Rowena’s review of The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle.

For as long as she can remember, Wren Gray’s goal has been to please her parents. But as high school graduation nears, so does an uncomfortable realization: Pleasing her parents once overlapped with pleasing herself, but now… not so much. Wren needs to honor her own desires, but how can she if she doesn’t even know what they are?

Charlie Parker, on the other hand, is painfully aware of his heart’s desire. A gentle boy with a troubled past, Charlie has loved Wren since the day he first saw her. But a girl like Wren would never fall for a guy like Charlie—at least not the sort of guy Charlie believes himself to be.

And yet certain things are written in the stars. And in the summer after high school, Wren and Charlie’s souls will collide. But souls are complicated, as are the bodies that house them…

Sexy, romantic, and oh-so-true to life, this is an unforgettable look at first love from one of young adult fiction’s greatest writers.

I’m not sure what I was expecting when I picked up this book but whatever it was, I wasn’t expecting what I got. I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with these characters and their stories. This book made me laugh, it made me sigh and it made me so hot damn happy that I didn’t know what to do with myself.

Charlie Parker has loved Wren Gray since the first day he saw her but he’s never had the nerve to ask her out because he thought she was too good for someone like him. He’s a foster kid who won’t let himself get too close to his foster parents even though they want him to be a part of their family. He’s got a younger brother who needs him and who he knows he will always be around for and nobody is more surprised when Charlie finally makes his move on Wren, a love springs forth between the two that quickly becomes the most important thing in both of their lives.

Wren has always been a good girl. She’s always followed the rules, kept her parents happy and in turn, she’s not happy. She’s not doing what she wants to do with her life. She’s doing whatever they want her to do and before she knows what it what, she has deferred her first year of college without telling her parents and she put plans in works to go to Guatemala to volunteer and help out any way that she can.

As much as I loved this book, it wasn’t a perfect reading experience. There were times when I wanted to strangle Wren because I felt like she was such a selfish individual. I felt like she was always mad at the wrong people. Charlie was devoted to her but had some real people problems. Problems that she didn’t understand because her parents got her everything she wanted and even though it wasn’t her fault that she didn’t understand Charlie’s problems, the hot and cold way that she was with Charlie some of the time without confronting him made me want to smack some sense into her. Charlie wasn’t a perfect character but his heart was always in the right place. He was a young Captain Save a Hoe and he didn’t know that some hoe’s, you can’t save. Starla fit into that category.

This story was about teenage love at its finest but also at its worse. There’s a lot of selfishness and there’s a lot of angst but there’s also a wealth of love for each other in this book and I ate it all up. I was so glad that I read this book and am pretty excited to read more from this author. I definitely recommend.

Grade: 4 out of 5

This book is available from Amulet Books. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.