The synopsis: For a year, 16-year-old working-class boy Colton Morrissey met rich girl Julia Vernon, his schoolmate and girlfriend of a member of the local gentry, on a regular and frequent basis. No one knew of their romance until the night Julia was killed in a car accident (in which Colt was uninvolved). Hubbard sensitively shows the year before the accident and the year following—as Colt comes to terms both with Julia’s death and the need to share the secret of their romance. Julia is revivified through a diary she kept and which her brother gives to Colt. His friends, including would-be lovers and guys who can’t see past class lines, and parents are fully human; his mostly offstage older brother joins the action long enough to help Colt understand why the worst secrets are those we keep from ourselves.

My thoughts: Compelling, unique in that it comes from the male perspective, I couldn't put this down before I finished it in one sitting, and though I read it well over six months ago, the appeal still holds true. Though the story didn't stay with me, the evocativeness of it did, and I definitely look forward to reading it again.