Five Minutes More

I can't believe that today is Friday and I have hardly finished any books I have started this week. I think loving Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman has made it difficult to find something to read - what will top that? So, I have started *several* books and am working on most of them (there was one YA book I started and 50 pages later, decided to stop reading). Right now I am reading 6 different books - usually I have 3-4 going at a time, so I will be happy to get back to my more regular reading groove. The good news is that eventually I will have a lot of reviews to post.

This morning I finished Five Minutes More by Darlene Ryan. There were lots of things I really liked about this one, and a thing or two that I didn't.

D'Arcy's dad has died. He drove his car into the river, and while D'Arcy can't believe he is dead she has an even harder time accepting her dad killed himself. D'Arcy's life has changed, and while her friends realize a part of what she is going through, there is no way they can fully understand what she is feeling. D'Arcy finds herself especially distant from her boyfriend, Brendan. While this is going on Seth, a peer tutor in math starts spending more time with D'Arcy, teaching her to juggle. The two have a friendship of sorts, yet later when D'Arcy finds out that Seth's brother Eric committed suicide she questions why he wants to be her friend.

There is a lot more to this novel, more issues that D'Arcy must deal with that I don't want to give away. The only thing I didn't like was how rushed the ending felt to me. When D'Arcy spends some time away from home toward the end of the novel, I am questioning if that was a necessary part of the story. I feel like the story would be just as good, and perhaps not feel as rushed if it had been left out.

I also appreciate the fact that this book is about the suicide of a parent, something I don't think I have ever read about in a young adult novel.