When Life Gets in the Way by Ines Vieira

When Life Gets in the Way by Ines Vieira is the coming-of-age story of Cassandra (Cass) MacKenzie and Isaac Silva, told in alternating POVs, and how each of them struggles with adversity during those trying teenage years. It is also a sweet love story with an emphasis on family dynamics and the important of family to relationships.

Cass is totally driven. She has one goal in mind and that is getting into Berkeley. She has been planning this life since she was a young girl and she is so close to her goal she can taste it. There are only two small problems. The first is her mother who has recently been extremely depressed and then there is her unexpected and unwanted desire for Isaac whose family has recently returned to Plymouth from Arizona.

Then there is Isaac, who seems to be the exact opposite of Cass. He has no goals in life for himself other than to graduate from high school and then get himself and his mother as far away from his drunken abusive father as possible. He always thought of himself as a bad boy and girls just drift by him in a steady parade but never stay long enough to fully capture his attention for more than a moment. That is until he meets Cass.

Despite being polar opposites, immediately there is a strong attraction between them. Cass and Isaac both just want and need the friendship that has started between. Yet, they both struggle with the physical attraction they have for each other. Each has their own reason for wanting to stay friends. Cass does not want her attention diverted from getting into Berkley and Isaac does not want anything to keep him in Plymouth. It becomes apparent they can no longer ignore or resist the feelings they have for each other and this will affect their lives more than they can imagine.

I liked this story. The characters where well thought out and their struggles and challenges were true to life. The story was a little slow in places; yet in the end, the personal challenges that Cass and Isaac faced where enough to keep the reader engaged with the story. The only negative for me was the numerous grammatical mistakes. I can overlook a few but this went beyond that.

I suspect most readers are not as particular as me about grammar; therefore, I feel confident in recommending this book to anyone who likes YA and YA romance.

Disclaimer: I used my Kindle Unlimited subscription to read this book; though, the author did request the review.