I feel like the author walked a line that probably dissatisfies a lot of readers who want this book to be more what they need and expect rather than what the author wrote — more serious or more lighthearted or more deeply developed. That line doesn't really bother me. I think of it as a "snapshot" dramedy. If you're looking for the gut-wrenching tears and life lessons learned from tragedy OR laugh-out-loud escapism, you may want to look elsewhere. It's a quieter book than that. And it's a compressed, snapshot of a story. It starts with life-altering news and the main character is busy dealing with the fallout AND with unresolved grief and the processing of her mother's death when she was just 10. We are told about, but don't really get to see who she was before, so the development is focused on a short period. I found our protagonist to be a little unlikable yet believable, the characters a little stock and clichéd but endearing, and the ending a little tidy but not dissatisfying.