I picked this up after seeing it on many 2009 Top Reads lists, and I think it was very deserving. For a debut, it wowed me.

A couple of technical annoyances in the beginning (funnily enough, it was both an overuse of dialogue tags, as well as several sections when I couldn't figure out who was saying what, and had to go back and count lines!), but I was soon absorbed in the world of Simon & Declan and Australian football, which is saying something when I know nothing about the sport. Very strong Australian setting, which I really liked, though I had to work out local slang occasionally (now I know what people mean when they talk about British chicklit). And a very realistic relationship, looking at pressures of fame.