Written by: Lauren Barnholdt
Released: July 12, 2011 by Simon Pulse
Summary: On the last day of her junior year, Hannah's boyfriend Sebastian dumped her. Facing a summer of loneliness, Hannah turns to her best friend Ava for comfort. Ava does what BFFs do: she stays by Hannah's side...until it's time for Ava to head up to Maine for the summer. Also left behind is Ava's boyfriend, Noah, who's such a great guy he gets Hannah a job at the diner he waits tables at. Slowly, Hannah comes out of her funk thanks to Noah's good conversation and their fun times at the diner. But things get complicated when their friendship turns into attraction--and one night, into a passionate kiss.
The novel opens on the first day of senior year; the day Hannah is going to see Ava, Sebastian, and Noah all in one place. Over the course of the day secrets and betrayals are revealed, and alliances are broken and reformed. In the end, everyone is paired up once again, but not the way you might think...
I was interested when I spotted this novel on Simon and Schuster’s galley grab. I hadn’t heard of the author and after I cross-referenced the novel with Goodreads (in order to read the summary) and as soon as I did that I was incredibly intrigued as to what direction this novel would take. I was incredibly pleased to see that this was really based in reality; meaning that I could picture the events of this novel unfolding exactly as they do. There wasn’t any instance where I thought that something ridiculous happened and it was nice to read a novel like that.
I’m not sure whether or not I liked Hannah as a character. I mean, there were so many times when I just wanted to slap her – either to get over herself or to stop whining – but I also felt as though she could be a great person to be around (so long as she didn’t develop a crush on my boyfriend). She just reminded me so much of the high school girls I know, which is part of why I loved how she was written. Her realism made for a good story.
After reading this novel I definitely want to check out more by Barnholdt. Luckily, she has a few novels already floating around out there in book-land. If this is the standard, I can’t wait to read more. However, I’m only giving this novel a 6.5/10 because nothing special really happened and the total ‘wow’ factor wasn’t there; which isn’t a bad thing, though it may sound like it.
My eARC of this novel was provided by Simon and Schuster through their galley grab.
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