Review: Good, fast read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 7, 2014
Ok, so when I first this book I was curious. A boy living in someone's garage? I mean how does that happen and who let's that happen? Is it realistic -- no, do I care -- no, not really...I was more than surprised not only by how much I liked the story but how much depth there was to there was to the main and secondary characters.The main characters:Nate -- a homeless boy that lives in Hanley's garage. And yep she finds him in there one night while sneaking out of her home and continues to let him live there. He has a secret that he running from which led him to be living in Hanley's garage -- read to find out what it is! I thought Nate came off pretty sincere right from the start -- so while it was different that Hanley accepted him living in the garage with no prior interaction with him -- I thought the writer pulled it off well. It was pretty clear that he wasn't dangerous but instead a young kid going through something traumatic -- even though you don't find out Nate's secret until about 75% into the book -- I didn't sense he was a bad person.Hanley - she has her own secret and while she is not running like Nate -- she is self medicating with alcohol and partying.Hanley and Nate form a friendship and then a relationship that is relatable and that's all credit to the writer. I know sounds odd, because he was living in her garage...but the author made it work and it worked well. She made the reader understand why Hanley would keep Nate's secret and let him stay in the garage - they identified with each other through their grief. At the end of the day they helped each other become better people -- Nate forced Hanley to open up and form stronger relationships with the people in her life. Hanley gave Nate a place to stay and in the end closure and his life back.Sure there was some teenage insta love (but actually it went slower than most teenage books -- and insta love is a teenage thing --sometimes we forget :-)), there was some immaturity -- but that's what being a teenage is about.The way the story ends showed a lot of love and courage on the parts of both of the characters.[...]