Review: Well, I know it is not perfect, but....
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 29, 2013
...I loved it anyway!  I started reading this book at 11pm thinking that I would read a chapter or two before going to sleep, and finally finished at 4 in the morning - with a huge smile on my face!Yes the editting could use a few tweaks, (I must admit to reading a sentence or two over again to figure out what it was meant to be) but the story itself had me pulled in so much that I really didn't care!  I had real lough out loud moments - some of the one-liners were very funny!I really enjoyed the way the author gave us Colleen's point of view, then soon after the same conversation or situation from inside Brad's head!  It really showed how we all look at things with our own strange bias and how you might not understand something as well as you might think you do.Colleen is a spoiled brat! She is immature and self centred for sure, but I was right there in her head with her insecurities; when she was hiding in the park; when she was trying to eat her way out of depression; when her confusion over her feelings scares her so much she pushes Brad away - I have been there in my own life and it felt very real to me!  I could identify with her wanting more than her family expected of her, and know that what you think you want may not be all you think it will be!Brad deserved a medal for putting up with her!!  By no means sublime, he just seemed so real to me - like so many of the menfolk in my own family. I could see how different his "man-thinking" would be from that of the teenage girl brain that still existed in Colleen, and that insight just made me admire his strength and believe the true love he had always had for her, (think: "nobody finds their soul mate when they're ten", Sweet Home Alabama).  Just how hard it had been for him and why he sometimes reacted as he did.  (My heart broke at the Heather reveal!)I loved her great big extended family, even when they were putting presssure on the couple that they could well have done without.  The other characters mostly played at the edges of the story, but I could feel how important they were to the couple; how secure the family feeling was as their backup.Like I have said, the book is not perfect - if the editting is going to upset you, you might give it a miss.  But I found it just so enthralling and "un-put-downable" that I just did not care!!  I will definitely be reading other stories by this author!