I loved this book!! 
 And not just because Huntley seems to have this amazing way of telling a story that just...grabs all your feels and squeezes them, but because I'm a half Portuguese girl. I grew up near the water, with linguica and chorizo and malassadas and sweet bread and fishermen casting out their nets and bringing in their haul of fish and crabs. I grew up with a stubborn, Portuguese family and I had those same crazy Portuguese grandparents, and my own Vovo. It was a little surreal reading about those things in someone else's life, so I immediately identified with Gwen and it was pretty much impossible for me not to get sucked into her story and never want it to end. It didn't matter to me at all that this one is nothing at all like her previous novel, My Life Next Door. It was still perfect and I loved just about every second of it. 
 Gwen's life isn't easy. She's feeling a little stuck. As one of the Island Girls where she lives, she sees outsiders as just that. They don't belong on her island. They come for a few weeks during the summer, and then they go as they're supposed to. 
 But when a few outsiders make their way to the island for the summer, it brings her face to face with things she'd rather forget have happened. Like Alex, the one she thought cared...and Spence, who she used to feel something else. And Cassidy Somers...the one she never wants to see again. But of course he's the new Yard Boy; mowing lawns all over the island and infiltrating her new job and her life, reminding her of the feelings she'd much rather forget. 
 And gahhhhh, the feelings!!!! I will say that for the first half, I was a bit frustrated because my curiosity was on high alert trying to figure out what was going on between the two of them. Which sort of distracted me from the reading itself because I just wanted to know already. But now that I'm finished, I'm glad I had to wait. It made it all the more perfect in the end not knowing what their history was and having to let it unravel the way it was supposed to. And it unraveled so nicely. SIGH. I loved Gwen, stubborn as she was, and I absolutely adored Cass. The swoons weren't major, but they were enough to earn him a book boyfriend title. He was sweet and shy and HE BLUSHED, which is totally my kryptonite. 
 So yeah, this book is about family, and love and mistakes you can't forget. It's about learning things the hard way, and accepting that sometimes no matter how much you want your circumstances to be different...they just might never be. It's about first love and last love and friendship and letting go and it's just...wonderful. There are ups and downs and sadness and Superman and JUST GO READ IT. But don't go into this expecting another MLND, because you'll be disappointed. Just go into it expecting a new, different story that's going to treat you right and leave you satisfied in the end.