Only okay. Typical teen angst YA novel about being dumped by the guy of her dreams, who turns out to not have been such a great prize anyway. They dated for 5 months, and he then breaks up with her a few days after she wouldn't spend the night with him. And he's been fooling around behind her back for an unknown period of time. Despite the fact he's a sleeze she is devastated, which is certainly understandable. However, the martyrdom routine gets old quickly. Even after he has been openly dating the new girl for several months, it's still a combination of "oh, woe is me, I can't live without Max" and "what can I do to make him see that I'm the one he should be with?" Agony 1, Self-Awareness 0. Even when she's theoretically trying to follow the book that's central to the plot, the end goal is still to get Max back rather than get over him. But, once she has the glimmer of an opportunity to do so she is finally able to just say "no."
The relationship with Gene was a little contrived. They go on a blind date, have a good time, he kisses her, she has a total meltdown (tears and snot) because she's still in love with Max, dives into a cab to get away, never responds to any of his attempts at further communication, yet when they conveniently wind up at the same summer internship program they're planning a coffee date within the first 5 minutes. Apparently he's a good sport who can tolerate a girl with psychotic breaks. Meanwhile she almost turns him down because she's freaked out that he might someday break up with her, so why bother getting involved in the first place?
Just couldn't find her a very sympathetic character. High school was a time for relationship drama and it was occassionally painful but we survived without this much angst.