Wren Gray has always lived to please her parents. She’s a good girl. She got good grades, she didn’t do crazy things while in school, and she’s set up on a great path for college and a career thereafter. Everything seems pretty much picture book perfect and there’s no question that Wren’s privileged in having this.

Except, she’s not happy.

This isn’t what she really wants.

The Infinite Moment of Us is a story set over the summer between high school and college that follows as Wren chooses to diverge from the path that looked so straight before her. Because Wren isn’t happy — everything up until this moment has been about pleasing her parents and following through with what they expected of her. Rather than go to college, Wren has asked for a deferment and wants instead to spend a year in Guatemala doing volunteer service. She wants to do this not only because it’s a cause she’s interested in (I’d hesitate to say it’s a cause she’s passionate about because the truth is Wren doesn’t know her passions) and because it’ll give her an entire year to sort out what it is she wants from her life. Now that she’s 18, out of high school, and able to make her own life choices for herself, Wren is ready to stand up and do just those things.

If she can tell her parents of her plan, that is. Because as of now, they’re still thinking she’s going to Emory in the fall.

Enter Charlie. He’s always been a guy on Wren’s mind — just a little — but she’s never pursued relationships before seriously. She had other things she had to do, and she always had it in the back of her mind that a serious romance would mar the image her parents held of her. He’s kind of a mystery, but this summer, Wren finally has the chance to get to know Charlie. He’s not what he appears on the outside at all. Sure, he’s sweet and charming, but he’s got a much deeper personal life than Wren ever expected. He’s a foster child, and his brother Dev is disabled. Charlie also has a friend named Starrla who he cares deeply about — they had been in a relationship before — and she’s regularly needing his time and attention.

Over the course of the summer, Wren and Charlie become very close. Their relationship is one of compassion, care, and intimacy. In fact, it’s easiest to maybe suggest this book’s theme is that of intimacy: what does it mean to know someone, both in an emotionally raw manner and in a physically raw manner? We know Wren’s course of action from the start is she wants a change. She wants to take complete ownership of her life and follow through on things that she wants to do, without regard to what her parents want for her. Charlie fears he’s stuck in his situation because of his background. As much as the two of them fall for one another, Wren regularly holds back, and she regularly reassess who she is in relation to Charlie. Can someone with the privilege and future she has before her possibly have a reason to complain to Charlie, who is helping take care of his brother? Who hasn’t had a charmed child or teen hood like she has?

This is where Lauren Myracle gets fantastic.

Of course Wren has the right to do this, and Charlie encourages and supports Wren through her deeply internal struggles. Where her “problems” are about wanting to separate her own desires from those her parents have hoisted upon her, Charlie reminds her that her problems aren’t silly. That just because his situation is different from hers doesn’t mean that her situation isn’t problematic or challenging or doesn’t merit the sort of time and consideration she’s given to it. Where she wants to regularly “rise above” her problems, Charlie reminds her that it’s okay not to. That it’s okay to feel as she does and that she is, in fact, making changes, even if it doesn’t necessarily feel or seem like it to her.

The Infinite Moment of Us deals with female sexuality — with teen sexuality more broadly — in a very straight-forward, honest manner. This book doesn’t pull punches. Wren and Charlie are intimate, and it doesn’t black out on the page. Myracle instead offers readers truth about what happens between two people who engage in sex, and she’s forthright in expressing what happens to a female body when arousal happens. But what puts this book squarely in the camp of empowering female sexuality (which I’ve written in detail about before) is how unashamed Wren is about what happens to her body. It’s not gross. It’s not embarrassing. It’s just what it is — “Heat spread up her body. Her nipples hardened and her breathing changed, and when she imagined not just his eyes on her, but his hands, his mouth, she grew suddenly, undeniably wet. It embarrassed her, but she didn’t want to be embarrassed. Should she be embarrassed? No. She should be . . . She should be excited, which she was, and thrilled and aroused. Her body’s response to the boy she loved was a good thing. It was bodies being bodies.”

