Emergency Contact

Loooooooord. I blazed through this book as fast as my eyeballs could read and I'm sad that it's already over. God it was just so perfect. It was cute and fun and romantic but not in a gross or unrealistic way as some of these young adult contemporary books can be. It was just perfect. I loved the depth of the characters, and the way the author made them feel so real. They were quirky and relatable and also dealing with some real shit. My only complaint was that it ended too soon, but that's also kind of a ridiculous complaint because it was 391 pages.

So good - lol @ people calling Penny ‘unlikable' in the reviews, because I found her so realistic and sympathetic, if not always charitable in her internal monologue (but seriously, if that's your standard for a likable female character, you're not gonna like many characters). Especially when a major part of the story is Penny learning to be more open to people and less closed off from new things ... how do you show that growth without having her be closed off in the beginning? Like.

ANYWAY. My only issue with this book is that it was sometimes hard to tell who was who in the text conversations (especially early in the conversation). I was able to figure it out with a little closer reading, but that's a minor formatting issue, really. I love Penny and Sam and I love Jude and I even love Mallory and Celeste. The only character that started flat and stayed that way for me was Lorraine, and I would've liked to see a bit more there, but that's not at all a dealbreaker when everything else about this book is so good. The author has lived in Austin and it really shows, which was super-refreshing as a Texas native. I just flat-out adored this book and I can't recommend it highly enough.