Friends come and go from our lives. Sometimes we outgrow our friends, sometimes they move away. Often, it's a conscious decision to end a relationship that is the hardest to take. The problem is only magnified when one person finds themselves on the receiving end of being dumped… and they don't even know why. In P.E. Ryan's SAINTS OF AUGUSTINE, two friends find that they can't go on with their individual lives until they face what split them up in the first place.

The story centers on Sam Findley and Charlie Perrin, two teens in Florida who were best friends until Sam inexplicably calls it quits. After the split (though not because of it), their lives each take dark turns. Sam's father moves out, leaving Sam to deal with his younger sister and his mother's irritating, bigoted boyfriend. Sam learns that his father left because his father is gay and living with another man, a fact that becomes significant as Sam begins to come to grips with his own sexuality. Charlie, meanwhile, loses his mother to cancer and seeks comfort in drugs when his father becomes emotionally distant. 

Each struggles with the fallout of these varied occurrences until they accidentally come together while each is in the process of trying to outrun their problems. The reunion forces them to confront their recent pasts since they went their separate ways --- but that can't be accomplished until they come to a mutual understanding of why they're no longer friends.

The mystery of why Sam broke off their friendship is anything but. Once it's revealed that Sam is gay, it doesn't take much imagination to guess what would make him want to end things. This makes the confrontation toward the end, when Charlie demands an answer as to why Sam left, unsatisfying. And although not everything is tied up neatly at book's end, the conclusion doesn't necessarily feel earned.

But what really works for the book, the young adult debut of P.E. Ryan, is the sensitive manner in which the author explores the relationships that Sam and Charlie pursue. Charlie has been dating Kate, a smart, popular girl who has made it clear that Charlie can use drugs or he can date her --- he can't have both. Sam, who has yet to tell anyone he's gay (even his best girl friend), grows closer to Justin, a new, open guy at school. Sam's awkwardness --- his unwillingness to admit that his get-togethers with Justin constitute dates --- is a brilliant counterpoint to Charlie's helplessness as he's overwhelmed by his efforts to care for his father, efforts that lead him back to drugs and hamper his attempts to get closer to Kate. Each fumbles around for a solution, and it's only through their accidental reunion that they can even begin to figure out how to proceed.

P.E. Ryan demonstrates a solid understanding of the tribulations associated with feeling out a romantic relationship. Both Sam's and Charlie's problems offer an uncomfortable familiarity for anyone (i.e. most of us) who have struggled to make sense of where they're going. The familiar problems border on cliché, but Ryan endows his characters with enough heart and heartache to make the book an enjoyable read.

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