Peyton is disappointed in her summer so far. Instead of spending the summer working a first job with her best friend and looking for romance, she’s bored. Her best friend is with family in Gloucester and not texting as often as Peyton expects. Her divorced parents get along fine, but her dad’s mom, her Grana, always wants Peyton to spend more time at their farmhouse. Then one morning on a bike ride she finds a boy in the middle of the road, a victim of a hit and run! Peyton’s mom, a local newspaper reporter, tells her to not get too involved, but she can’t help it. Soon Peyton is investigating the crime on her own, spending time with the boy (Gray - he’s in a coma) and his mother in the hospital, and imagining the two of them as destined to fall in love. The biggest star in this book is the setting, a small oceanside town in Maine. I could almost smell the salt in the air! Can Peyton discover who hit Gray, get him to wake up, and get her happily ever after?
All that said….
Honestly, I wasn’t all that invested in the story, which is a first for me for books by this author. I was surprised that feelings about her parents’ divorce and her crumbling friendship weren’t explored beyond surface level. The conclusion wasn’t as momentous as I expected.