3.5 stars rounded up.

I will say that this book took me entirely by surprise. I went in expecting a light, funny romantic comedy about an American studying abroad and I did not get that. However, what I did get was a wonderful story about life, adventure, growing up, and grief. I will say that I wish the ending was a bit neater, but I loved that the author made me love these characters. However, a lot of the friends really took a back seat to the love story and I think that's a shame because they were wonderful characters.

Also, for a study abroad story we spend an alarming amount of time not studying.