The Survival Kit by Donna Freitas

The Survival Kit by Donna Freitas

"When Rose’s mom dies, she leaves behind a brown paper bag labeled Rose’s Survival Kit. Inside the bag, Rose finds an iPod, with a to-be-determined playlist; a picture of peonies, for growing; a crystal heart, for loving; a paper star, for making a wish; and a paper kite, for letting go.

As Rose ponders the meaning of each item, she finds herself returning again and again to an unexpected source of comfort. Will is her family’s gardener, the school hockey star, and the only person who really understands what she’s going through. Can loss lead to love?"- summary from Amazon

I simply adore Donna Freitas' novels- she's definitely up there in my Top 5 Authors of All Time (Meg Cabot and Wendy Mass are there too; not sure about the other two yet... maybe I should make a list sometime?). It brightens my day when I have a new book from her, so it was a joy to read this new one. Her writing just flows so well and I really get involved in the storyline so the pages just fly by. This is her longest book yet but it just went by so quickly.

I loved the characters and Freitas did a wonderful job conveying the sense of loss felt by Rose and her family as well as Will, their gardener (and Rose's love interest) after losing their respective family members. The idea of the Survival Kit is really clever and I loved how it tied in to the storyline, spurring the plot along and bringing up memories of Rose's mom when she was still alive.

Seeing Rose work her way back into a normal life was handled really well. It happened slowly and organically, and just made sense. I really enjoyed the interactions with her friends as well as the slow build-up of interactions between her and Will. Their romance was really cute to read about and the ending was very sweet.

Overall, another success for Freitas and each of her books are so different from each other, which I just love and admire her for doing. It just makes each novel fresh and interesting. I can't wait to see what she does next!

FTC: Received ARC from publisher. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward contests.