In Gulf City, Florida, a group of high school friends are starting their last year of high school. The two viewpoint characters are Callie (California) McCoy, and Jamie Daniels. Callie and her twin brother Colby live with their Aunt Kat, working in the diner they inherited from their mother, Allison, when she died six years ago. They know nothing about their father. Callie, like her mother, is an enthusiastic and very good surfer. She is not otherwise either very social, or very interested in school.

Jamie Daniels is the younger son of a state senator with higher ambitions. The older brother, Jayden, is the apple of his father's eye, and also Callie's boyfriend, or so it appears to everyone except Callie and Jay. Jamie has a bad relationship with his father for reasons that no one outside the family knows. Jamie is also rather a troublemaker.

With the end of the summer, Jay is gong off for his first year of college. Callie, Colby, Jamie, Colby's girlfriend Morgan and her sister Parker are going through their momentous final year of high school together.

There are unsuspected, explosive secrets in the McCoy family. There are explosive secrets in the Daniels family.

And there's an ordinary boy, Matthew Franklin, who is the target of endless bullying at school. Callie is troubled by it, and Matthew's grandfather, Seth, is a regular at the diner, but she has no idea what to do that would make a difference.

All three families are heading toward a shocking climax to the school year.

These kids are intelligent, flawed, basically good kids, going through what's always a challenging time, with some extra challenges thrown at them.

This feels very real to my own memories of that time in my life. While I was more like Colby in my love of schoolwork, I completely relate to Callie's feelings of social disconnection--and while it didn't end the same way, I remember when the bullied kids was not Matthew, but me.

An excellent read for young adults and for people who remember that time in their lives. Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
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2.5 Stars
I received a copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

The waves roses up to shake our solid ground. Our peace torn away. What was once still raged like an angry storm. Destroying. Drowning. Dragging our refuge to the depths. Then all was calm once again, and we knew. We were never invincible.

[b:We Thought We Were Invincible|34211216|We Thought We Were Invincible (Invincible, #1)|Michelle Lynn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1486660717s/34211216.jpg|55258515] tells the story of Callie McCoy as she struggles with finding herself and navigating relationships and moving forward in life, when you don't know where you want to go.

PROS:
-Callie. I loved seeing Callie grow as a character. We are introduced to a young girl who is withdrawn and isolates herself after losing her mom at a young age. Through the story and challenges she faces, Callie grows more confident in herself and begins to rely on herself and overcomes her own fears.
-Creative Writing Class. I loved the creative writing class and the project was so fun. It was a great was to get the characters to do something they normally wouldn't and connect to themselves and examine their ouw lived. I wished we got more time there.

CONS:
-Cliches. I felt like the story moved from one cliche point to the next. We see a loner girl, a popular jock, an abusive father, a bullied teen, a school shooting, a family secret, a breakup, a military enlisting, and a secret child. It seemed like none of these serious issues were given the weight they deserved because there were so many and we needed to get to the next plot reveal in the story.
-Flow. I felt like we were often TOLD what was happening in a scene and didn't get to EXPERIENCE it alongside the characters. This could have been because I found the writing moved fairly fast without taking the time to address what was happening and let the character have moments of reflection or pause in the story. I feel like more detail would have immersed me into the story and helped me connect.
-Weak Reveals. I found some of the reveals Jay telling Callie about Jamie's adoption and abuse; Kat telling Callie and Colby about the dinner; Callie confronting her father to be weak. They didn't carry much weight to me - I wan't to feel what the characters and follow them as they process and grow. Because if found the story to move from one difficult topic to the next without fully fleshing them out, their initial reveals didn't have an impact because we moved to the next issue too soon.

Overall the story is not bad, just underdeveloped. I want MORE in the story and I want to care. ( )