A really great YA contemporary romance novel with lovable characters and a fairly heartbreaking plot from start to finish. There is so much sadness built into these characters' lives and I hurt for both of them for so many ways along the journey.

The writing is lovely and comforting in a way and there was an interesting approach to the narrative by including the story of the Hawaiian O'o bird as an analogy of sorts. The characters and friend groups felt natural and unobtrusive to the story. Though there are friends and family members who clearly play a part in the narrative, they are very much sidelined to the focus on Anna and Weston. I loved that feeling of having the world revolve around the two characters as I think it really delivered on the teenage love feel to the story.

I highly recommend reading ONLY the first two paragraphs of the synopsis, as I feel like it totally wrecks the emotional impact of the book.

Spoiler

With regard to that, I personally didn't appreciate the ending, but I know full well that's my own specific taste and a lot of readers will get an experience that leaves them satisfyingly full of emotion. For myself, I think I felt like I predicted the ending too soon and the emotional journey just felt like it was horribly unfair. I get that it's probably somewhat to the point, but it just made me frustrated.

I was mildly put off by the religious aspects of the novel, as they were brought up but really didn't factor in the two protagonists' lives in any consistently coherent way. Instead, it just felt like a way to add some internal shame to the characters' actions and rubbed me the wrong way.

Despite my personal feelings about the ending, I still enjoyed my read quite a bit. I also see great value in this read for other readers. I liked the writing style and the character construction and I will definitely be looking to read more from Ashley Schumacher in the future.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *