A Little Friendly Advice by Siobhan Vivian

All Ruby plans on doing for her sixteenth birthday is indulge in ice cream cake, take pictures with her new vintage Polaroid camera, and hang out with her three good friends. There's Beth, who's been her loyal best friend for years, Maria who is full of advice on boys, and Katherine, who Ruby is not so sure about. Everything is going great until Ruby's father, who walked out on her and her mom six years ago, shows up with a cheap bouquet of carnations wanting to talk. Ruby doesn't know how to handle the situation and ends up running off to party with her friends. The next day thoughts of her father flood her brain and she starts wondering why he might of come. Over the next couple days Beth tries to lighten Ruby's mood hoping that Ruby won't start to slip like she did when her dad first left. Ruby seems to be okay, especially when she meets Charlie. Charlie is the first guy that's ever really been into her, but she's having some trust issues that relate back to her dad. When Ruby discovers that Beth has been keeping a secret from her she immediately starts to question the honesty of her friend. With Charlie's help Ruby discovers that it's okay to make decisions on her own and she doesn't always need her friends' say in the matter. Will Ruby make things work with Charlie? Will her friendship with Beth be in jeopardy?

I'm not really sure there are words to describe how utterly awesome and jaw dropping this book was. I had heard so many good things about it that I had really high expectations for it. It exceeded every one of these expectation with flying colors! The story was honest and raw and just plain refreshing. Ruby's character was awesome. I truly felt like I could connect with her and I could relate to what she was going through. I've never had a parent leave or anything, but I do understand all of her problems with her friends. When the book was over I was so sad, because I didn't want it to end, it was just that good. I also loved Ruby's fascination with photography. I love how she captured different aspects of her world through Polaroids. That one wacky characteristic got to me and really made me realize how much I love taking pictures and capturing my world in a certain moment. One last thing I really liked was the humor. While it wasn't always "ha ha" funny there was this feeling I got while reading it that made a smile spread across my whole face. All in all this book was unspeakably good and a phenomenal first novel by Siobhan Vivian. I highly recommend you go buy it because you will want to read it over and over again, I know I certainly will!!