Cath and Wren are identical twins, and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they’re off to university and Wren’s decided she doesn’t want to be one half of a pair any more – she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It’s not so easy for Cath. She’s horribly shy and has always buried herself in the fan fiction she writes, where she always knows exactly what to say and can write a romance far more intense than anything she’s experienced in real life.
Now Cath has to decide whether she’s ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she’s realizing that there’s more to learn about love than she ever thought possible.
If I’d read this as a teenager, I think I’d have fallen a little in love.
We meet Cath and Wren as they head off to university. For Wren it’s an opportunity to grow and become her own person; for Cath it’s a living nightmare. Scared by pretty much everything, Cath spends most of her first weeks hiding in her room eating protein bars because she hasn’t worked out where the canteen is!
Cath is taken under the wing of her surly room-mate, Reagan, and her close friend, Levi. Though she takes refuge in her writing of fan-fiction, the pair force Cath to take her first steps towards independence. In the wrong hands Cath would have been a pitiful character, but as we slowly work out some of the things that have helped make Cath what she is we come to understand her a little more.
Throughout the novel we have excerpts from Cath’s favourite series and her own writing. I have to say that these were my least favourite parts of the novel by the end. They were serving the purpose of helping to illustrate some of Cath’s thoughts and ideas, but I was far more interested in what was happening to the main characters.
A beautifully told story, that I will certainly recommend to my students.