ARC, 384 pagesRelease Date: May 3, 2016Published by: Katherine Tegen BooksStand-aloneSource: Around the World ARC toursFor fans of: Contemporary, Romance, Adventure, Summer Loving, Chick-lit, Road Trips, YA
In this witty, heart-tugging novel, two teens take a spontaneous road trip across the Southwest to meet three strangers who received the life-saving organs of their late best friend—charting a journey of loss, hope, and love along the way.
Six months ago, Ashlyn Montiel died in a bike accident.
Her best friend Cloudy is keeping it together, at least on the outside. Cloudy’s insides are a different story: tangled, confused, heartbroken.
Kyle is falling apart, and everyone can tell. Ashlyn was his girlfriend, and when she died, a part of him went with her. Maybe the only part he cares about anymore.
As the two people who loved Ashlyn best, Cloudy and Kyle should be able to lean on each other. But after a terrible mistake last year, they're barely speaking. So when Cloudy discovers that Ashlyn’s organs were donated after her death and the Montiel family has been in touch with three of the recipients, she does something a little bit crazy and a lot of out character: she steals the letters and convinces Kyle to go on a winter break road trip with her, from Oregon to California to Arizona to Nevada. Maybe if they see the recipients—the people whose lives were saved by Ashlyn’s death—the world will open up again. Or maybe it will be a huge mistake.
With hundreds of miles in front of them, a stowaway kitten, and a list of people who are alive because of Ashlyn, Cloudy and Kyle just may find their way to back to her...and to each other.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I'm not normally a road trip in a book sort of girl, but this one was a lot more fun than I thought it might be! Maybe it was the fact that it also included a hard-hitting emotional contemp that made me love this one. Whatever the case may be, I really fell for this one.
Ashlyn has passed away, but she left two people that loved her very much on Earth, Cloudy and Kyle. And the sad part is, they're not even as close as they used to be. But then they find out that Ashlyn has left more on Earth than they originally thought. She was an Oregon donor and her family has gotten in touch with the recipients. This is all the information they need for them to hop on the road together and find their way to what they've been missing lately.
"You can't stop doing things you love just because the outside world is telling you different."pg. 56
The main part about this book that I loved was the road trip. It's really weird because I'm not normally a fan of them. With the character spending so much time on the road or in a car, them doing the same things get repetitive and that gets boring. But when there's so much going on and each stop has a different meaning within it, I fell in love.
"I suspect that friendship plus distance has a way of magnifying the things that should stay hidden."pg. 150
I also loved the characters. For a while I was mad at Cloudy. She seemed to be trying to dictate to everyone what they should do, but she never looked at herself and her own unhappiness and it killed me to see her not taking care of herself. And then there was Kyle. He seemed to be the one with the better head on his shoulders to me, but then again, he had his issues too. It was nice to see them finally start finding peace in one way or another.
"Just because she isn't here now doesn't change the fact that she was."pg. 331
*MINOR SPOILER PARAGRAPH* The hard hitting emotional part that this book focuses on is organ donors. This topic has shown up quite a few times lately and with each of them, I find myself falling for the topic more and more. The only thing that bothers me about it, is the discreetness in it. This topic is a big deal and can be very emotional for both sides of the fence. But I'm finding that with every one that I've read (including this one), the adults or people around them seem to act like it's ok that they're doing this. I get it. It's a plot device to help focus on what they think is important for the story. But still, if you're going to make it realistic fiction, make it realistic. I won't go into the ending of this one to avoid spoilers, but at the same time, I just didn't feel it being real.
This book was full of surprises, but they were all good.There's so much about this book that I didn't like but the authors helped to change my mind. And that's what I loved most. Expect the unexpected with this one.
Overall, I give this
