LIVE FOR THIS follows characters Michael Salinger and Samirah Lundgren as the two build a friendship, while also navigating their way out of rock bottom. Samirah is trying to figure out a plan for her life after she is brutally raped and kicked out of her apartment, while Michael struggles to find a new normal nearly three years after being paralyzed in an accident. The pair’s paths converge at a seemingly bizarre and unlikely time, but as the story unfolds it becomes increasingly apparent that they each have something that the other needed.
Michael wishes to feel wanted and like more than his condition as a paraplegic. His plight becomes even more difficult after he learns that his best friend and former girlfriend are engaged. Meanwhile, Samirah, who has been self sufficient since her mother died and her father disowned her, wants to be a better person who relies on more than just her looks and sexuality to get what she wants.
LIVE FOR THIS tells a story that relies on its fair share of twists and turns (some you’ll see coming and some you won’t). Shifting back and forth between Michael and Samirah’s points of view helps the reader learn about each character both objectively and subjectively without interference. We see Michael and Samirah not just through their own eyes, but through the eyes of their friends and loved ones, and, finally, through each other’s eyes as they become closer and more dependent on each other. What also makes the two protagonists of LIVE FOR THIS fascinating is that their journey’s to progress are not continuous and don’t follow a straight line. Even up to the novel’s end, it’s not totally clear if Michael or Samirah will come out better than they started.
LIVE FOR THIS is page-turning story of two, not always likable characters, who even when struggling with their demons and vices remain realistic and sympathetic, showing how growth and maturation can occur when all seems lost.
~Jorie Goins for IndieReader