All I can say is, after coming from such a dysfunctional household, I think that focusing a tad too much on Emma's love life till it eclipses the real conflict in the story. Mostly what happens is that most of the pages are catered to Em's love-life (which is what most readers would want, I guess) but when she reaches home what happens is that she just takes a few beatings as if they are thrown at her haphazardly not from her aunt, but rather, the author. It's almost as if that since Em is such a typical Mary-Sue character - perfect GPA, fantastic in sports, impeccable love life - the author throws in rather out-of-the-blue and unconvincing scenes intended to bring Em back to earth and for readers to strike a chord with her pathetic (not really) life. I would have loved it if the author focused a bit more on her family and her, I mean, "Emma Thomas is hiding a terrible secret", isn't that what's the book should be about? 
 With regards to how Emma deals with her broken family, all I can say is: "Emma, go get counselling". To me, her stoic way of dealing with this issue (I won't spoil the book for you) does not make me admire her for her selflessness, I think it's stupid, and is unnecessarily ruining her best friends' lives as well as they get ridden down by her own problems that they should not have had to bear so heavily. 
 If you like reading about selfless friends and boyfriends who forgive you no matter what you FREAKING DO, then this book is for you.