I feel kinda like this was a short story rather than a book. We really didn't get a feel for who Mattie and Julie are. Then all these other characters are thrown in and they're either fast friends or flames or enemies and know who Mattie is ..all while we know nothing.
I also got the feeling that this was written about a 22-year-old and they just changed it to be 45 because it doesn't really fit but that could also be because we didn't really get much of a backstory.
It was a good start though and interesting. ( )