Samantha Reed has just ended her junior year of high school and is planning out every minute of her summer trying to schedule all her time wisely. Sam has very little down time, but her escape for the last ten years has been to climb out onto her roof and watch the large, noisy and happily chaotic family next door, who her local politician mother loathes. One summer evening, one of the many Garrett kids, Jase, comes over and changes everything. During the height of her mother's re-election campaign, tragedy strikes and it's up to Samantha to sort things out for herself for once. Will she make the right choice?
It turns out Jase has known Sam watched his family for years and he was watching her back. Their relationship developed in such a way that it felt real. They hung out and formed a friendship and she met his family and bonded with them as well before they really started to develop into anything more. It moved at a pace that you'd expect any teenage summer romance to realistically move. I especially loved that they were very responsible when it came to their physical relationship and really talked about it together beforehand. It's not often that teenagers are written as being anything more than hormone addled fiends. I also enjoyed Sam's relationships with all his siblings, especially George. He was such an adorable character to read.
Everything about Jase's family is such a stark contrast to Sam's family dynamic with her rebellious sister running off to spend the summer with her boyfriend and leaving Sam home alone to deal with their selfish mother and her creepy new political advisor boyfriend. Every scene with Sam's mother and Clay (the boyfriend) was painfully uncomfortable to read. I wanted to shake some common sense into her mother and tell her to set a good example for Sam of how a strong woman handled a relationship. Her mother was so unlikeable and Clay was so rude but smooth in his southern style. Then we would see Sam escape next door and see what a really close knit family was like and she blended so seamlessly with them it was refreshing. You feel like you can breathe after being under water in Sam's own quietly smothering home situation.
Sam's oldest friends, twins Nan and Tim, are interesting as well since you form fast opinions about them only to later find out that appearances can be deceiving. We see huge character growth in Tim throughout the story and it's really nice to see him reclaim his lost friendship with Sam. Nan, who had been closer to Sam while her brother spiraled, turns out to be a jealous and bitter person and we never really get any closure with her. Tim's storyline was very satisfying though because he's one of those characters you just want to route for.
I feel over all like the characters were all so well written and were well developed. This is a very sweet contemporary romance and is a perfect spring/summer read. If you are looking for something to brighten you day, this is the book for you. You will immediately be pulled in and fall in love with this story. I recommend giving this one a go any time you need a light and fast read that will make you smile.
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