*3/5 stars*

“People we love come and go, Caddy. That doesn’t mean we loved them any less at the time.”

Definitely didn't love this one quite as much as A Quiet Kinf of Thunder, but still a great contemporary book. My main problem is that I read this book in the wrong time and didn't read the annotation before picking it up. I thought it would be light and cute book with few heavier topics, but still a light read like the author's second book. And it was not. It was darker than I anticipated. This book deals with some heavy topics - in a great and realistic way though - and while I was not in similar situation to Suzanne's, it brough some bad memories for me at time I didn't need them to. In a strange way, while my personality is very very different from Suzanne's, I do have some things here and there in common with her. I'm glad I read this book and I was 100% satisfied with the ending, though for a minute there I was afraid it would end... in a way that would make me mad. So I'm really glad the author ended things as she did, loose as they may seem for some readers. I also loved the female friendship and the fact that this book was a love story, but not the romantic kind. I thought that all the friendships here were realistic. Both light and dark. There was no romance here and I'm glad because it wouldn't fit the story.
I've read in a few reviews saying that this book would've been better if it was told from Suzanne's point of view instead of Caddy's. And while I agree Suzanne was WAY better character than Caddy (I actually didn't always like Caddy all that much), I'm glad the author chose this narrative. It's basically told (more or less) from an observer's point of view, from a girl who is more on the sidelines of the story. So while the story is from Caddy's POV, it still most of the time feels like it's about Suzanne. And there's no denying that she's the best character of the book.
Caddy on the other hand, I had kind of like-meh-hate relationship with.
I don't mind the fact that she's naive all that much, I actually like when MC starts out as naive and grows through the story, learns some lessons, if it's done well. But, there was something about the stark contrast between Caddy and Suzanne that bothered me sometimes. Caddy was great friend to her most of the times (not always), yes, but she also didn't understand Suzanne at all. Sometimes I was just shaking my head as to 'how could she not get her that much'. She was supportive, but her priviledged life made her decidedly not understand any of the things Suzanne was dealing with.
One minute I was kinda liking her, and the next she proves how much of a shelterd and privileged life she led before Suzanne. At times it felt like she was this rich girl treating Suzanne as this big adventure, not understanding her isssues. Suzanne was going through this big thing, and yet it felt to me like Caddy (sometimes) whined about how nothing 'Significant' happened to her and how 'boring' that makes her. No matter how naive she was, she should've been fucking grateful that no tragedy happened in her 16 years of life and not whine about it.

But in the end I wouldn't change anything about how this book was told (only Cady's personality a little). It was a great debut which I will maybe pick up at a better time again to appreciate it more than I can now and maybe I will give it higher rating then.

Trigger Warnings: Focus on a side character abused by a family member in the past.