At 471 pages,Friendship on Fire long for a typical story. What I mean by typical is it follows the path of a lot of other love/relationship stories: Girl has best friend who is a boy and is in love with her, but does't tell her, girl meets other boy who is bad for her, but she falls in love with him anyways, best friend boy is hurt by girl's blindness and pulls away, girl gives bad boy everything, girl realizes that best friend boy is the one for her, gets her heart broken, and her best friend boy ends up being her boyfriend and love of her life. Yall know what I'm talkin' bout. I'm just sayin it was long for such a common storyline.
It's like that for Daisy Brooks. Best Friends are Roman and Rachael. Other friends: Sarah and Shania. Boyfriend: Nate, who goes to the rival school.
I did like that it was set in Australia. I've often wanted to go there, but haven't yet. One day I will. The author uses Australian terms, so make sure you have Google around somewhere, if you aren't from there.
The characters are well crafted, and I enjoyed their personalities. Nate and Rachael are such charismatic, charmingly deceptive villains that it is hard for the reader and for Daisy to see past their deception. It's hard not to fall for Nate! Especially when Daisy is so enamored by him. I did kind of know that he would brake Daisy's heart at some point, though. Daisy and Roman are exceptionally fun characters, struggling to deal with relationship and life. It's hard for the reader to know that Daisy loves Nate, but Roman is better for Daisy.
I think that the author is saying in this novel is that people make mistakes, but have an indomitable spirit, are strong, struggle, but eventually forgive and move on. Nothing stops the human spirit. However, it is confusing to figure out the theme. Maybe it's simply that we should tell people how we feel before it's too late, and that love never fails.
On a final note, I did enjoy reading Friendship on Fire. it is a long, but the characters make up for it. It's sad, but has happiness in it too. Daisy loses friends, but makes new ones, who care for her even more. Being a senior in year 12, I can certainly identify with Daisy, and I know that a lot of others can too.
I recieved this book in exchange for a free review from the author. This is no way affected my opinions. Thanks to Danielle Weiler for sending me the book.
