Joyride

Carly Vega has been living with her brother ever since their parents were deported. She's been doing her part to stay out of trouble, get good grades, and earn money by working the night shift at a convenience store. Arden Moss blames the death of his sister Amber on his father, the town sheriff, and is doing everything in his power to do the opposite of what his father wants him to do. Their paths cross in an unexpected way and Arden finds himself wanting to make Carly his partner in pranks while Carly just wants to stay out of the spotlight.

This was an easy and fast read, under 300 pages, and turned out to be cute and fun, with some action and tension thrown in closer to the end. I had expected the pranks to play a bigger role in the plot but they worked well within the story and provided some great character interactions.

Carly and Arden were both interesting characters and so opposite of each other. I liked seeing ho they interacted and how they slowly started to become friends into something more. I felt for both of them. Carly was overworked and stressed all the time and no one in her family seemed to care that she wanted to stay in school. She did everything asked of her except quit school and still it wasn't enough for them. Arden, at first, came across as a bit of a spoiled jerk who just wanted to goof off but once his reasons were revealed, it made a lot of sense. He was angry at the world and it was hard to blame him.

Together, they were a good influence on each other. Arden needed Carly's determination and work ethic to rub off on him and Carly needed his carefree attitude to help her relax. It was great to see them pulling their pranks and just being silly and having fun.

I did find the switching of the POVs a little awkward. Carly's POVs were in first person and Arden's were in third person. Their voices were quite different from each other so it didn't make a lot of sense for the change. It meant the flow of the writing stopped at each new chapter and made it hard to be completely lost in the book.

Family also played a huge role in the plot, even with a lot of the members of both Carly and Arden's families not being present. Both of them had huge expectations from their families, were struggling with their current situation. Carly's brother Julio was a more sympathetic character but there were definitely times I didn't agree with him. Arden's father was a racist and most of the time I wanted to kick him. Hard. Once the families got more involved, that was where the tension and action really started to pick up. The last part of the book flew by.

It was definitely a fun and enjoyable read. I just wish I had been able to get lost in it more than I did.