99 problems, and a book ain't one

   It's fair to say that I flat-out loved this book. I'd even say that it was flat-out amazing.  You know you are reading something special when you are yelling at your Kindle. This is something my family has just become accustomed to, me at times talking to an inanimate object, funny enough that's something totally relatable to this particular story!  I wasn't even halfway through this story when I figured out the "big twist", and it didn't sully the story for me at all.  Jessica Park gave us all the pieces to the puzzle, one by one. Sometimes they were just hidden really well.

  I loved all the characters in this story. They were unique, witty, funny, eccentric, interesting and oh so incredibly flawed, in the most heartbreaking ways. You couldn't help but fall in love with most of them, even when you wanted to scream and shake them all!! And believe in me, you will want to do that at some point.

  Julie was a great lead.  She was definitely a "fixer". She tried her best to help this broken family repair themselves, without even really having a clue what had broken them in the first place, all the while completely ignoring her own sad issues. Julie was a young lady just starting college in a new place, and was slowly finding herself, in all the best ways.

 "I'd just have to meet the right guy. Someone who isn't ordinary. Someone who gets me. Someone I fit perfectly with. I want heat, chemistry, an  undeniable connection. You know what I mean? I want it all. I'm done with ordinary and mediocre."

 Shoot, who doesn't want that?!

  Matt was the slightly older son of the family she was staying with. He was geeky, charming in a weird semi obnoxious kind of way, and a young man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. You know, I knew I liked him right away, but by the end, I was completely in love with him. He, like everyone inside of that house, maybe even more so than anyone, is very broken, and he hides it very well for a long time.

  Celeste was another fantastic addition to this story. And she just kept getting better and better too! A lot of the times I felt slightly disturbed and totally charmed by her behavior. I like that as she changed and grew, she didn't lose the quirky weirdness at her core that I loved so much.

  "We wouldn't want to overwhelm you, now would we? Two feeble, dim-witted females such as Julie and I couldn't possibly take care of our delicate bodies. We might have to be carried to the fainting room and revived with smelling salts."
 
   Let's not forget perhaps the most unique character in this whole book....FLAT FINN. I was devastatingly enamored by everything about him. He was the star of the show, and definitely not something you see every day. He lead a most interesting life. I think he was probably even more interesting than the three dimensional Finn was.

   At the heart of this story was a lot of heartbreak, and it was quite a journey to experience. Even though you may see some revelations coming, don't think that it in anyway diminishes the feeling of hearing the truth. Thinking you know and having the whole story put out there for you is different. I saw it coming and when it finally came, it still managed to shake me to the core. There was a brief moment of triumph, that "I knew it!!!" validation....

but then the truth seemed even more crushing than I envisioned it being...

   This was more than a romance between two people. It was a story about family, secrets, having hope, and picking up the pieces after everything falls apart. I adored everything about this book, except for maybe the overuse of grandiosely large words. We get it, they are all smarty-pants. It was a little Dawson's Creek, but that is my only complaint. And it's such a little one that it really didn't take away from the impressive story at the core of this book.