On the surface Emily Meckler leads the perfect life. Great friends, a loving family, whom she gets to see all the time, and is enrolled in a high class boarding school where her father is the headmaster. The only issue Emily has is when the lights turn off and she is kept awake at night by extreme nightmares of fire and water. Unable to identify the problem Emily goes to the school shrink every week, where all they do is increase the dosage on the medicine.  Where Emily has been attending her school since grade seven, it wasn't until grade eleven that thinks took a dramatic turn.

Del Sugar is a boy genius, who came into Emily’s life at a much unexpected time. A few days after grade eleven has started, Del walked in and took over the school by his mysterious past, his sharp humor and an apple tattooed on his arm. Emily, like every other girl in her class fell for him. The only difference is that he felt it back for her. Yet when her dad gave her the big old “no” for their relationship, Emily and Del stayed together, Romeo and Juliet style. Yet having night patrol, living in a room with three other girls, and her father being headmaster, it was harder than they thought. But still they try to when one accident leads to another; Emily has to be strong to keep her head on as her life spirals down fast.

I loved this book, as Jessica Warmen did a great good at character building. As the book was divided into three parts, each expressing an important phrase in Emily’s life. As the book takes place over grade eleven, the summer and most of grade twelve, I loved how she kept everything short and sweet to make the book easy to read with no boring middle bits. I love how Del and how even though everyone told Emily he was bad, she still felt connected to him, no matter what. Overall a great novel that does not need a sequel as it is perfect just the way it is.