Here's the thing about Ms. Dessen's work for me, they're perfectly lovely books, but they just don't give me what I'm looking for. This is likely because I went into them expecting them to be one thing and found them to be something completely different. 
 I'd asked for some good YA romance, and Ms. Dessen's name came up numerous times, so I figured I'd check it out. I read one other of her books and found it had, like, hardly any romance at all. Lots of nice friendship and a teen girl working through some issues, but the romance was nil. When I made this known, a friend told me to read this Dessen novel, she said it was much more romantic. I took the advice and I read. And I found it to be . . . sincerely lacking in romance. This is not the fault of the book. It is what it is. I just went into it thinking it was something else, so I left disappointed. 
 I will reiterate that there is really nothing wrong with this story. It just left a bad taste in my mouth because I was expecting something else. If you're looking for a sweet friendship book, yes, by all means, pick this up. But don't expect some butterfly-inducing romance, because it won't be here. Not that there's none, it's just very, very little. 
 Now, this isn't the only reason for my 3 star rating. While I usually adore Ms. Dessen's boys, I'm not a fan of her heroines. I don't know what it is. They've all seemed a bit . . . flat and boring to me. With Macy, it wasn't because she was a good student and a "goody, goody," she just had no personality. Wes was adorable. And Kristy, Bert and Delilah were a riot. Macy was just blah. And her very low self esteem didn't ring true to me. I didn't understand why she was that way. Her dad had been very loving and doting. Her sister was a wild spirit but seemed to really care for her. Her mother was harder, expecting a lot out of her. But from reading, it seemed like she'd mostly become bad about this since Macy's father passed away. I just couldn't buy how she thought so low of herself. 
 Anyway, like I said, Ms. Dessen's story's are sweet, but don't go into them like I did expecting a lot of romance. You will be disappointed then.