Cassie’s teenage world is turned upside down when her mother dies, entrusting her care to old friends from California whom Cassie has no memory of. The affluent and comfortable lifestyle of her new family is in stark contrast to the financial difficulties she has experienced for as long as she can remember, having spent her childhood sharing a tiny New York apartment with her mother and working at an Italian restaurant to help make ends meet.

Her new guardians are very supportive, and she is also made welcome by their son Cody – who she must now attend school with and just happens to be the most popular guy in class. Despite these promising conditions for her new life, teenage years are rarely that simple, and Cassie finds herself facing not just the usual pressures of conflict with family and fitting in at a new school, but also problems of a more sinister nature. Can she finally put the past behind her and confront her demons in the present?

I found a lot to like in this book, which is perhaps most suitable for older teens given some of the mature subjects explored. Cassie makes an excellent central character, and her voice feels very authentic throughout. She is far from a perfect princess, making a lot of bad decisions from start to finish and acting very impulsively at times, with little regard for the feelings of others. For me these mistakes give her the air of a more genuine teen than many more flawless heroines, and it’s easy to warm to her staunch independence and desire to work to help support herself.

At times the book touches on very serious events which a teenager may experience in their lives, but my favourite parts of the story were concerned with the more day-to-day scenes in Cassie’s journey, as she tries to adjust to her new surroundings and work out how to handle Cody, the boy she finds herself thrown together with in such difficult circumstances.

Overall, I really enjoyed the insightful way this book captures an eventful slice of teenage life, and I highly recommend it for older teens.