Review #3/ Send Me a Sign

Title: Send Me A Sign
Author: Tiffany Schmidt
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Pub Date: September 2012
Pages: 304

Source: I borrowed this from my local library.

About The Book:
Mia is always looking for signs.

A sign that she should get serious with her on-again, off-again soccer-captain boyfriend. A sign that she’ll get the grades to make it into an Ivy-league school. One sign she “didn’t “expect to look for was: “Will I survive cancer?” It’s an answer her friends would never understand, prompting Mia to keep her illness a secret. The only one who knows is her lifelong best friend, Gyver, who is poised to be so much more. Mia is determined to survive, but when you have so much going your way, there is so much more to lose.

From debut author Tiffany Schmidt comes a heart-wrenching and ultimately uplifting story of one girl’s search for signs of life in the face of death.

I first heard about this book last year just before BEA and it was one of those books that I really wanted to get but sadly was unable to get. It has been on the top of my wish list since then and I was so thrilled when I saw this sitting on the new release shelf at my library. I knew I had to bring it home to read.

I have to say I am exactly like Mia. I always look for a sign and know that there is a hidden message in things. I have always been like that.

I have to start off by saying that the book is really good and once I read what it was about and that Mia had cancer I figured it wouldn’t end well and that there would be a ton a tears shed so I made it a point to sit with Kleenex near by.

Mia is your typical popular high school girl. She is a cheerleader and is sort of dating the captain of the soccer team (Ryan) and he is like your typical guy and he never fully wants to commit to a relationship. He would rather play the field so to speak.

When Mia begins to develop unexplained bruising her parents become concerned and take her to the Dr. Mia thinks its nothing seriously until the doctor informs them that she has leukemia. Mia’s world turns upside down and she is trying her best to cope. Her mother is in denial and her father is in information overload.

Mia and her mother decide to keep it to themselves and not tell anyone. The only one who knows is Gyver (yes short for Macgyver, oh how I loved that show) and he is a friend whom she has known all her life, from next door. Mia thinks that once she does her round of chemo that things will go back to normal and no one will know what has gone on with her.

Well you know that won’t happen because if it did then that would be the end of the story right?

When school starts again Mia and her friends make a pack to remain single in their last year of school. Well when Ryan hears about this pack its almost like he wants what he can no longer have. He almost makes it his mission to date Mia and I think as much as Mia would like it she just can’t do.

Now in every young adult book you have to have the love triangle. You wonder who will get the girl in the end. Will it be that super sweet guy next door or the jock. This is exactly what Mia must decide will it be Gyver, her childhood friend who was there through thick and thin and stayed by Mia’s side throughout the whole chemo or will it be Ryan, the jock who likes to play the field?

I liked Ryan and loved that he wasn’t really portrayed as a bad guy that you just wanted to hate although at times I wondered if he really wanted Mia or just the idea of having what he couldn’t have. Now I have to say for me I was personally rooting for Gyver. He just came off to me as the sweet guy next door.

Who will Mia choose to be with? What will happen when her world comes crashing down and she has to try and mend fences with her friends? What will her friends say when they finally find out?

I really enjoyed this book and I think Tiffany has a promising career as an author and I look forward to reading her future books.