Getting By by Claudia Y. Burgoa

(Image found on Goodreads)

"Before my eyes began the next big flood, I swept the memories under the imaginary rug of not now." -Claudia Y. Burgoa, Getting By

Emma arrives back in her hometown, already regretting her decision to be her friend's Maid of Honor. At first, only because she still feels guilt over the death of her parents. But than it quickly develops into seeing the man that she fell in love with and than left. Instead of the sleep with everyone he can week, Jake finds himself having to make decisions; decisions that could break or make Jake and Emma. Find the official description on Goodreads.

Okay, so just gonna say that yay for Claudia Y Burgoa mentioning the Avengers! I just felt like that needed to be mentioned or my review would be totally weird or something like that. But anyway, on to the actual review!

Getting By goes back and forth between Emma and Jake's perspectives. And it's obvious as well as mentioned in the chapter headings. This allows us to understand both of their perspectives(even though at times I felt like both were a little...crazy for some of their actions, even when we know their thoughts.). We are also given much of their shared history before getting into the main part of the book. This allows a deeper understanding of both characters, and their shared past, although we still don't know a whole lot about their separate pasts until later in the book.

I think that Getting By sticks really close to real life. In fact, Emma's a bit screwed up and while some of it is her cross to bear, it's also because of some of the issues that her parents helped to create. I'm not saying that everyone is going to be like Emma. But I do think that parents, while trying their best, can also create issues in their own children. And we see this in Getting By, Emma isn't an artist even though she really wanted to be when she was younger, because her father disapproved of it and after his death she was trying to make him proud.

It wasn't hard to read Getting By even with both characters having their moments of stupidity. It was fun to see the two battle their feelings for each other and the reader is entertained by their problems and how they work through things.