Right of Way by Lauren Barnholdt (ARC)

Yay, finally somewhat back on track on reading review copies! :)

This time around I read Lauren Barnholdt's newest, Right Of Way, which was released July 9th, 2013.  Thank you to Edelweiss and Simon Pulse for accepting me to review it! :)

From Goodreads:


Can a road trip repair a romance gone wrong? Find out in this standalone companion to Lauren Barnholdt’s Two-way Street.

Here are Peyton and Jace, meeting on vacation. Click! It’s awesome, it’s easy, it’s romantic. This is the real deal.

Unless it isn’t. Because when you’re in love, you don’t just stop calling one day. And you don’t keep secrets. Or lie. And when your life starts falling apart, you’re supposed to have the other person to lean on.

Here are Peyton and Jace again, broken up but thrown together on a road trip. One of them is lying about the destination. One of them is pretending not to be leaving something behind. And neither of them is prepared for what’s coming on the road ahead…

My Thoughts:

This was my first book by Lauren Barnholdt!  I've had Two Way Street, which this book, Right of Way, is actually the stand-alone companion to, sitting on my TBR shelf for about two years now, but just haven't had the chance to read it yet.  Now that I've read this one, I'm definitely looking forward to reading it sooner, rather than later! :)

There were a lot of things I liked about this one...Jace for one.  While, his reasoning for not calling Peyton anymore was extremely lame, and quite frankly not his place to comment on, especially in that short of a time both his and Peyton's relationship had been able to bloom to, he had some great characteristics about him.  Peyton, while at first she may have come off a bit snobbish, she actually turned into a character that had learned a few things, both from her own mistakes and her mother's.

What Peyton's mom did to her...completely and 100% unacceptable, and quite frankly, if it were to have happened to me (which it wouldn't, because my mom is absolutely AMAZING!!) I would probably have become estranged from her.

Now to the things I didn't like...for one the petty reasons why Peyton and Jace stopped talking to each other.  I thought it was really juvenile, and sort of showed how NOT ready these two were for a serious relationship.    Second...the ENDING!! What the heck was that??!! So Peyton realized everything was going to be okay?  That's how it ended!  I didn't want her to think that, I wanted her to speak with her mom and dad about her feelings, and see their reactions! I wanted things to get solved!

Honestly, I felt that ending was unacceptable, and felt almost like the author just wanted the story to end.

Overall rating:
Aside from that somewhat disappointing ending, I enjoyed this story.  It was a cute easy read, with a good story line, and characters that grew up a little by the end.

I would recommend this one to Contemporary YA lovers definitely! I will warn you, there was some strong language, including the use of the "F" word, so beware of that.  Otherwise, no sex involved, it was vaguely mentioned, but other than that, nothing not teen related!

You can get your copy either at your nearest library, possibly, or at Amazon or Barnes and Noble! :)

The Romance Bookie :)

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