How Hard Can Love Be? by Holly Bourne

Amber's going abroad to visit her mum whom she's not seen for two years and escaping her evil step mum and stepbrother as well as her dad, she's looking forward to being in her mum's sole focus, which actually never happens as her mum keeps her helping at the summer camp she owns.

Her mum was an alcoholic and doesn't seem to remember anything meaningful to her daughter between them. She seems controlled and settled into just being with her 'bum chinned' husband Kevin.
As she gets closer to Kyle despite her mums warnings, she finds out a lot from him about her mum's addiction struggle still now and why she has it in for Kyle specifically.

She keeps in touch with Evie and Lottie online through email and Skype, even when she runs away from the camp with Kyle after a huge row with her mum. Everything is too much and not enough at the same time in her life and we see the struggles of growing up with an addict parent over crucial years of a child/young teens life.

It raises a serious issue about alcohol abuse and how it can cause alcohol issues in their children too. It can after all be in the gene's. It also features how they look for love in any form to rely on and feel loved. I really enjoyed the whirlwind storyline which evolves over the summer holiday's in this book.