Terra has a port wine stain on her face for which she is always over compensating. Working out extensively to have the perfect body as if to balance out this huge flaw. An underlying factor to this is her emotionally abusive father. Her mom overeats to deal with his harsh criticisms and Terra has channeled all her energy to escaping him. And then she meets Jacob, who slowly begins to chip away at all the defenses she's built up around herself. The beautiful thing about this book is that it can celebrate true revolutionary love without reducing the heroine to a pining boy crazy blob. You want to root for Terra and Jacob because they are both fleshed out characters that compliment each other. And this story is also so much more than the teen romance tag. It explores family and of course beauty. It also deals with insecurity without being annoying and a quiet kind of domestic terror that is real and poignant without falling into the trap of being victimizing or too easily redeeming. Great read and highly recommended!