Finding Paris

What wouldn't you do for your only sister? Leo and Paris Hollings test the limits of sisterly love with a mysterious scavenger hunt that leaves Leo finding more than just Paris in the end. Facing hard truths may not be easy for Leo, but an unlikely stranger helps to drive this family drama page after page.

Mainly set in Vegas, some of the city's grit rubs off on the setting and is reflected in the brief use of colorful language. This not so perfect world of Leo and Paris is felt in the first person narration as Leo struggles with her sister's disappearance and is reliant on others to aid her in the search. With her desperate need to find her sister, she allows herself to make risky decisions.

What I enjoyed was the sisterly bond that was apparent throughout the entire book. Leo and Paris have a shared family drama but most goes undiscussed. Secrets have a way of festering and for Leo, questions of trust and choice battle within her throughout her hunt the somewhat erratic Paris.

Leo Hollings and her sister Paris are used to having only each other to rely on. Their mother follows her whims, from city to city and from guy to guy until she met Tommy, their new gambling addicted stepfather. Paris is a dreamer and Leo is a realist. Leo has plans – she’s going to Stanford. Tonight though, she’s driving around Las Vegas with her sister in search of pie to mend Paris’s broken-heart. All is going well until Paris ditches Leo at the Heartbreak Hotel dinner while Leo’s talking to cute Max Sullivan. What was supposed to be a fast trip for pie turns into a road trip where Leo, with Max’s help, tries to find Paris using the clues her sister left and wondering if this is all some game or if her sister’s really in trouble.

This was a short book, under 300 pages, so it ended up being a pretty fast read. I really liked the whole concept of the book, that and the cover was what originally caught my attention but I stayed with the book for the sisterly bond between Paris and Leo. They had a very ‘us against the world’ type of attitude and with their circumstances, I completely understood it.

I really liked Leo as a character. She was determined to get out of her current situation, she had a plan, and she was doing everything in her power to succeed at that plan. She obviously cared about her sister and she was very book smart, but definitely lacked some common sense. She even remarked a few times how crazy it was that she was running around town with a complete stranger just because he offered to help. Paris was one of those characters where it was hard to fully understand her until the end. She was definitely more of a free-spirit than Leo and until her motivations are fully realized, she could seem selfish and unpredictable and maybe a little wild.

I did find that Leo and Max fell for each other a little too quickly. The book took place all within a few days so I could have understood them sharing secrets between them or beginning to fall for each other, it all happened a little fast. They were cute together though and I would have bought into a slower developed romance.

For the most part, I liked the road trip hunt for Paris. I did find it a little weird that the notes where always there even if it took a while for Leo to find them. Less public places made sense for the notes to still be there but the busy spots, I found it strange no one else had noticed the note and taken it. It was something that I could overlook for convenience’s sake of the plot.

Paris’s reasoning and the big reveal made a lot of sense once everything was exposed. It was something I was expecting and I thought the author did a good job at hinting at the conclusion so it didn’t feel like the twist came out of nowhere, like it was a plot device to shock the reader.

A fast read with an interesting sibling dynamic and some twists while road tripping.