This book was not really what I was expecting from Kami Garcia, but I LOVED it!

This is a young adult book that explores many themes for readers. Death/loss and learning to move on. Survivor's guilt. Dealing with a parent or parents who are absent or distracted. Dealing with parents who are not good parents. Even dealing with having to be responsible for paying the rent or supporting younger siblings. A lot of hard hitting issues that might not be common among our youth, but are definitely not unheard of.

In addition to all of these themes, we've got a romance that is powerful and strong and has it's own issues making things difficult. And friendships that have been through things no teenager should have to go through, but still find ways to be there for each other and move forward.

I really loved the story and the lessons that can be learned from it.