This was a fun read and ideal for young adult or older teen readers.
I read it over about a week and enjoyed spending a few more chapters with Elsie and her family, and finding out the latest happenings with Tyler.
At times it frustrated me because I thought the relationship between Elsie and Tyler was a little unbelievable, after just a few short days they couldn't live without each other. But then again, I am 29 and when I thought back to my teenage years when I as in love with a different boy every week, I could believe it! The difference between me and Elsie was that these boys didn't love me back. That might explain my quick succession of crushes!
Apart from the love story there is an emotional struggle going on in Elsie's life, as she is trying to hold things together for her family and herself while her dad is very ill, her family's farm is rapidly approaching harvest time, and her mum's clients at her cleaning jobs are getting more and more difficult to deal with. On top of all that she is finishing school and busily trying to apply to arts colleges.

I recommend this book to readers aged 14+ and young adults who want a heart warming read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Life Happens on the Stairs by Amy J. Markstahler is a wonderful young adult book, that I really enjoyed. Elsie Richardson, who is 17 years old, world falls apart when her father's brain tumor returns. Elsie who is an aspiring artist, has to put her dreams on hold to help care for her dad and work . Elsie helps her mother clean houses, when she meets Tyler Vaughn, who is the grandson of her mother's riches client. Mrs. Vaughn is not a nice person, and Elsie's mom warns her to stay away. When Elsie and Tyler start seeing each other secretly, how can it possibility turn out OK? I loved this beautiful story, fill with every emotion, and I highly recommend it.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was a stereotypical teenage romance. I did not enjoy it that much. I felt like there was a disconnect between the story and myself, like it was more "telling" than "showing." I did like Elsie's character and family though, and I hated Tyler's Nana. The characters were well fleshed out and easy to imagine in my head. All in all I give this one 3 stars.

I could not put this book down. It was cheesy, it was exactly what you would expect of it, but I loved every single bit of it. It teaches a lesson about honesty, about work ethics and above all, it shows how love can be. Thank you for an all nighter!

I really did not like this book. I don't think it was well written or interesting. Too much religion for something that is not categorized as a christian book.

This book had me crying from the start, happy and laughing in the middle and crying again at the end. I LOVE IT. A great YA novel that had so many different stories and lives all intertwined through out. But still makes me want to slap the grandmas at the end. A fantastic debut novel by this author and I can't wait to see what she writes next. Well done

I really enjoyed reading this book (although I'm not sure enjoy is the right description when there were so many tears!). I am partial to a gritty YA romance and this fits the bill. Well written and well paced, this book is one that I am likely to read again!

i wanted to like this book, but found it too plodding for most of it, i cared about the situation but the writing was not up to par. maybe younger readers will like it more, the rich boy/poor girl has been way overdone and better

A YA story just like it should be!
Not entirely realistic (we all wish there were boys like that out there), but a feel good romance on the background of a dark, heartwrenching family tragedy.
Elsie's story goes back and forth between her difficult situation at home - her father dying and having to take on her mum's work - and her fairytale with Tyler (whose family is another problem entirely).
The charaters are lovable and I read it in two days.

While I enjoyed the premise of this story, I couldn't get beyond the stale writing. There's much less "show" than "tell" here, and the characters remain fairly flat throughout the story. There wasn't much to keep me excited to read the story, unfortunately.

Life Happens on the Stairs felt a little tricky to read. On one hand, I really liked its portrayal of grief, particularly as the situation Elsie finds herself in, is one very familiar to my family. On the other, I really didn't like the main characters, at all, so I found the book hard to enjoy because I just didn't want to be spending time with them.

I've never been to Tennessee, so I really enjoyed the snapshot of life there. The people, the setting, the relationships, it all felt very genuine and as though you were glimpsing a real couple of months in the life of the town. Elsie's dad's sickness also felt entirely accurate, slipping in and out of lucidity, whilst gradually deteriorating. It was handled very sensitively, and at times it was emotional as heck.

For me, Elsie and Tyler were equally dislikable. I found Elsie to be fairly irritating, she spends a lot of time giggling, and her deciding not to talk to anyone about anything was painful. Tyler on the other hand felt like a rich boy cliche, which made him feel like the least believable thing about the whole book. But most of all, the clingy, overbearing way they talked to each other, just made me cringe quite a lot.

