THE SHAPE OF MY HEART is book three in the I Want it That Way trilogy a series following different roommates living in apartment 2B together during college. This is a young adult series, and the writing style reflects that. I've read the first two in the series, so I knew going in that the whole book 'feel' is young. There's a sweet simplicity to the writing, though, that drew me into the lives of these young adults facing some huge challenges that many older adults would quail from. The 2B heroes and heroines have all clawed their happiness from a hardscrabble life that has demanded unflinching honesty and flat-out hard work, and I have found all the characters to be admirable and praiseworthy, without being too good to be true.

Courtney Kaufman feels not very pretty, with her large Jewish nose and her large butt and hips. She's not worried about these minor issues, though, because she knows what real problems are. Courtney's soul mate, her best friend through childhood, then turned boyfriend in adolescence, died at the edge of 17 of leukemia. Courtney still talks to him in her mind constantly. After Eli died, Courtney got hooked on the numbness of prescription meds, and her family put her in rehab. Courtney has left the bosom of her family to go to college in another state, also rebelling by getting multiple piercings and alt-hair.

Max Cooper has been on his own since he was 16, kicked out by his abusive father after a car accident where Max was driving resulting in the paralysis of his younger brother. After years of not having any contact with his family, Max has to go home for his grandfather's funeral. He asks Courtney go home with him to act as a buffer. They travel to Rhode Island and back on Max's motorcycle, and open up to each other along the way. The burgeoning trust that develops between the two is absolutely beautiful. There are so many poignant moments, and I found myself crying in my bathroom late at night as I was devouring the pages while the rest of my house was asleep. I couldn't put the book down until I knew how it ended.

THE SHAPE OF MY HEART is a New Adult book, and so there is the required angst in the story. It is not immature angst, though, or over-the-top behavior by unbelievable characters. Max and Courtney are lovely, down-to-earth people who have legitimate issues from terrible things that have happened in their lives. Their behaviors did not make me feel like they were in need of psychiatric help, either, but just in need of the healing that they eventually reached with the loving help of themselves, each other, and their friends. I found the characters to be refreshing, and I could relate to them.

Aguirre's THE SHAPE OF MY HEART touched my heart, and gave me a deeply satisfying ending for two wonderful characters who deserve every drop of happiness they can get.