Book Review: Swear On This Life by Renee Carlino 

Emiline is a writing instructor at UC San Diego. She is in a shaky seven-year relationship with Trevor, and is often frustrated by both her literary career and her boyfriend. 

When Emiline's roommate, Cara, hands her a copy of the debut book 'All The Roads Between' by author J. Colby, she takes it (somewhat reluctantly) to read.

As she reads the story, she is intrigued by the two main characters, Emerson and Jackson. They are childhood friends who certainly don't have the best of everything, but dream of one day making the best of what they have. Over the years, their relationship develops from friendship to something more, and they fall in love. 

As Emiline continues to read, she realises that there are way too many similarities between the descriptions of events in the book and the events that took place in her own childhood to be a coincidence.

She works out that the author, J. Colby, must in fact be Jase; her best friend and first love, who she hasn't been in contact with in over 12 years.  

She is angry that he has shared their history with the world, and sets about confronting him to find out his reasons why. But uncovering the answers will be an emotional journey for all involved...

I loved reading about this 'story within a story.' It is such a clever concept, and so unlike any other story I have read. Renee Carlino writes with a lot of heart and her characters are so real. 

At just over 300 pages, this book was a fast and fantastic read!