By Your Side

West, Kasie. By Your Side. 2017. 342p. ISBN 978-0-06-245586-4. Available at FIC WES on the library shelves.

Autumn is looking forward to spending time with her high school girl friends at a remote cabin for the Martin Luther Day weekend. Before that, she and her friends spend an evening in the library working on a history project. With the library closing time fast approaching, Autumn and her group head to the underground parking lot. She places her bag in Jeff’s car, since they will all be going to a campfire in the woods before the girls head to the cabin. Considering the long drive, she decides to return to the library one more time to use the bathroom. Coming out, however, everything is black, and the library staff has departed, leaving her locked inside the library. With no phone, no computer access, no food, no change of clothes and all office phones locked, Autumn settles for a long night, until she realizes the long weekend means the library will not reopen until Tuesday. Worse, she’s not alone in the building.

Once she realizes that she’s locked in with druggy Dax Miller, she calms down a little. Mysterious Dax is quiet, and all she knows about him is that he got in trouble in the past and has spent some time in juvenile detention. And now he’s here with her, and unlike her, he planned on being locked in the library for the long weekend. Equipped with some food, a sleeping bag, toiletries, but also with a dead phone and no charger, there is no way to leave. The doors are locked, and only by pulling the fire alarm would people know someone is inside the library. Dax, however, does not want the police to get involved, and they most assuredly would.

Over the next three days, Autumn and Dax get to know each other better. But during watching television in the breakroom, Autumn sees a report about her disappearance in the car accident that injured Jeff Friday night, when he was returning to town from the campfire. Afflicted with panic attacks, Autumn enters full crisis mode, and Dax saves her by putting his own future in danger. He pulls the fire alarm. Now, Autumn owes Dax for saving her. Was the connection that they made over the long weekend real, or simply an arrangement for unfortunate circumstances?