Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Links: Goodreads | Amazon

Summary:
Emily was always the quiet one, the one that followed her best friend, Sloane's conversations. Sloane was a social butterfly, the girl who lit up the room. The summer of their junior year, Sloane disappears, leaving Emily only a list of things that are so un-Emily like. She believes that completing this list would lead her to her best friend. What she doesn't know is that it will lead her to so much more than Sloane.

Non-Spoiler Review: 
I'm sure many of you have heard that this book is pretty/really/impossibly good and I agree, sort of. If you're looking for a book with lots of romance, then this isn't it. There is romance, but it moves slowly and you don't get many super romantic moments that make you gushy. The concept/plot of this book is very well sought out and I praise the author for that. Emily, as a character, was relate-able for me because I'm not an outspoken person either and many of my friends over shadow me like Sloane. All in all, the book was great. It could have used a bit more romantic action but the friendship between Sloane and Emily was darn cute.

Spoiler-y Review: 
I'm so excited to review this really great book:) First off, I loved the play lists! The book doesn't exactly start off on a high note... like, where is Sloane? A list? Frank Porter? We get to our first little excerpt of before Sloane went missing and you can just feel Sloane's personality radiating off of her almost as much as you can feel hers and Emily's friendship, which I loved. Their friendship was so sweet, yet so real. For example, the whole Same and Gideon thing could actually have happened.

Next, we see Emily completing the things on her list with Frank, Dawn, and Collins. It was cool, wondering how she would complete each thing. The stranger kissing one was so straight forward, I actually didn't expect it. My favorite would have to be the Dance Until Dawn one because we really get to see Frank and Emily's relationship grow to something beautiful.

Honestly, I expected much more romance than the last page or two. I wanted to see Em and Frank together as a couple. Take Anna and The French Kiss for example, the romance in that was so great that it was frustrating seeing them not together. It's almost as though Emily didn't even go through that much emotionally when Frank rejected her(sorta) after the kiss, even though we all know that she did. I did like how Dawn got all defensive when Em told her that she kissed Frank because of Dawn's boyfriend troubles. That, I felt, was just so part of Dawn's character. The romance would be my only critique even though I know that this book isn't about the romance.

The ending was better than I expected it to be. I was wondering while reading this book, how is Morgan Matson going to explain Sloane's disappearance? But, she did and it was great. I totally understood that Sloane didn't want to hurt Em, so she thought that not saying anything would be better. I was really hoping to not have a Paper Towns Margo explanation because that sucked. Thank god it didn't. One thing about the ending, I would've been furious with Sloane for not even replying to my messages. I think Em was a bit mad, but I would've thought she'd be madder.

Personally, I could relate to Em's shyness and how she has this social butterfly best friend. As for Frank, I think that he's kinda cute with his totally formal stuff during school and his fun personality outside of school. Even though this books wasn't particularly funny(okay, the pony riding scenes were hilarious), Collins gave it the twinge of quirkiness it needed. Dawn was just... there? We didn't really see much of who she is and her personality is kind of plain.

Considering all, I really did enjoy this book, but it wasn't like everyone told me it was either. Maybe it's one of those books where the second time you read it, it's better. I DID LOVE IT THOUGH.

Rating: 8.8/10

Would I Recommend? If you love cute contemporary, then obviously yes. If you're looking for something very romance-y, then try Stephanie Perkins' books!