Kaitlin is in her senior year of high school, has a boyfriend she adores, college plans, and a close knit group of friends with whom she can hang out with on a daily basis. Her dad died suddenly and she doesn’t get along with her mother, but Kevin helps her through both the good and the bad. He sings a different song, however, when he gets her pregnant...

See the rest of my review at: http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/small-damages-beth-kephart/
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Kenzie is preggers and Mom sends her to Spain. The atmosphere is beautiful but the story is a bit lacking. ( )

Kephart has cemented herself as one of my most favorite writers in the universe. This is a very small list and she is at the top. Small Damages is absolutely amazing from the setting, to the MC, to her decisions and all of the side things that force her along throughout this generous plot. Hands down the best book I've read in 2012. ( )

Thanks to Beth for a great dinner with the author night at Harleysville Books! Loved the book, can't wait for the sequel! ( )

http://foreveryoungadult.com/2012/07/23/ive-waited-years-for-a-book-like-this/

Kenzie's father has died, and her mother is moving on, trying to edge into Main Line society by starting a catering business. Kenzie misses her father and isn't close with her mother; her longtime best friend Kevin helps her through her grief, and they become a couple. But when Kenzie becomes pregnant, she's on her own; her mother ships her off to Spain to have the baby and give it up to another couple. In Spain, Kenzie meets Miguel, Luis, Estela, Esteban, some gypsies, and Javier and Adair (the future parents of Kenzie's child). Estela teaches Kenzie to cook, and eventually reveals her own story, which resembles Kenzie's (give or take a civil war), giving Kenzie the strength to make her own decisions.

The author has a questionable stylistic habit of using some parts of speech as other parts: nouns as verbs, for example. Some might find this creative or charming, but I did not enjoy it to the extent used here.

Quotes

"So. You love him, or you don't love him. Distance doesn't matter." (74)

"You know what time is?"
"What?"
"It's distance."
"Maybe."
"Distance isn't the end of love." (77)

...vanishing seems to be the point that history makes. (88)

Nothing goes away, Esteban says, after a long time passes. Not the things you remember, and not the things you still want. (152)

Tell her...That every song begins with pain. And ends there. (165)

Home is a choice you make; it is where you are..." (167-168)

There's peace in not wanting what can't be had. There's peace in not regretting what was. (275) ( )