Ria Voros

This book took me a few chapters to get settled into, since the first few chapters jump around in time rather frequently and the jumps were rather hard to follow early on. After that, however, things evened out and the transitions grew smoother. Once I got settled in, I loved Grace's character voice. She's observant and thoughtful, and her interests and the way her brain works are super cool and come through clearly in the book's prose.

This book does move faster than the average show more contemporary, since it's blended with the action of trying to figure out what happened to GG, but there were enough slow moments to mostly balance it out for me. Though I generally prefer more laid-back contemporaries, the pacing of this book was well-suited to the story and I didn't have a problem with it.

I really enjoyed all of the characters in this book. Grace's voice was engaging, and I loved her relationships with her dad and brother (I kind of wish we'd gotten to see more of that). Her passion for astronomy is awesome, and I loved seeing her steadily pursue that throughout the book.

Iris was probably my favorite character. She's fun and loyal, as well as self-motivated and entrepreneurial. And it was awesome to see a homeschooler who was passionate about her education and also just treated as... normal. Though she might have tended toward the positive homeschool stereotype of always motivated and almost hyper-normal (homeschoolers are normally at least a little weird/counter-cultural), it was nice to not see the more negative stereotype. I'd love to see more homeschooled characters like this in fiction.

Mylo was also awesome. His conversations with Grace while she was overwhelmed were super sweet, and I loved the dynamic between the two of them.

And did I mention the dad and brother? I'm so happy with the positive family dynamics in this book, and my only disappointment is that we didn't get to see more of the sibling or father-daughter dynamics. The dad is awesome, doing his best to support his family while also struggling himself, trying to find his wife... He was just a super strong guy and awesome dad. And Charlie (the brother) was such a realistic younger brother. He was so sweet, but also had his moments of being difficult, and he would go back and forth between asking Grace to spend time with him and pretending he was annoyed to be related to her. He was great.

There was one brief, fade-to-black love scene that I thought unnecessary and forced, and I seem to recall there was mild language throughout, but otherwise I thought everything was handled well as far as content is concerned.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. show less

There are many books that satisfy, a few go well beyond that. This is such a book. Part coming of age, part family drama, part mystery, part psychological autopsy and a bit of love story are blended together and told from teen Grace Carter's perspective. Older of two siblings with a fascination for astrophysics, Grace has a friction-filled relationship with both her TV reporter mom and actress grandmother. When her mother takes a call at her son's soccer game and then vanishes, it sets in show more motion one heck of a story. It was so good I immediately bought a copy of the author's other book published back in 2013. show less

Gretchen told her parents she wanted to be a doctor when she was four. She's now sixteen and a very different person, but Mom and Dad still have that mindset-she'll be a doctor. Gretchen isn't sure what she wants, but writing, especially poetry, is something that makes her come alive. When she verbally strong arms geeky James into being her chemistry tutor, it's the beginning of change, something that includes his older cousin Dean, a boy she can talk to so easily, the loss of her longtime show more best friend, a new somewhat bumpy friendship with food-obsessed Ashlyn and friction at home. It turns into a very painful experience that eventually sends her back into the sunlight of life, wiser, still sad, but with a more realistic understanding of herself. I read this in about two hours, deciding to buy it after reading her new book The Center Of The Universe. It was a very smart decision. show less

I didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. I thought it might end up falling into cliches, but I was pleasantly surprised. For such a long book, it reads very fast due to the short chapters.

*Book received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*