Testing...Testing...Does this thing still work?

Yes, I'm blogging again! My New Year's Resolution was to read 400 books in 2012, so I'm trying to make myself as accountable. Posting books everywhere I can think of seems like a good way to do that.

So my second book of 2012. The Survival Kit by Donna Freitas. This is a lovely book, that takes on one of the seven original plots of the world, the death of a mother, but still makes the main character of seventeen year old Rose matter.

In her past, Rose was that teenage girl that you love to hate but still like. She was a varsity cheerleader and dated a football star. Also, she had a great family and friends, and was beautiful! Yep.  I was so far from that in high school it's not even funny.  Well, except for the great family and friends.  I had those.

But Rose's life changes at the very beginning of the book with the loss of her mother. All she has left is the survival kit of the title, containing an iPod, a photo of flowers, a heart necklace, a paper star, some crayons and a tiny kite. Rose takes those things and over the course of the book, charts a new course for herself, without her mother.

And maybe even without the football player.  Rose grows closer to Will, who is a taciturn boy who lost his dad several years back. They manage to start a friendship that heals both of them. I love the characterization of Rose and Will. They have such a hard time plotting a relationship-struggling with whether they're even friends at the beginning to whether they think they should become more.

I'm giving this one four stars out of five because I love the way Rose keeps trying to move on and live with her grief anyway that she can. And also because I love that Will and Rose's relationship unfolds naturally, and not without its problems.