Not only was this reflective of what happens during physical intimacy, but it mirrored precisely what Wren experienced internally about her future, too. It was hers. She could do with it what she wanted. She could be embarrassed about it, or she could react with excitement and thrill and understand she had ownership of it for herself.

As much as there’s physical intimacy, there is emotional intimacy as well. That’s reflected in how Wren takes the things in her life and considers them, but more so, it’s reflected in how she considers her relationship with Charlie. In one moment, when she’s feeling the need to talk out her thoughts and problems with him (of course, a moment where she feels she’s being silly and that her problems are microscopic and “first world”), Charlie tells her that he is always here for her. She notes that that single line was one of the most intimate things a person can say to another person — and it’s also proof to her that she has the right to feel what it is she does and share it how she needs to.

This book isn’t perfect, though. As much as it’s powerful in what it portrays in terms of intimacy, sexuality, independence, and the right to pursue one’s dreams on one’s own, the secondary characters are fairly flat. Wren’s best friend is good for sex advice for Charlie (and I loved her for that and I loved Charlie for thinking to talk to Tessa in the first place) but beyond that, she’s more prop than full character. More problematic, though, was the Starrla storyline. We know she and Charlie had a challenging relationship and that he still holds her well-being high on his list of cares. But when she tracks him down and pulls out all the stops to regain his attention, I found myself more annoyed than anything. I get that that was the point — and it’s the point Wren walks away with, too, since Starrla is what creates a rift and change in dynamics in her relationship with Charlie — but I think it needed to be pushed a little further elsewhere in the book to have really made the impact it could have made.

I also took issue with the end of the story. Because it’s spoiler, I won’t share what happened, but I’ll say I felt it was the easy way out of the story for both Charlie and Wren. Many readers will find it satisfying and I totally get that.

By now you’ve figured out this book deals with sex and is not shy about that. This isn’t a book for your younger teens — unless they’re ready for it (and many will be). There is an author’s note at the beginning of the book detailing why the choices were made to be forthright in depicting teen sex in the novel, and I think it’s as important a read as the book itself. Teens have sex. These two teens in particular have discovered the power and value of intimacy and they are unashamed in expressing and sharing that with one another. This isn’t about titillation, though it would be naive to say that teens who read this might not find it to be so — and you know, I think that’s okay. It’s presented in a very safe manner, and while the goal from the story perspective certainly isn’t about that (and as an adult I can read the story through that lens and not find it sexy at all), it’s impossible to project how teens will read it. In other words, it’s clear the sex isn’t in there to be sexy; it’s in there because it’s true to Charlie and Wren.

Myracle’s book is empowering and feminist. I’d go so far as to say that it’s this generation’s update of Judy Blume’s classic Forever. As I read the book, I couldn’t help thinking that this is the kind of book I wish I’d had during my high school years. I would have felt less alone in some of the things I was thinking and feeling, and I know I certainly would have appreciated the honesty with which Myracle portrayed sexuality and what is a completely normal function of a body. Charlie is easy to like, but he’s not without flaws. Wren is the same way — though she may be a little tougher to like from the start than Charlie, she’s real and dynamic as a result. Myracle’s story is written in third person, distancing readers from the intimacy while managing to bring the intimacy even closer to the reader. This is a fast-paced read and one that will linger.

Pass The Infinite Moment of Us along to readers who want a strong romantic storyline, compelling characters, and who crave emotional rawness to their books. Give it to teen readers who enjoy feminist stories or who are skeptical of how YA authors treat their readers — Myracle respects them as complex, intellectual people who can make choices for themselves, and there is never a doubt about that in the story.

This is one of my favorite reads this year. And please don’t call it “new adult” just because it’s set in the summer after high school or deals with sexuality. The Infinite Moment of Us is a YA novel through and through.

Review copy received from the publisher. The Infinite Moment of Us is available August 27.