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So here’s a statement that merits both boldface and all caps in the typing:

MY FAITH IN NA HAS BEEN RESTORED BY ONE & ONLY.

Not one moment in this is annoying or over the top. Rather we’ve a girl exploring who she is what she wants. Plus, a boy doing the same. Sure, there are some messed up family connections, but wait for it… it’s not dramatically done!

I enjoyed how there’s a past that we start with linked to a present that she’s working through. But mostly, I loved the absence of clichés: no bestie pushing her into unlikely situations or heroine who’s clueless about everything and nary an alpha type in sight! All of them are simply regular people figuring out what it is they want while being certain about what they don’t want:

What they don’t want: not to hurt anyone, not to repeat the mistakes of others.

And what they do: their place, their choice… EACH OTHER! *sigh*

It’s an intense connection that they find plus an almost too-perfect matching up of interests and goals that should have felt unreal… but there’s no denying the way they clicked and the way their chemistry just sucked me in. Yet, it’s each one’s actions and the other’s reactions that made it clear: matching up wasn’t all there was to them.

And OK, so maybe there was drama: but it’s not overdone; what’s here is presented in a way that’s plausible but still had me feeling for her and the set up of things. The conflicn, especially, on her part on whether she should or shouldn’t do something or how she’d see parallels between her choices and actions versus those of another… all proof positive that she’s more than the typical NA heroine. Plus, the emotion of it all, that ‘you can’t pick who you love’ thing is especially felt here, but beyond that it’s the realizations on all parties involved that you do get to choose what you do about the same.

Oh, next one, please.