Suzanne Brahm

Oh my gosh, just finished this book and wish I could gab about every last bit of it's juicy pages. This book is about loss, betrayal, trust, of course love etc, etc. I was a sniffling fool while reading the pages of this smart, brave, and heart wrenching coming of age story. Cassie's life became a roller-coaster with a lot of dips and not many hills. Her boyfriend dumped her in a way allowed only by the existence of modern technology. Then she was betrayed by her best friend and then finds out she could lose her mother. Cassie had no one to confide in, or a shoulder to cry on. In the space of just a few weeks she lost everyone she normally leans on. When much older RD enters the picture, Cassie finds someone who she can share her pain with and who understands and is there for her when she needs him.

I wasn't sure how Cassie and RD's relationship would be handled, was it going to be more of an emotional one or were things gonna get really serious. Oh my, I was screaming "Are you freaking kidding me?" to the pages after the story reached it's peak. I was not expecting such a honest depiction of the path that a young girls life can take when dealing with an ill parent, fractured relationships and lots and lots of pain. There were times when I was having doubts about how I felt about the way things were progressing between Cassie and RD, I had this feeling something was off but I thought that maybe I was thinking too much with my mom brain. Especially the boathouse scene, not telling. That was one of my "Are you kidding me" moments.

I have to say I really appreciated how this story was handled. It was a very revealing insight into how people can come into your life when your feeling lost and alone, and if your not equipped emotionally things can get complicated. It also shows how death and illness can separate and damage families and make a person vulnerable to being manipulated. Just read it, you won't be disappointed.

… (mere)

Safire has always been known as a “nice” girl. Always helping people and trying to make everyone feel better, she never says “no” and tries to make sure everyone is happy. But when her boyfriend Nick breaks up with her, she’s tired of being treated “nice”. When Cassie finally decides to throw Nick’s ring away, that he got for her as a present, she meets RD, a mysterious 23-year old man who makes her feel strong, beautiful and reckless. While with being with RD forces her to lie to everyone around her. She cannot have anyone on the island find out about her summer fling. But she is not the only one who is lying and everyone eventually always gets caught.

”Standing in darkness
An unexpected light
Impossible but true
You make the stars shine brighter
Sweet beautiful girl…
I’ll stand beside you and look,
Just look and remember
A secret kiss…”

Oh how I wanted to love this book. It had an amazing potential to be something greater but after reading the book, it was very slow. Cassie really annoyed me throughout the book and usually when I don’t like the MC, I probably won’t like the book. She was way too obsessed with RD and just really whiny about it. I understand that she's a teenager who's very insecure but I just thought that her character could have been presented better. Other than that, the ending was amazing. If that ending was not there, this review would have been 1 star instead of 3.5!… (mere)