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 What I Thought... 
 * In Since You've Been Gone Sloane mysteriously disappears and mails Emily a list of 13 things to do. Things on the list very from the fun and ridiculous: skinny dipping and conquering fears: riding a horse. Emily believes that finishing this list will somehow lead her to Sloane, even though the list doesn't say it will lead to clues. 
 * Since You've Been Gone isn't so much about Sloane leaving as it is about finding yourself and being brave and learning to make new friends. Emily didn't really get out there until she met Sloane, so when Sloane leaves she is lost. She has essentially no friends and is terrified of going at things on her own. The list gives her something to focus on. 
 * The list also gets her out there where she inadvertently makes friends. Even though she still misses Sloane she now has other friends to occupy her time, and help her with the list. 
 * I loved her new friends so much. Frank, Collins and Dawn are all different, but a lot of fun. They also understand that the list is super important to Emily and rather than thinking it's silly or telling her to get over it they help her work on it. There are things going on with her friends too and I love how the little snippets were brought in and how they were dealing with what was happening in their own life. 
 * Emily does a lot of growing up throughout the summer and comes into a whole new person, one I doubt she would have became if Sloane was still around. The list was important for her change too, without the list she would have spent the whole summer wallowing. 
 * After completing the list Emily is a little let down that it didn't magically lead to Sloane. The Emily does something that was not very smart. She feels bad about it, but this other person feels worse. And this leads to other problems and leaves Emily in a place that she feels she is all alone. 
 * You do eventually find out what happened to Sloane, at first I was a little like "that's it?" but honestly, it doesn't really matter why Sloane left. Everything in Since You've Been Gone is about Emily finding her self and making friends and getting out there. 
 * There was something else at the end that was left unresolved and it bothers me to not know! I like when authors don't tie everything up all nice and tidy but I wanted everything for Emily to be just perfect. (view spoiler)[After the incident where she loses all three of her new friends she ends up making up with one of them, but you don't know if she does with the other two, and I really wanted that for her! (hide spoiler)] 
 * Some of the chapters in Since You've Been Gone are seriously long. One was almost 60 pages! This really frustrates me as I much prefer shorter chapters so I have good stopping points. 
 Overall I absolutely loved Since You've Been Gone and it's a perfect book for summer (motivational too)!