The fact that Matthew was dating a different girl, and Amy was settled at college, would have been a good ending, demonstrating perfectly the fact that sometimes you can be in love with someone but obstacles can get in the way and make it eternally impossible, even if you can manage to continue a friendship. It was quite open - possibly to allow for a sequel in the future - but that caused the ending to fall short of the mark. The ending also left me feeling rather flat. Matthew storming out was both petulant and childish, but I could almost appreciate his reasoning even though it still made me groan.

Finding out that Amy had slept with Sanjay didn't surprise me, but the fact that she was so clinical about the entire situation, implying that it was research for possible experiences with Matthew, really annoyed me. However, after the description of the wonderful summer Amy and Matthew spent together, it all just seemed to fall apart. The minor characters were also written very well: I would have liked more focus upon Chloe, but Sarah's character was quite developed and it was nice to get some of her back story through Matthew and Amy, encapsulating perfectly the way people at schools know of each other, even if they don't really know each other. Sometimes it's good to have a book that features bullying, because it is a big problem in a lot of peoples lives, but I thought it was a credit to Cammie that she managed to display the struggles when your own self is the problem in your life. Seeing the development of Amy's relationships with all of her peer helpers was also really interesting, and I was glad to see a book that was so focused on the sense of being 'other' that didn't also have a large percentage of the book being about bullying, and dealing with that. Don't get me wrong, the first half was amazingly well written and I loved the development of their relationship: Amy helping Matthew with his OCD, Matthew learning to open up and talk about the condition that had haunted him for years.

I thought I would love this book a lot more than I did.

Say what you will by cammie mcgovern