Boy (Eddie) meets girl (Sarah). They fall in love after a week then part ways with the promise to see each other again. Girl doesn't hear from boy again. She is baffled why and despite her friends' insistence she move on, she can't let it go. I think it should be noted that although this book does feature romance, it is more a book about grief and how we as humans are complex in how we cope or don't cope with it.

This book was not what I expected. I thought it would be more of a darker, more intriguing mystery than what the truth end up being. The book was fine; I thought most of it plausible and sincere to human behaviour.

The dialogue and angst between Sarah and her friends when Sarah finds herself accidentally pregnant when her best friend just had her last hope of becoming a mother taken away, was so well written.

However I struggled to empathise with parts of it due to it being (in my opinion) an overreaction that

Sarah's sister Hannah, wouldn't speak to her for 20 years for VERY ACCIDENTALLY AND UNINTENTIONALLY killing her best friend in an automobile accident (when she was 16/17). What makes it harder to swallow, is Hannah's harsh stance when the accident was her fault in the first place! She put Sarah in that awful position because Sarah wanted to save her from harm after she recklessly got in the car with a teenage buffoon! The townsfolk shunning Sarah seemed also over the top. Oh and don't get me started on the cold hard b**ch that is Eddie's mother. It is one thing to grieve, be angry and seek blame for your misery, HOWEVER Sarah is treated like she killed Eddie's sister maliciously in cold blood. I get the mix of feelings and unease but the terrible treatment of Sarah does not equate to the reality of what happened. I thought the burden of responsibility on Eddie to care and support his mother 24/7 was totally believable and I appreciated the accuracy of the relationship between adult children and unwell parents.

 

All in all not a terrible book but not a must-read either.