The Bombs That Brought Us Together by Brian Conaghan

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 320

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books 

Released: 21st of April 2016 

Fourteen-year-old Hamish Law has lived in Little Town, on the border with Old Country, all his life. He knows the rules: no going out after dark; no drinking; no litter; no fighting. You don't want to get on the wrong side of the people who run Little Town. When he meets Pavel Duda, a refugee from Old Country, the rules start to get broken. Then the bombs come, and the soldiers from Old Country, and Little Town changes for ever.

Sometimes, to keep the people you love safe, you have to do bad things. As Little Town's rules crumble, Hamish is sucked into a dangerous game. There's a gun, and a bad man, and his closest friend, and his dearest enemy.

Hamish Law wants to keep everyone happy, even if it kills him. And maybe it will ... But he's got to kill someone else first. 

What I Have to Say 

I really didn't take to this book. At all. I don't know why originally, but I just couldn't connect to the characters at all or really get much interest in the plot. It got better as I went on, especially after the sister was brought into the action, but it wasn't enough to get me very invested in the story. 

I also found the characters just so stupid at the start. I mean, I know they're young, but the way they get involved with the Big Man just for a few chairs even though they know that he's a bad person to let get a hold over them, it just took away any pity I had for the characters. 

This was just not the book for me.