Storyline: 4 Stars
I needed this. It is a classic Kristen Hannah book. It is not going to win any awards, but it will bring exactly what you expect. Good female characters, friendship, family, and tears. One thing I love about Kristen Hannah is that I can always count on them.
There are a lot of cliches in the story, but I expected that in a book about two friends. Some of the characters annoyed me, I will admit, but there were other characters that redeemed the book, and the characters were not fully bad.
I probably will not be reading the sequel as it had worse reviews and I think this book works good as a standalone.
Parental Guidance: 55% Recommend
I would recommend this book 55% of the time for parental guidance. There were romantic relationships, swearing, and substance abuse that decreases the percentage rating.
There was swearing in the book, although it was not frequent. The “f*ck” word was used several times, although not often. I don’t appreciate the sweat words, but I was happy that they did not take up the entire novel.
There were a lot of romantic relationships. There were a few paragraphs and pages that I skipped, although the scenes were not graphic. Most of the scenes were between a married couple, but I still skipped over them. One of the characters has a lot of one-night stands, although they are not described in detail. The most disturbing relationship was between a professor and student.
There was some substance abuse, such as drinking and smoking pot, although it was never in detail.
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As I said above, Kristen Hannah is a classic author. I usually know what I am getting, and this book did not disappoint. I liked the relationship between Tully and Kate.
Kate was my favorite character, partly because I could relate to her. I was typically the one growing up that was uncool and unpopular and everyone always wanted my friends. I related to that part, although I don’t have it as rough as Kate. I did like her relationship with Johnny, although I wish they would have talked about the Tully situation before Kate was dying. I think it would have bothered me too knowing that Kate’s husband was with Tully first and seemed in love with Tully for so long. It was Kate’s decision to go for Johnny, but I do wish they would have talked about it so that Kate could have put her fears and insecurities to bed earlier.
I liked Tully, but at times I wanted to slap her. She was very selfish and I was annoyed with how she always took Marah’s “side” and did not see Kate’s views at all. There were a lot of other times that Tully was selfish, like when she never apologized for anything that she did, but I pitied her because of how she grew up. Which leads to the question . . .
How much do we blame someone for what they did or for what was done to them? At some point people are responsible for their actions, but how often are we supposed to forgive because of their past? That’s a hard question. If Tully had been anyone else, I think even Kate would have not been so understanding. However, because Tully had a past, she had every chance in the book with Kate.
I was pleasantly surprised with how Johnny turned out. I was skeptical at first that he was going to leave Kate or cheat on her with Tully or something, but as time went on I realized that he did love Kate. He had been infatuated with Tully, as most people are. He actually loved Kate.
Overall, I was happy with this book. It was about what I expected.
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