Just... wow. 

This book can be heavy in places, and it fills you with so many different emotions. 

At around 89%, I'm not ashamed to say I cried a few times. There's grief, hurt, anger, confusion... but in the end, there's love, understanding, peace, acceptance, and closure. 

As the blurb explains, Rae has a crush for years on the town recluse who lives up on the mountain, Davis. She tried doing things for him, like putting a "VIP" sign on the counter for him at her parents' diner, and putting notes in his library books. It was definitely obsessive, but she was a teenager in love, I get it. A lot of us have done crazy things when we've had crushes, even if it seems outlandish. Well, Davis never appreciated it. He viewed her as a pathetic kid who just had a crazy obsession with him. When she received a note from him saying to meet her at the library one night after she graduated, she thought he was finally seeing her. Instead, she found him screwing another woman. Devastated, she moved across the country for college for four years until her parents called her back. She knew she was bound to bump into him at some point, but she didn't expect it to be in her parents' house for dinner. 

He remembers the incident at the library. He saw the girl who caught him all those years ago, and it stayed with him. Haunted him. However, he has no idea that it was Rae. Therefore, he has no idea why she hates him so much when they meet for "the first time." However, for the sake of his relationship with her parents, he's willing to put the effort in to be friendly with her. 

Things are revealed about his past that explains the way he is. Eventually, Rae's secret comes out, too. The story is written so well. The characters have depth, you can feel their raw emotions, and you connect with them so much. I love that the author expresses Davis' emotions so openly. He's may not show his feelings around others, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have them. As the reader, we get inside his head, and he's certainly not as stoic as he leads people to believe. 

There was a little bit of the book that I nearly skipped, but in the end, I decided to push through. It's when Rae goes to his house for the first time to spend a weekend with him. It was them getting to know each other, spending alone time together. There's about 30-40 pages of it, and I briefly skipped ahead to where Rae leaves again, but I figured I'd go back to really appreciate their intimacy and bonding. COULD I have skipped it without missing anything? Yes. It has some sweet moments in it, though. 

Overall, I still rate this book 5 stars and recommend it!