We’re really excited to be participating in the tour for Laura Nowlin’s book, If He Had Been With Me. The amazing (and really pretty) author joins us today with her dream cast, but first! Some deets about the book:
Title: If He Had Been With Me
Author: Laura Nowlin
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Pages: 336
If he had been with me, he wouldn’t have died.
Throughout their whole childhood, Finn and Autumn were inseparable—they finished each other’s sentences, they knew just what to say when the other person was hurting. But one incident in middle school puts them in separate social worlds come high school, and Autumn has been happily dating James for the last 2 years. But she’s always wondered what if…
The night she’s about to get the answer is also one of terrible tragedy.
Sounds awesome, right? Here’s author Laura Nowlin with her fantasy cast:
So this is a fantasy right? I get to pick whomever I want without the restraints of reality getting in the way of my fun? Excellent. Let’s roll the credits of my fantasy If He had Been with Me movie.
Teenage Kiera Knightly as Autumn Rose Davis
I’m not going to let that whole time/space continuum get in the way of my fantasy movie! Knightly has the sort of classically beautiful that face that stuns even the most jaded, and she has more than enough talent to play six Angsty Autumns! I can just hear her voice intoning “I know, I know, I know, I know. If he had been with me everything would have been different.” She was acting as a teenage, so a simple time machine will do the trick.
HRH Prince William of Wales (Circa 2001) as Phineas “Finny” Smith
Yes, you read that right. As a teenager I had a massively ridiculous crush on His Royal Highness, and it’s his adolescent self that I was imagining as I wrote this novel. So we must again use time my machine to go back and Prince-nap Wills when he had a full head of hair, give him some acting lessons, shoot the movie, and then return him before Scotland Yard notices.
Dakota Fanning as Sylvie Whitehouse
Fanning isn’t just an incredible actress for her age, she’s an incredible actress period. Sylvie is a complex character; on the outside she seems to have it all together, but on the inside there is a lot of pain and turmoil. Fanning has the subtly and talent to convey the storm below the surface. In real life I could even dream of having an actress of her caliber agree to a role with so little screen time, but this is my fantasy, and the distinction of being the first and only actress to play the love interest of a time traveling Prince has enticed her.
“The Mothers” as they are often referred to in the book, have a yin and yang quality about them that I think these two actresses would achieve together. Kidman has a delicate beauty that makes her seem about to shatter at any moment, while Linney seems to have an inner strength she keeps in reserve. Once again, the historical nature of my fantasy movie is what made these accomplished actresses agree to portray a couple of suburban Moms. Laura Linney and Nicole Kidman as Angelina Smith and Claire Davis
There it is, my perfect and perfectly unachievable cast list. If anyone would like to do some Photoshop magic and create this movie poster for me, that would be awesome. Or you could maybe invent that time machine for me. Either way, I’d really appreciate it.
Isn’t she great? *nods* What even more epic win? We’ve got a copy of If He Had Been With Me to give away! To enter, just leave us a comment and let us know your biggest “What If…”
Ends April 15 at 11:59pm EST and open to US Residents only. Good luck!
My biggest what if would be what if I didn’t screw off and drop out of high school? I did eventually finish and get a college degree, but I can’t stop thinking about where I might be now if I had just taken it a bit more seriously.
Thank you!
jaidahsmommy(at)comcast(dot)net
I completely know the “what if” and it still bothers me to this day. I always wonder what we would have said to each other before he died. I wanted to call him on his birthday but I didn’t and one months later he died in a car accident. It broke my heart.
What if I met the man of my dreams… ALEXANDER SKARSGARD. Side Note- I also thought it was hilarious that you have an old pic of Prince William as your choice for the role! I love that he’s not an actor and not young anymore (made obvious by his receding hairline) but you still chose him! ; )
Thanks for the giveaway!
mestith at gmail dot com
honestly… the book brought me to tears at 2 am. i just couldnt stop reading it until i knew what was the end so yeah when i found out that he cared for her that much and asked her “why did you leave me like that?” just with that line i started to cry and cried for the rest of the book, no lies. I really enjoyed this book. Great job.
awww ((hug))
I just can’t stop crying. I understand what Autumn meant when she said “sometimes sad things can be beautiful.” The thing that makes me love this book so much more then I have loved any book is that you know it is going to have a tragic ending but I was still convinced that they were going to get married and have children on page 322 and the first paragraph on 323. I manages to convince myself that I just assumed funny died or that the book description was wrong. But the moment I read the second paragraph on 323 I could stop crying a silent heartbreaking cry. I have never cried so much because of a book. I have cried during the duration of the book but never the end. This book is a master piece. It opened my eyes and I feel as though Autumn , Finny, Jamie, Sylvie, The Mothers and everyone else are real and this is just a glimpse into their life. As though I am watching them through a whole in the wall and they have no idea I am there. I am now crying my eyes out heartbroken at 4:41 am as though I am Autumn and I was just told about Finny because this boom has brought me into a new reality.
Aren’t books that make you cry the best??? I don’t know if I can handle this one!