Press

What the critics say

Split loyalties and the chasm between the young couple's life experiences make their enduring relationship a triumph
- Observer

A moving account of first love
- Independent

Downham gets right to the bottom of painful questions . . . [The book is] beautifully written with a painful but penetrating awareness and it has one of the sweetest love scenes I've read in a book for teenagers
- thebookbag.co.uk

Shot through with romance, this is a gripping and realistic look at how teenagers deal with big issues and face up to tough consequences when things go wrong
- Love Reading

A beautifully balanced novel with the darkness of the central crime never forgotten or over-sweetened by the love story
- Guardian

An intense and arresting love story about loyalty and the choices that come with it
- Sun (Ireland)

Touches on a lot of very difficult issues, but foremost, it is a beautiful, touching love story
- Library Mice

A fascinating dissection of family ties, loyalties and changing perspectives . . . This is a rich, sensitive, highly accomplished novel
- Books for Keeps

An unflinching tale of love under pressure
- Publishers Weekly