Whatever - this book was just the right one as it included all the things mentioned above plus it's christian and also had faith topics in it. Sometimes I get these weird cravings for American High School books filled with clicheés and cheerleaders. Still, the parents were grating enough to drop it down to where I'll round it to three stars overall.
In all, it was a solid win and I will almost certainly be picking up the next in the series (as long as I don't get the feeling that it's going to do something stupid like break Ana and her boy-who-is-a-friend up for cheap storylines). The elements tied to faith only approached the didactic once or twice, and never actually got there, I think. The story was a fun, light teen romance involving characters I enjoyed and enjoyed spending time with. It was well written, with no seams for a co-authored work. If it hadn't been for her parents, this book would sit at a comfortable four stars for me. I think my last sympathy played out when Ana's father was enraged that a boy would dare call Ana at home (and displayed that rage to both the boy at the time and to Ana after). I've known a lot of parents, some of them very strict indeed, but none as strict as these two are. That isn't helped by how extremely strict they are. Her father's law practice is kept murky enough and her mother is driven enough by calculated social climbing that I found it hard to identify with them or even understand their motivations through most of the novel. Some of that is that I have a hard time buying their backstory. The only part that really grated on me was Ana's parents. with Ana in a kind of easy-going middle). Her friends, some of whom share her faith and church activities and others less so (though all appear to be co-religionists), are engaging, though perhaps a little too easily identifiable as teen friendship tropes (the bad girl with her hair-dying, the careless girl getting into trouble, the thoughtful girl keeping things together. The authors do a good job of keeping the faithful aspects of Ana's life important and vital without making them preachy or insular. I actually enjoyed this aspect of the novel. The book is overtly Christian (much of the activities involve Ana's church youth group, including faithful discussions of God, religion, and Christian living) but not heavy-handedly so. While there were parts of this book that grated on me, I ended up liking it more than I expected.
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