Review Detail

I had really high expectations for this book, but I think that's just because it sounded really good and I've read one of Lauren Barnholdt's other books. This book definitely didn't meet those expectations.

The thing that bothered me the most was probably just the way it was written. The book jumped around too much - it started off on the day of the trip, and then not too much later it was 100 days before the trip in Jordan's point of view, and then it was day one of the trip in Courtney's point of view, then 94 days before the trip, then 90 days before the trip, and so on. I get that Barnholdt wanted to show how Jordan and Courtney's relationship came to be, but honestly, it was too much skipping around for me.

Another thing I didn't like - the characters. Since the POV's switched off between Jordan and Courtney through the book, we get to see both their viewpoints of each other. Jordan's view of Courtney was so off most of the time that it simply made me angry. And his thoughts weren't that interesting, either. Both characters seemed so vapid and shallow at times that I didn't want to keep reading. And their friends? Don't even get me started on them.

The plot was probably the best part of this book, and even that didn't interest me very much. Jordan's big "secret" about why he broke up with Courtney wasn't even as mysterious as I was anticipating. And you find out the reason fairly quickly - no suspense.

Overall: While Barnholdt's writing may appeal to some, this book just wasn't for me. I can't think of a single good thing to say about it, other than the concept is an interesting idea: going on a roadtrip with the boy who just dumped you. I just wish Barnholdt had done a better job with it. I feel like I'm being unnaturally harsh, but I can't give it more than 2 stars. I kind of want to give it 1.