This story started very strong for me, but sadly, I ended up not enjoying it. The main character takes a long time to grow, and his constant negativity started to bother me more than I wanted his life to improve. Chad was annoying because he kept repeating the same phrases; that made his characterization seem flat and boring, which is a shame because he had a lot of potential. Ira and the main character's mom were also pretty flat, and they weren't enough to make me want to read on. Hannah seemed promising, and I probably would have been more interested in the story overall if she were in it more or the actual focus. As for the plot, it's about pulling a family out of debt after a tragedy, and they focus on saving the bookstore. With all the negativity, I felt like they just needed to let it all go. The character buildup was very slow, so if you like slow builds it would probably work for you.