In Gulf City, Florida, a group of high school friends are starting their last year of high school. The two viewpoint characters are Callie (California) McCoy, and Jamie Daniels. Callie and her twin brother Colby live with their Aunt Kat, working in the diner they inherited from their mother, Allison, when she died six years ago. They know nothing about their father. Callie, like her mother, is an enthusiastic and very good surfer. She is not otherwise either very social, or very interested in school.
Jamie Daniels is the younger son of a state senator with higher ambitions. The older brother, Jayden, is the apple of his father's eye, and also Callie's boyfriend, or so it appears to everyone except Callie and Jay. Jamie has a bad relationship with his father for reasons that no one outside the family knows. Jamie is also rather a troublemaker.
With the end of the summer, Jay is gong off for his first year of college. Callie, Colby, Jamie, Colby's girlfriend Morgan and her sister Parker are going through their momentous final year of high school together.
There are unsuspected, explosive secrets in the McCoy family. There are explosive secrets in the Daniels family.
And there's an ordinary boy, Matthew Franklin, who is the target of endless bullying at school. Callie is troubled by it, and Matthew's grandfather, Seth, is a regular at the diner, but she has no idea what to do that would make a difference.
All three families are heading toward a shocking climax to the school year.
These kids are intelligent, flawed, basically good kids, going through what's always a challenging time, with some extra challenges thrown at them.
This feels very real to my own memories of that time in my life. While I was more like Colby in my love of schoolwork, I completely relate to Callie's feelings of social disconnection--and while it didn't end the same way, I remember when the bullied kids was not Matthew, but me.
An excellent read for young adults and for people who remember that time in their lives. Recommended.
I received a free electronic galley of this book, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
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