After reading the second book of this trilogy, I feel pretty much the same as I did after reading the first. I still don't understand Belly's obsession with Conrad. I can't tell if we are supposed to be rooting for them or what the deal is, but it just doesn't work for me. I get that this terrible tragedy happened to his family, but even in the flashbacks before any of that he was a sullen, closed-off person.

I really dislike Taylor, Belly's best friend. Jenny Han seems to have this thing about making the best girl friend of the main character completely insufferable. She must be obnoxious, selfish, and an all-around terrible friend. It feels like her way of propping up her main character by comparison by saying, "Look at Mary Sue! Isn't she a lovely girl?! Not like all the other girls around her." She did the same thing in the TATBILB series with Chris.

There were still things about this book I enjoyed. The flashback device they used to tell the story still worked for me. I'm not sure I needed Jeremiah's POV...especially since it didn't feel much different than Belly's...but it was effective. I liked learning a little more about their parents lives and interactions. Maybe it's because I'm a mom myself, but I connected more with Laurel (at least the scenes at the beach house near the end of the book) than I did with Belly or any of the other characters.

I will definitely finish this series out. I really hope that whoever she ends up with, it's written in an authentic and realistic way.