My actual start rating 4.5.

I really enjoyed this book.

Maya Younger is a black teenage girl who has to adjust to the changes that are made throughout her last year in High School. Her best friend has to move forty-five minutes away as the landlord wants to sell the house. Gentrification kicks in as the town Maya lives in starts to become affluent. Coffee shops pop up and what was once a predominantly 'black' neighbourhood has become a neighbourhood filled with big wigs and 'white' people.

This is something I can definitely relate to. London has become one of the most expensive areas to live in the UK, the those who could once afford Mayfair and Chelsea, now have to settle for inner city boroughs. The borough becomes affluent and the costs rise and before you know it, people you've known all your life, have to move out of borough because they can no longer afford it. My motto is that once you see a Costa or a Starbucks, what you once knew the area to be is gone (many inner city boroughs have never had Costas or Starbucks!)

It's a story that I know too well and I completely empathised with Maya on the challenge of accepting the changes that were taking place around her. What I loved about her development as the story progressed was that she may not have liked some of the changes within the town, but she understood the reasons as to why they happened, and in turn, made changes also.

The way Maya expresses herself and her feelings were flawless and she had such a mature attitude to towards life, but still making decisions that a normal teenager would.

Spoiler

She falls in love with the neighbour that moves into her friends house and has to also tackle the issue of diversity and race relations that we unfortunately still have to go through.

Thankfully throughout the book these issues were discussed with grace and respect and definitely not a biased point of view.

I can't stress enough, what a wonderful read this book was, and I would encourage others to read it!