For whatever reason, I picked up this book thinking that maybe, just maybe it would provide a story of a bright, young girl who gets out of a relationship and comes to learn that it is perfectly fine not to be in a romantic relationship 100% of the time. Alas, no such story can be found within the pages of this book.

Right away, Dominique (Or Dom for short) is introduced to the readers as being whiny and indecisive, which makes it rather difficult to find a reason to continue reading farther than the first five pages. Aside from her love interest, Guy, Dom is really the only character who receives any characterization at all, which is a shame because there appear to be at least two other characters in this novel who would be far more interesting to read about than Dom.

Aside from a highly unlikeable main character, another issue with this book is that it tends to share too many details when not strictly necessary and hardly any at all when the plot could really use some fleshing out. For example, Dom’s visit to the doctor late in the novel was highly descriptive, and frankly awkward. On the other hand, large plot points, such as a conflict that Dom has with her best friend, are merely glossed over, despite the fact that they are of more importance than describing how cold it was in the doctor’s office, or stating (for the umpteenth time) that Guy was as handsome as a Greek god.

There’s a possibility that I could have looked over these issues if only there was some sort of decent message that was provided within these 227 pages. Dom essentially ignores her closest friends and family to spend time fawning over a boy who explicitly told her that their relationship will not continue after summer’s end, yet she has no moment of realization that this is an unhealthy relationship for her to be in. Furthermore, the consequences of this relationship are condensed into about two chapters at the very end of the book, giving the reader the sense that this was a last minute addition. All in all, the only “lesson” Dom learns is what traits she should look for in potential boyfriends, which seems like kind of a waste because nearly 300 pages were spent focusing on her love life, but failed to provide any sort of message about healthy relationships.

On a scale of one to five, I can only give this book a single star due to two things: what I considered to be poor, inconsistent writing, and the romanticization of an unhealthy relationship.