Friendship and love are at the forefront of this story and both the relationship between Gus and Kate and Kate and Keller are so beautifully portrayed, you experience both sides of Kate’s heart. I knew nothing going into this book and I’m thankful for that so I’m definitely not going to give anything away. We’re supposed to believe that a View Spoiler » 19 year old with her life ahead of her goes through one round of chemotherapy, finds that it’s not working, and decides to let everything run its course. Soon Katie finds herself falling for Keller; and as much as she tries to keep it platonic between them he still breaks through her walls and gains entrance to her heart.

Let the emotion and feels take you away for those few hours, learn some life lessons, be inspired, you will laugh, you will cry, you will swoon, but most of all you will feel. This is the first time in an NA book were although I liked the romance it was not the main thing why I kept reading. These two loved each other unconditionally, the lines of friendship having been blurred once these two were firmly putting their best friends label first even though at times you knew, ideally in another world, another scenario that these two were meant to be together. Buddy-read with this charming boy who accepted to be my buddy-reads-partner for life and he totally has cheated on me already.The writing style is fluid, beautiful, emotional, captivating, gut wrenching, all encompassing, this book takes you over, heart, mind, body and soul. Nothing happened in the story for nearly 80% of the novel, until the alleged “big secret” is revealed.

When we first meet him he’s a little lost, because for so long he’s let his parents’ expectations dictate his path in life, and he’s clearly never been truly at ease with the decisions he’s made (particularly surrounding the secret he’s keeping from his friends at Grant). I'm sure the nations leading psychologists might theorize that my "issues" with female characters probably stem from a place of jealousy.Yes, this story is gut wrenching and at times devastating, but it’s also inspiring, thought provoking and heart-warming. It’s kinda funny to me because this book is two years old so most of you have probably read it but still!

The writing was blatant and lacking in subtlety, the characterization was poor, and the entire thing was emotionally manipulative.Kate’s tendency to see the best in other people (which sounds cheesy, but somehow it really wasn’t), was one the of things I loved most about her… from her blasé roommate Sugar who steals her stuff and is constantly kicking Kate out of her room to hook up with random guys, to her bitchy aunt Maddie who hasn’t a single nice thing to say, Kate manages to find good in everyone, and in cases like these where it’s well hidden, she has a strange knack of drawing it out of them eventually. But if you’re willing to endure massive boredom to get to the heartfelt, touching part of the story, maybe this one is for you.