I had many ups and downs with this book. It was pretty boring in the beginning and I had to force myself to continue to reading it. I was only reading like five pages or so at a time before setting the book down to go do something else. It wasn't totally crappy though. Once the new members joined the band, it got interesting for me. I liked the whole high school band aspect. I don't want to say this was super boring, but the tone was a bit mellow for me. This would probably be something to read if you want some realistic teen fiction. There's focus on friendship, romance, school, family issues, etc. The usual stuff.

To be honest, I hated 99% of the characters in this book. I wouldn't say I completely hated the main character Charlotte. As a person, she was alright. However, I thought she was a bit of a pushover and I didn't like the decisions she was making. Oliver is the biggest douche in the book. I wanted to like him, but he had so many bad qualities. He was selfish and I thought he was a crappy friend to Charlotte. I couldn't believe she (view spoiler)[forgave him so easily. He was a total jerk to her, what with the song lyrics and being moody in general. When they made up, I was like 'Really? That's it?'. They didn't even address the issues that made them fight in the first place. Nothing changed. Pretty much Oliver was going to continue being a demanding self-absorbed band mate and Charlotte was going to continue to be his doormat. I wanted them to make up, but it felt like a waste of time to have all that anguish and then have no character growth or discuss over it (hide spoiler)]. Even some of the characters I thought I was meant to like weren't all that likeable to me. I absolutely couldn't stand Taryn. She seemed like so much drama and acted like she was on crazy drugs. In fact, Benji was the only character I was so in love with. I didn't know what to think about him at first. There was something intriguing about him. He acted so distant and nonchalant that I wanted to read more about him. The more I read the more I loved him. From the start, I wanted Charlotte to get a boyfriend like him. I wanted to punch myself in the face when (view spoiler)[Charlotte told Benji she only liked him as a friend and that she had been using him. He ended up being such a sweetheart that it killed me to see him get hurt because it seemed like he genuinely liked her (hide spoiler)].

The ending made me so angry. My thoughts about the romance aside, I just hated how everything was left so open-ended. I was actually fairly content with how the conflicts were resolved and how things came together in the end, but there was so much unexplained. Personally, I wasn't too crazy about (view spoiler)[Trip and his awesomeness (hide spoiler)], but I was willing to run with it. The way it happened seemed rushed and like thirty pages had been condensed to two paragraphs. I don't fully get what this person's problem was. I felt like it was supposed to be some grand gesture, only I was kind of mehh about it. I wanted a bit more closure with how certain things and people. Also, maybe this is just me, but why DID Trip leave the band? I don't know if I was stupid and didn't realize when it was mentioned or if it just wasn't really mentioned at all. I honestly still have no clue.