I picked this book up after a couple of very mediocre contemporary books; one adult, one YA. I wasn't really expecting much from this book, even though it received good ratings. I can say that I was very pleasantly surprised by this. It's a YA contemporary romance, but there are some deeper themes explored throughout this book as well.

Things I liked:

1. The characters. From the main character and love interest to all of the side characters, I really thought the author did a great job. They all had distinct voices and I loved the friendships. There wasn't a bunch of slut-shaming and girl-hate. There was one character who was slightly antagonistic, but she has her reasons and doesn't ever get nasty with Maguire.

2. The romance. I liked the fact that these two started off as friends. It didn't feel insta-lovey at all for me. I also liked the fact that this book didn't employ the 'love cured me' trope. For awhile I thought that was where it was going, but each time we were reminded that Maguire is actively involved in her own recovery and even though she has Jordy and her friends as a sort of support system, she is the one who has to choose to work on getting better.

3. The depiction of mental illness. Now, I am putting this in my 'things I liked' section because from what I read, I didn't notice any poor representation. That being said, I am not an expert of mental illness, nor have I ever been diagnosed with mental illness, so my knowledge is admittedly limited on the subject. That being said, it felt authentic to me. Someone suffering from the things Maguire does don't just change overnight. It's gradual and it takes a lot of work. Even at the end of the book, it's a day by day process that involves a lot of hard work on her part.

4. I though the writing was solid. It wasn't flowery or metaphorical or anything like that. But it wasn't shallow either. I don't cry during books normally, but there is a part near the end of this book that really touched me. I also thought the dialogue was pretty good. Sometimes authors try too hard to make their characters sound like what they think teens sound like, and it just comes off forced and inauthentic.

Things I didn't like:

I honestly can't think of a specific aspect of this story that I didn't like. I guess if I had to critique something it would be that I wanted to see a little more at the end, rather than having it relayed to us via her therapy session...that is pretty nitpicky though.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely read more from this author in the future.