{Synopsis} – On her own for the first time, Rowan Slone is no longer waiting for the future. She’s living in the present, and relishing every minute of it. She has a new boyfriend. She is helping best friend, Jess, raise her five-month-old son, Jacob. And she continues to work as Assistant Manager at the animal shelter-all while settling into her first semester of college. Rowan’s stars are aligned and she’s not looking back.
But all is not as golden as it seems. Being a young mother is too much for Jess to handle, leaving Rowan to shoulder much of the burden of raising Jacob. Trina becomes involved in a religious cult, causing Rowan to fear she may have lost her sister forever. And her mother has a new psychiatrist whose goal is to get Rowan into therapy, forcing her to deal with her mother, and the past, once and for all.
Adding to the rising turmoil, Rowan’s first love, Mike Anderson, returns, and wants to see her. She is surprised how much she wants to see him, too. But his sudden reappearance makes her wonder if there is room in her future for the boy with the pine-colored eyes or is it too little, too late?
As the winds begin to stir, threatening to send Rowan’s carefully-built life into a tailspin, she must search deep inside herself to discover what she truly wants. Will soul-searching help her achieve that elusive sense of peace and family she’s always craved or will the pain of the past prove too great?
{My Thoughts} – Rowan and her best friend Jess and her baby Jacob all share a two bedroom apartment above Rowan’s ex High School guidance counselor. Mrs. J now known as Tanya to both Rowan and Jess help them out the best she can now that they are no longer students. She helps them with the baby when she is able to and she gives them advice and still tries to guide them in the right directions.
This whole book is mostly based on Rowan finding out, how hard it is to live with an infant that cries a lot and barely sleeps. This makes it hard for her and Jess to sleep, to function, and she has problems with keeping up in school and being alert for work. Rowan has it fairly lucky though since she works for an animal shelter and her boss is a very understanding person.
Rowan also works on repairing her relationship more and more in this book with her Gran which I found to be a really awesome thing, because when it came down to it her Gran was someone she seemed to truly love and care about in the first book. We also learn more about her sister Trina and her poor choices and a lot more about Jess and Mike.
Book two also ended with her meeting a boy named Shane and we learn more about him as well. If I had to judge both Shane and Mike and decide who I’d rather date it would be Shane hands down. If you read this book I am sure you will fall in love with his character as much as I had. Throughout this book Jess struggles with being an eighteen year-old mother and with that struggle everyone around her is forced to struggle. One night she takes off and leaves the baby with Rowan. If you want to know what happens? If she comes back? Why she made the choice to leave? You’ll need to read this book.
I really enjoyed this book. It was a nice fast read like the previous two. It has a wonderful story line that I found enticing and easy to relate to. I also enjoyed it so much that I highly recommend it and the previous two. This series helps to go over and cover many issues that take place when teenagers are in High School and when they head off to college. I really think that if you enjoy realistic fiction reads that you will enjoy this series as much as I did. It is nicely written and was really difficult to put down.
Final Conclusion: 5 Star Rating.
