This is a sweet young adult novel.
It has the pre-requisite angsty story - a young boy kidnapped by his father returns home after 10 years, a teen girl with over protective parents who don't understand her - but the characters are likeable and the plot isn't too much of a stretch.
The teen characters - especially the uninterrupted friendship of Drew, Caro and Emmy - are realistic. Much of teen friendships is made of inside jokes and tremendous loyalty - this is portrayed well.
The parental unit could have been fleshed out a little more but by not doing that Benway gives you the feel that you can't really understand fully why they do what they do and isn't that what the teen years are really about? Not knowing why your parents do what they do or think how they think?