As an adult, I find there are occasionally YA books that just don't resonate with me, potentially because of my age. I feel like that's massively the case here. I can imagine teenage girls falling in love with Tyler, and empathising with Elsie way more than I ever could. This is certainly not badly written, and there were for sure some highlights, it just wasn't for me personally.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I enjoyed this story very much and felt like I knew each character personally due to the description of them. I enjoyed the storyline. This is not my usual genre but in this instance I am extremely pleased and grateful for opening up my mind to something totally different. Thanks again.

17 year old Elsie Richardson decides to try and sell her art. She is a talented artist, hoping to go to an Arts College next year.
However at the fair where she was selling her art, her Dad collapses. A handsome young man helps her call her Mum and an ambulance.

Elsie dad has a brain tumour and it had taken a turn for the worse. With her Mum torn between her job (she couldn't afford not to work) and spending time with her husband. Claire her Mum asks Elsie for help to clean her properties.

Forced to be an adult she agrees.

Elsie meets the handsome stranger who helped her again. He turns out to be Tyler. Claire cleans her grandmother's house and she can be quite cruel at times.
Tyler asks Elsie to meet him, to which she agrees. But when her mother finds out that Elsie has met him she warns her to stay away. As it might cost her, her job. But Elsie can't - Tyler and Elsie began a secret relationship.

Yet at the end of the 6 weeks holiday Tyler is off to College.....As they confess their undying love for each other. Will their relationship survive and or is it just a summer fling.?
Will Elsie dad recover from his fall?

Wow what an emotional rollercoaster.. A brilliant YA romance novel.
I do not read romance books very often but after reading psychological thrillers and other genres. You sometimes cannot beat a good romance.

Although a predictable story, I still wanted to find out what happened in between and maybe just maybe the author may go the other way.. The characters I easily connected with. Elsie and Tyler's love felt real. The sad emotions involving her Dad and Brother.

I rate this book 5/5.

This YA novel is nearly perfect.
The love story between Tyler and Elsie is one that's old as time: loving someone outside of your social class, outside of your social circle, but still not giving up.
Elsie has a lot to juggle. Her father is dying, her mother is stretched thin and her brother is of little to no help. A chance meeting with Tyler leads Elsie down a path she never imagined for herself.
Life Happens on the Stairs is a sweet and loving story about giving into love when the odds are against you.

Warning: mild spoilers.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of Life Happens on the Stairs by Amy J. Markstahler.

When Elsie's dad collapses from a recurring brain tumor, her 17 year old life is turned upside down. Now her mom needs her to fill in for her at work, while she also babysits her older brother who has never made her life easier.

But Elsie's life is also turned upside down when she meets Tyler, a super smart, super sexy and super rich young man from a local high society family. They create a friendship through their morning jogs that quickly turns into a romance. But can their difference in class and family get in the way of their budding love?

This book was very readable and enjoyable, but I was surprised at how hard is hit the mark, as well as how hard it missed the mark, for me anyway. Maybe Twilight broke me, but I have a hard time taking such intense but YOUNG love seriously. Especially when the seventeen year old acts like an actual seventeen year old, proving that she still has growing up to do before committing herself to someone permanently. But I felt like that was what the author wanted us to want for them. If the ending could have had a bit less finality and a bit more wiggle room, I would have been a lot happier.

Life Happens on the Stairs was not what I expected it to be at all. I thought I would have loved this book but it wasn’t to be.
The premise was great but the execution let the book down sadly. The pacing was all wrong, the first three quarters of the story dragged while the ending felt rushed. Although I liked the characters, they lacked the depth that could have made this book a lot better than it was.
Overall not what I expected, however it wasn’t terrible.

Marked with teenage angst that goes on for more pages than it should this book is a positively average YA novel.

This book will set you on a beautiful emotional roller-coaster ride you will never forget. Even if you may not have directly experienced similar events, you will most definitely feel your heart beating to the emotions of the characters.

4.5 stars! A great story of love, loss, heartbreak and putting it all back together for the ones that you love.

An uplifting book, Life Happens on the Stairs, is a story about a girl finding the courage to stand on her own two feet. The author did a great job introducing us to the characters and setting up the first pages for the reader. From the start, we know she is dealing with a failing parent and she leads us through those emotions with her. The two main characters reminded me what it was like to fall in love as a teenager. The story flowed nicely and gave a rewarding ending. I will be looking at for future books from this author!