Aw, I adore Sarah Dessen. Although the plots are fairly conventional, her relationships and characters are so wonderfully complex.
This one is about a girl recently graduated from high school, working her butt off at her family's realty company in her coastal tourist town, and her relationships with her longtime boyfriend, an attractive new guy in town who is the assistant on a documentary about a reclusive artist AND her relationship with her semi-estranged father and her new half-brother. Whew!
But all you need to know is this: Great characters, even the most minor characters and realistic, well drawn relationships. Just lovely. Oh, and funny. Not laugh out loud funny, but gently, dryly funny.