Dexter and Emma meet on July 15th 1988 on the night of their graduation, young and wondering what the future holds... well, Emma is at least. Dexter would like to stay exactly the way he is now. It's within the first few pages of this book that you are drawn into these 2 characters who seem just like any other 2 students about to go into the big wide world. Dexter is wanting to slip away and make excuses however, despite himself, he doesn't and the next thing you notice is it's a new chapter and the date at the top proclaims it's a whole year later on the same day and we're reading about the same 2 characters and just what has happened since that one day in 1988.
The book is set over 20 years and goes by too quickly, just like real life, and everything feels like it's been left too late.

Emma and Dexter are so life like and jump right out of the book. Dexter is a very unlikeable character in the early stages of the book as he leans towards the drink, drugs and party side of life whilst Emma is struggling and wondering what to do about her career whilst working as a waitress in a cheesy Mexican restaurant. Despite not liking Dexter's behaviour it's hard to stop reading and the relationships in this book that are created seem so real and cringeworthy.

I wrongly assumed this book would be about 2 people in love and following their lives, this is so very wrong and for the most part of the book you never want them to actually get together, Dexter is too undeserving of Emma. However she hangs onto him, even if just as a friend, and I constantly waited for Dexter to 'brush up' his act and for them to get together, but each new chapter and each new year sees them growing closer apart.

I found this book so true to life right until the very end. I read this book in only a matter of days, it's one of those books you think about during the day and simply can't wait to get back into. Despite having finished the book I'm still thinking about Dexter and Emma and that's really got to say something about the quality of this book.
This book made me laugh and actually cry, the only book to make me cry since The Time Traveler's Wife which I found quite amusing as a quote from Tony Parsons on the back of this book reads, 'the best weird love story since The Time Traveler's Wife,' and it really is! I had been looking for another book to draw me in the way that did, and I found it with this book.

This book is not one to be missed, buy it or borrow it, I am certain that the thoughts of Dex and Em won't leave your mind for days after you have turned that last page.