I Love That Girl by Hannah R. Goodman

Four ride-or-die friends since early high school reunite over Christmas break their senior year of college — but their happy reunion is hijacked by a collision of expectations and angst. Ethan, just returned from a semester in South America with a ring burning a hole in his pocket, is eager to settle down with Nori and start their happily ever after, just as Nori is trying to figure how to break the news that she’s leaving for India to spend a year pursuing her yoga passion. Meanwhile Andy, the well-embraced ‘gay’ friend of the group is struggling first to admit, and then to convince, his overly-supportive friends that he’s really bi and in love with a girl — the fourth member of their group, Gwen, whose heart he broke back in high school when he first discovered his attraction to men.

The stories of these four, told in alternating first person, present tense, brilliantly captures the meandering, messiness of life, love, and sexuality, a fact that may frustrate those who want their storylines neatly packaged with all the loose ends tied up. Goodman doesn’t manipulate her characters into anything that cliché. And yet, beneath the sharp-edged humor that will have you laughing out loud and the poignancy that will have you aching to just make things right for these four flawed people, is an undercurrent that leaves us… and them …hopeful about all those things. These are characters that continue to live in your mind after you’ve closed the book. And yes, I’m still rooting for them.