Not sure about the punctuation. I will do it in parts: 
 - characters: 3 stars 
 - love story: 4 stars 
 - serious issues: 2 stars 
 - cliffhanger: 1 star (what is this? A mexican soap opera?) 
 -- total: 2.5 stars (rounded down to 2, as always) 
 my main problem with this book is this "new adult" obsession of creating characters scarred by life that before they even get to grow up, they need to overcome their traumas. if the only added value of this called new adult is the sex, i will stick for the future to normal young adult, normal depressing adult novels, some erotica and some funny chick-lit and will keep myself as far away of this "genre" as possible. because it doesn't bring anything new and just makes me bitter !! 
 in this particular case it bothered me very, very much that the main character suffered such a terrible and traumatic incident, had to deal with that for six years alone and then, "for the powah of luv", she recovered pretty well and fast, which is beyond unrealistic. i will read the second book because i want to know how these traumas are handled afterwards and because the book ends in a cliffhanger (worthy of a mexican opera, really, it only needed some dramatic background music !!) but i say it clearly: i'm so not going to pay for it. 
 when i heard first of "new adult", i though they will show me characters dealing with the common problems people in the late teens/early twenties will have when confronted with the real world. not just coming-of-age stuff, a little bit further than that, so that anybody who is or was once in this moment of their lives could relate to. stories about people, normal people, who have yet to figure out what are they going to do with the rest of their life, without unnecessary traumas... there are enough problems a person can have in this time of life without "spicing up" everything with deep, psychological scars. because figuring out what to do with your life is a very overwhelming task... and no, i don't want some self-help book, i want characters that are experiencing similar stuff like me, i want to see a character getting lost and finding the way back, i want to be able to relate to the MC, this kind of stuff... 
 i don't know, perhaps i'm demanding too much, but i'm still waiting for that book. in the meantime, this thing they call "new adult" is nothing i would spend my money in. for love stories there is already a genre called "romance" that serves me perfectly well.