The hilarious pair of authors that brought you The Nanny Diaries score again with this laugh-out-loud tale about finally moving on from the one that broke your heart. Kate Hollis, affectionately known as Katie in high school, moves to the small town of Croton Falls, Vermont in sixth grade. She befriends Laura, and the two are quickly inseparable. Part of small town middle school life is "claiming" which boy you like. Katie randomly picks a cute boy, Jake Sharpe, and to prove herself to her mean-girl classmates, stands up on a desk and admits her crush in front of everyone. Flash forward eighteen years and you learn that Jake and Katie finally did get together, he left the night before prom, became a mega-star, and wrote all of his songs about Katie . . . yet they haven't spoken since senior year. The novel goes back and forth in time, putting the pieces together for the reader as Kate makes the journey back to Croton Falls when learning that Jake has returned to film a holiday special for MTV. All through the novel, you will be torn between falling in love with Jake right alongside to high-school Katie, and hating his modern-day guts with grown-up Kate. The book has a great ending - definitely unexpected - and McLaughlin and Kraus have done an impeccable job recreating the different time periods. A must read this winter if one of your New Years resolutions is to finally get over that ex . . . or if you just want a compelling story with a lot of laughs.
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