This was a very sweet coming of age story, focusing on one of the best kinds of found family--the workplace kind.
Brown's narration throughout made this a compelling read, and it's something that really shines in his writing. I sped through this in a number of hours, and it is a true testament to his writing style.
What I enjoyed most about this book, though, was the way it subverted my expectations, but not in an overly obvious or annoying way. Though they irritated me sometimes, the choices the characters made felt very natural and real, and with characters of this age I think it's so important to show the less black/white parts of life.
While I enjoyed the interactions with some of the residents more than I initially expected, I will say that the constant setting of the restaurant did feel slightly dragging at times, as we jumped from one scene there to the next, though I understand that is an inevitability in a book like this.

This was very high on my most anticipated releases of the year, and I was not disappointed. The story touched on a lot of difficult topics, but was really cohesive, and well structured. Whilst grief and loss were huge themes, they were subtle and didn't overshadow the story.

The setting was interesting and fresh for the genre, I preferred that it was set more in the workspace than school, because it really highlighted the characters and boosted the story. Admittedly, I wasn't a huge fan of Tommy's character at first, and that was largely because of the cheating and disregard for other people's feelings, but really admired the character growth that he went through and eventually ended up warming to him.

Every character had a definitive, and separate personality so it was easy to see each character individually, especially with the residents in the home, they weren't all the same grumpy old stereotype. Characters that weren't central to the plot were still memorable and likable and the friendship dynamic was perfectly captured. The whole book was very cute, and an enjoyable read, that has easily become a new favourite that I cannot wait to own and read again.