" Beautifully written and full of some lovely ideas - Transcendentalism (of a sort) at its finest - but both plot and characters are woefully underdeveloped. Important events are glossed over or only mentioned briefly, and the timeline is bizarrely structured such that months pass with hardly a mention while a week is stretched over fifty pages. This leaves the reader confused about when things are happening, and it also lends to the lack of development of the characters. We rarely learn about a character's personality through his/her actions or words; rather, Forster expounds at length upon them, occasionally throwing something in to add to his stated intentions. It is because of the hurried timeline and the undefined characters that I found the romance unconvincing, as much as I wanted to love it. It's hard to believe in Love when that love is two teenagers who've had 3 conversations and who barely have personalities, let alone compatible ones. As that is where the principles of the book are most heavily rested, it was difficult to believe in the book.
It is, however, an enjoyable read: Forster's prose is absolutely lovely. "
— Breda, 2/19/2014