Their interactions when they're working or hanging out are somehow relaxed and fun and full of self-discovery all at the same time. But the uppity mean girls at the library were totally believable. I loved the way Macy's friendships with Kristy and Monica and Delia and Bert, as well as her more-than-friends relationship with Wes, are portrayed. This isn't a doom and gloom Message Book, however it's surprisingly sweet and warm and grounded in a way that so many of these types of books are not.

I also found Macy's relationships with her mom and her sister to be painfully familiar as well as believably awkward and flawed. The author also wrote incredibly touching examples of how people process grief in different ways, especially in how Macy witnessed her father's death as well as the funny and bittersweet packages that continue to arrive for him. I felt so much empathy for Macy, who struggles to be the perfect daughter but feels small and unimportant in so many aspects of her life. I expected a light, hopefully somewhat amusing read but what I got instead was a quiet, deep story that I absolutely loved reading from beginning to end.

I fell for this book really hard, really fast, however. I'm not much on chick lit and I only occasionally come across realistic YA fiction that I truly enjoy, so I was extremely wary of what lay behind those pretty book covers, even though most of the reviews were positively gushing. I never, ever would have read Sarah Dessen if it weren't for my GoodReads friends.

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen