Sometimes It Happens by Lauren Barnholdt

Senior year. Should be the best year of high school. Yet Hannah can't even get out of her car in the school parking lot on the first day back from summer break.

Because she has a secret. A secret that will kill all of her friendships and relationships with her closest friends in that building.

It happened during the summer break before senior year started. Her best friend was off in Maine at a camping summer vacation and Hannah was heartbroken over her ex-boyfriend cheating on her.

Yes, Hannah made a new friend. Yes, Hannah got a job to keep her busy over Sebastian's betrayal the last day of junior year.

And yes, what Hannah did was inexcusable toward her best friend.

But Hannah can't changed what happened the night before. And she can't keep the guilt to herself any longer. Because her best friend deserves more than that. Ava deserves the truth, even though Hannah knows they will no longer be friends anymore.

As much as Hannah fought all summer, she couldn't deny her feelings toward another guy. A guy that was strictly forbidden from her to date. Because he was dating someone else. Someone Hannah knew.

Now it comes down to that first day of senior year. When everything blows up and hits the fan. And all Hannah wants is for this day to be over with. But will she make it to the second day? Read Sometimes It Happens by Lauren Barnholdt to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
Hmm. On one hand, I really appreciate what Barnholdt did with this novel. She took a rough subject, one that many go through in their life, and put it in a novel for others to read and try to "understand" the wrong side of this cliche story line.

On the other hand, I really did not like Hannah. Not because of what she did, but because of the way she acted and spoke, and...I dunno. There was just something that I didn't like about her. Maybe it was her use of "like" and "totally" that made me cringe everytime I read it and imagined her saying over and over.

For the most part, I enjoyed this novel. I started and finished it in one day, so it's not a long book or hard to read. I wasn't sure of the alternating chapters going from "The First Day of Senior Year" to "Summer", telling Hannah's story back and forth from what happened during the summer to cause this rift to the actual day that everything blew up. It was different. It was interesting. I wonder what it would have been like if it went from the beginning to the end, but I didn't hate this format.

I think I spoiled myself with Barnholdt. I started reading her stuff with Two-Way Street and LOVED that novel. But everything that I've read after that has fallen short... I really want to love all of her novels, but find that they just don't live up to my expectations (except for maybe Aces Up).

I'm still going to read some more of her later works, because I want to be a true fan of Barnholdt, but we'll see if I love any other novels from her.

So this novel was alright. It's about betrayal, summer romance, friendships, and deceit  If any of that sounds interesting to you, I would say pick it up and see if you like it. It does have content that would be better suited for older teens and young adults.