I wasn't sure that 'If I Stay' needed a sequel with the way it closed. But Gayle reminded me with this one that you can't just have some blaring tragedy and not deal with it. You can't have some life altering thing happen without showing the altering of life, how we as mere humans, flawed and all, deal with it. I think Gayle had a bit of guts on this one, starting a sequel with a very different person's point of view running the show and Mia (the main character in this duology) be only seen through another's eyes. Whereas the first story was through her eyes, though closed. And despite some of the parts that I felt were't as daring, and a bit 'okay, I've heard that one before,' that risk alone was impressive that she pulled it off and worth acknowledging. 
 A light but enjoyable read, told with the same tone as the first. The first had one thing this one didn't, a sense of immediacy. I don't know that the second needed that feeling but that feeling certainly played a role in my enjoyment of the first book.