If my ratings could do 1/2 I would have given Confessions of an Almost Girlfriend 4.5, it still had the same rawness, realism and depth in this book, but everything was just better! It totally goes with the concept of Rose Zarelli reinventing herself, creating a Rose 2.0. Confessions of an Almost Girlfriend is just that, Confessions of an Angry Girl 2.0.

Rose Zarelli is starting her Sophomore year as Rose 2.0 a reinvented Rose, one that can control her anger, stay out of other people's problems and concentrate on her and her future, but it wasn't as easy as she had hoped when the first chapter of the book her "saviour complex" gets the better of her as she tries to save Conrad, from a swim-team "initiation" that turned nasty.

"Go help your saviour-complex girlfriend," Conrad says. "Leave me the hell alone."

I absolutely love the characters in this series, and each book I see the tremendous growth that they go through. Rose is less of a 'stand by the sidelines and allow people to treat you like crap', she became more verbal and even sarcastic at times. Rose had the most character growth in this book, and whilst I didn't love her in book 1, I still "enjoyed her company", but this time, I wanted to be one of Rose's "friends".

Louise Rozett creating Rose 2.0 really did it for me, she was fantastic, strong, and more confident with herself, and this is really what I liked so much about Confessions of an Almost Girlfriend, she became more of her own person, she wasn't so whiny and unsure of what to do.

"I'll call you," he says.

"I'll believe it when I see it," 2.0 answers. I feel all sassy as I walk past him, even though what I said doesn't exactly make sense - you don't really see someone call you. But I don't care. I look over my shoulder and Jamie's still smiling, looking at me like he's seeing me in a different way. A new way. A way he likes.

Jamie Forta I have a love and hate relationship with him, he's gorgeous, older guy who seems to have a heart of gold, but why can't he just spit it out? Why does it need to always be a damn mystery with him, does he like her or not? Does he want to be with her or not? The whole back and forth between them just drove me crazy and I think this may have been the reason why I didn't really 'love' their relationship, it was torturous to say the least...yes, not just for Rose but for the readers! This quote below reiterates what I'm saying, she's stronger, different and even though she's crazy about Jamie she's seeing things a bit more clearer.

Once upon a time, I would have loved having weak, swoony limbs, but right here and now, in this moment, it pisses 2.0 off.

Jamie doesn't get to do this to me again. He doesn't get to just show up and take over my body for the time it takes to kiss me and then disappear.

Confessions of an Almost Girlfriend also dealt with very serious themes; bullying and homophobia and I liked how Louise was able to weave this into Rose's story without seeming preachy and moral of the story kind of book.

There are two standout original things that Louise Rozett does in Confessions of an Angry Girl and Confessions of an Almost-Girlfriend, firstly, she divided chapters into seasons e.g. Spring, Summer etc. so this brought me back to it feeling like I'm reading diary entries more so than being told a story. It also gave me the timeline that each book captures a year of Rose's life.

The second fantastic and original thing she does is the word and definition and how it affects the chapter or Rose's story. I know that these concepts may not seem large, but it showed me a few things, for starters Alfonso Zarelli, Rose's father was big on expanding her vocabulary, so I think this was her way of staying connected to her Father, it also gives the readers an insight on what Rose's thinking and why that was the word she chose for that particular chapter. I really like it when Authors do something this simple, but somehow it makes the story, character and book more stand out.

homophobic (noun): scared of homosexuality (see also: the Swim Thugs, and half of Union High)

The reason why I enjoyed Louise Rozett's Confession series so much is because it's so real, it's probably the most real story I've ever read and I really enjoyed that. It didn't seem to be a story at all, it felt like we're reading Rose's diary entries from the past, and I loved that. This story doesn't have the bad guys staying bad, the good guys getting everything they want at the end, this is a realistic story of life, the imperfect, rawness of it all.

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