DEDICATION

A young woman gets the chance to confront the now world-famous rock star who broke her heart 13 years ago, and who went on to write a series of deeply personal songs about her.

Back in Croton Falls, Vt., Jake Sharpe was a teen dream: beautiful, talented, with an aching vulnerability and an unhappy home life. After adoring him for much of high school, Kate Hollis finally gets her man, and the two are inseparable until Jake takes off for L.A. shortly before graduation—without saying goodbye. A devastated Kate tries to get over her loss, but finds it exceedingly difficult as Jake’s music career takes off, with his songs about their young love becoming modern classics. So when her childhood best friend Laura calls to alert her that Jake has come home to do a TV special, Kate puts her grown-up life in Charleston on hold and heads to Croton Falls, in an effort to make Jake “regret his entire existence.” At her parent’s house, Kate revisits all the memories, good and bad, that led her to this moment, including her dad’s mental breakdown and her mom’s subsequent affair, which brought Kate and Jake even closer. And, yep, he wrote about that, too. She then schemes her way onto Jake’s shoot, and catches his eye, setting the stage for the apology—and sexy reunion—that Kate has long been waiting for. Turns out that Jake has never gotten over her either, and the rekindling of their romance feels like fate, with Jake trying to make up for lost time. He whisks his muse to his New York penthouse, and the two share some blissful moments until the mayhem of his celebrity existence intrudes, causing Kate to question whether Jake has changed too much—or too little. This third effort from McLaughlin and Kraus (Citizen Girl, 2004, etc.) is spot-on in its depiction of Kate and Laura’s early girlish hysteria, and quickly overcomes a certain cleverness for its own sake to tell a moving story of teenage passion.

Bittersweet coming-of-age tale with flashes of wit and an especially sympathetic heroine.