I've read a few YA books recently and this is up there with the best of them. The characters are spiky, real and believable. It's not all easy-going for them, so be prepared for bumps along the way - think bittersweet, rather than saccharine. The characters are flawed and authentic - sometimes they're loveable and sometimes you want to shake 'em into seeing what's really going on around them; but the fact that you care enough to think that is kind of the point. So it's not all neat, in fact, the lives of Henry & Grace are often more than a bit messy, but the author makes you care and does not sugar coat it. She treats her characters - and her readers as (young) adults. So this is a kind of romance/coming of age story about people that you want to have a happy ending. The question is: do they get that happy ending?