A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend

What do you do after the loss of your best friend?  It's a hard thing to deal with and Cass is having a difficult time.  Compounding her grief over Julia is having to deal with the grief of her friend's boyfriend and her struggle with her own sexuality.  She embarks on a trip from Illinois to California on her bike with her friend's ashes.  Meanwhile, back home Julia's other drama friends struggle to put on her super secret project she was writing before her death, Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad.  And the mean girl who tormented Cass in middle school is back and playing the lead.  She and Cass begin to forgive and become friends and maybe become something more, Cass learns the meaning of friendship and love.

To risk what I'd come all the way here to risk and let things get more complicated, if they had to.  To be able to say, if only to myself, what I really had inside me.  p.128 Uncorrected Galley

This was such a sweet story.  Cass is so sad and just doesn't know what to do with herself.  She feels like she doesn't belong, that her friends are only her friends because of Julia, that she is an outsider.  And it doesn't help that Julia's boyfriend is a jackass to her sometimes as he struggles to deal with his own grief and guilt.  I love how the characters are so real and make mistakes.  They react to situations in a very real way.  And Julia's struggle to understand how she stands sexually is so very touching, but it is friendship with Julia that I found most moving.  Several times I had tears in my eyes.  To lose someone who means that much to you, especially at 16 is a terrible thing.

 The relationship between Heather and Cass progressed at a very nice pace, nothing happened to fast and each girl had reason enough to take it slow.  There was nothing surprising about it though.  There were no twists or anything, but it had enough drama to make it work without being boring.  I expected more of the relationship with Cass and Julia, like there was some twist, but it was a wonderful friendship.

All in all, it was a very sweet and moving book.  I really enjoyed it and found it to be a very easy read.  Oh and the Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad sounds awesome!

ARC from Traveling ARC Tours
Hogwarts: Muggle Studies
GLBT
YA