I've known a lot of parents, some of them very strict indeed, but none as strict as these two are. That isn't helped by how extremely strict they are. Her father's law practice is kept murky enough and her mother is driven enough by calculated social climbing that I found it hard to identify with them or even understand their motivations through most of the novel. Some of that is that I have a hard time buying their backstory. The only part that really grated on me was Ana's parents. with Ana in a kind of easy-going middle). Her friends, some of whom share her faith and church activities and others less so (though all appear to be co-religionists), are engaging, though perhaps a little too easily identifiable as teen friendship tropes (the bad girl with her hair-dying, the careless girl getting into trouble, the thoughtful girl keeping things together. The authors do a good job of keeping the faithful aspects of Ana's life important and vital without making them preachy or insular. I actually enjoyed this aspect of the novel. The book is overtly Christian (much of the activities involve Ana's church youth group, including faithful discussions of God, religion, and Christian living) but not heavy-handedly so. While there were parts of this book that grated on me, I ended up liking it more than I expected.
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