There were aspects of this that I liked. I liked the way it shined a spotlight on the plight of families who've been split up by immigration laws. I can't even begin to imagine the horror of that happening, but the author does a pretty good job of showing its effects. And it deals with racism and poverty, which, let's face it, are always relevant topics.
I liked Carly and how loyal she was to her family, even though her family was pretty toxic to her. Her brother wasn't too bad, although he was quite controlling, but her parents putting all the emotional blackmail pressure on her to be earning money to smuggle them back across the border while she was still in high school was not great.
Arden was a bit of a dick. Okay, maybe not a dick, but I wasn't a huge fan. He was the rich kid who doesn't get enough attention from his parents and who acts out as a result. He pulls pranks and fine, if he wants to waste his own time doing what I thought were some pretty uninspired practical jokes that's his business but the bit where he got totally obsessed with drawing Carly into his stupid schemes was a bit creepy.
And the bit where he came over like the knight in shining armor was a bit tedious too. It's not really a spoiler, but he gets Carly a job that's a lot better than the one she had, like she was incapable of getting a job for herself. PLUS the only reason he got her another job was so that she would have more time to come out and prank people with him. Actually, scrub what I said before - he was kind of a dick.
Despite this, the writing was pretty good. I was a bit unsure about the POV switch between the first person (Carly) and third person (Arden) - it would have been better if Arden's POV had been first person, but other than that the writing was pretty solid.
All in all, though, this just seemed to be a whole bunch of dickish people crapping all over a nice, albeit, slightly doormat-ish girl. I wasn't sure whether I wanted them all to back the hell off of her, or for Carly to grow a pair and tell them all to get lost.
2.5 stars