The Other Side of Together by Emily Cox and Nicole Allen – Review by Ayla Phipps

The Other Side of Together by Emily Cox
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mmm. a-Mei-zing. COULD NOT PUT DOWN. Both Emily Cox and Nicole Allen are new authors to me, and I don’t even have words. The fact that this book was written by two amazing authors but more so the fact that it was so seamless, honestly if not for the front having both names you would think this was written by one incredible author. Dual perspectives Mei Li and Marcus.
Mei Li is from Taiwan but moved to San Fransisco when she was eight years old and now lives in Chinatown with her parents and they own a family restaurant, Zheng’s. Marcus is the son of Detective Ray Miller, a star student and soccer star. Both have big dreams but after ten years of living on the same block one day, one tiny “insignificant” moment changes everything. Mei deals with the secrets of her family’s status in the US while trying to show gratitude to the “man” that helped them stay here. But now since meeting Marcus she no longer wants to just play the part and settle for the grown man seven years older than her that isn’t who he pretends to be. Her dreams are to be a chef, to go to L.A., find an internship and go to culinary school. Only Nick has suffocating ropes attached to his “kindness”. Marcus has a dream to go to Stanford with a full scholarship in soccer, to play. Only he fears abandoning his father like his mother did so long ago. Finding Mei, he still cares about school, soccer, and finishing the deal with his dad for his motorcycle but he wants the girl now too. His parents went zero to a hundred quick, and it burned them both, Marcus being the only good thing to come from it. Marcus doesn’t want that he wants every day to begin, end and be filled with Mei in his life. To take things slow and steady for the win-win.
When secrets start to come to light, will anyone be left standing in the ashes? Can Mei Li escape the nightmare she’s “trapped” in? How will Marcus complete the deal and get the girl? This world is a reality based one with countless people living in similar moments every day. Mei Li and Marcus were brought together right when it was their moment, when their lives were supposed to truly begin. Not the lives their parents tried to force on them but their own. I absolutely LOVED the characters of Mei Li and Marcus their innocents and curiosity, coming into their emotions and not running from them when they felt they should. I especially have a personal understanding of Marcus as I was also the product of teen “love” that burned out too quickly. While my mom wasn’t as extreme as Marcus’s dad I had similar rules, my mother was terrified I would be a teen mom too, but I did things the “proper” way, married and then kids. Life is what you make it, our decisions shape them and when parents feel they made mistakes and force those changes on their kids they create unimaginable fears. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for more books from these authors, they have captured my heart with Mei Li and Marcus, and I will eagerly devour anything that comes next.

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