was blown away by Dominique Laura’s beautiful ability to connect with her audience, tell a masterful story and do it in such a way to be very impactful. I believed and felt every, single word she wrote, and I will be recommending this to everyone in my life. This should be a mandatory read for the young people in our society. Brilliant! Masterful! These kinds of stories and reads are the reason I love authors, their books and the stories they tell. This book can, and I think will, undoubtedly change lives. Thank you, Dominique Laura for one of the BEST books I have EVER read!