Finshed 1-24-08, rating 2.5/5, romance, pub. 2006

Darby had a best friend, Russell, who we met in the first chapter and was dead by chapter two.  Darby grieves and with the help of her aunts and Russell’s brother, Ben, she copes.  The villainous stepmom, Bella, provides much needed tension and there is a weird storyline involving organ donation.  Michaels made it a plotline, but never really delved into it with any real depth.  There is a conclusion of the plot near the end of the book, but it didn’t make much sense to me. 

I read this because my Mom gave it to me and I wanted something light and fun.  It was light, but too light for my tastes and Michaels tells too much instead of letting me use my own imagination.  And poor Ben had a bad habit of “puffing his chest out” whenever Darby gave him a compliment.  For some reason by the third time this happened I really wanted to just stop reading, but for all my complaints once I reached the halfway point I was interested in the story, if not the writing.  There is an interesting cast of characters and it is a fun read, but not a memorable one.