Grit, by Gillian French

Small town Maine is not much fun for a teenager with bigger dreams.  And spending the summer working a cranberry farm is grueling work.  It gives Darcy something to do when she isn't going crazy in the evenings.

That wild girl side has given her quite a reputation, but it's hardly deserved.  Still, everyone seems to have a pretty low opinion of her, including her aunt (who's convinced that Darcy is a bad influence on Nell, her cousin).  What no one realizes is that Darcy and Nell share a secret that is eating them up and losing themselves at mindless parties is how they cope.

This novels works best as a mood piece for me.  French brings lots of color and character to her rural Maine setting, but the story is muddled and I found the characters largely interchangeable.  The great shocking conclusion comes pretty much out of left field (or so it felt).  Truth be told, I just couldn't get into keeping up with all of the characters, so that probably made it hard to track the nuances of the story.  I do know that I enjoyed just reading it and letting the characters and the events float by me.  Sometimes, you just enjoy reading a book for the places it shows and the mood it gives you.  And that's pretty much how I ended up feeling about this story.