Amy Clipston

After her mother dies and she and her father move in with her wealthy aunt and cousin, Emily struggles when her car-loving, tomboy identity and her way of expressing her faith clash with the expectations of others.

Roadside Assistance

Mae Erceg

I reallllly liked this book and it was an amazing story but if you're not very religious like I am, it's hard to sympathize with Emily. Other than that, it's a really good story about getting over the loss of someone close to you and sticking up for yourself when others pity you. I recommend it! :)

Mary Horton

PRAISE GOD ALMIGHTY I'M DONE.

To put it plainly? This was one of the least memorable, meaningful, or interesting books I've ever read. 

No joke - this was pretty bad, folks. I knew I shouldn't have wasted my time on it. *cringes*


  L I K E S:


- Chelsea was kind of a fun character. Honestly, she was the only one who had a bit of authenticity & depth.
- The last thirty pages were kind of good?? I think they were the only parts that had my interest and didn't make me want to throw the book across the room.
- I'm trying to be positive and think of other things I liked . . . but I've got nothing. xD


  D I S L I K E S:


- WHERE DO I START?? Lol, this could get lengthy.
- The writing was. the. worst. It was shallow, stilted, and incredibly boring. I might have been able to bear the book more if the writing had possessed any life to it. Allow me to demonstrate the beautiful intricacies of this prose:

"No," Logan said with a sigh. "She's still mad about my math test." He schlepped toward the door. "See you later."

"Bye, dude," Zander called.

"Bye, Zander," Logan called, heading toward the path."

What did I tell you? Stunning.

- The characters are SO ANNOYING GOOD GRIEF. They're so shallow and cliche and aggravating that I can't care about them at all. I don't connect with any of them. They honestly just feel like cardboard characters with no personality. I'm supposed to feel for Emily as she struggles with losing her mom to cancer and moving to a new place. But what do I feel? NOTHING. Nothing except a loooooot of annoyance. Ahem. :P
- Um . . . WHERE'S THE PLOT?? Literally, there's nothing. It rambles on about nothing the first half of the book then some drama happens later and BOOM! Emily magically gets a boyfriend + Jesus at the end. Yay.
- It's just so shallow ugh. I hate this kind of cheap, superficial Christianity. It doesn't feel authentic or real - just a bunch of trite sayings and "going through the motions." I'm sorry but . . . the faith theme in this book felt so forced and fake. None of the characters seemed very genuine about their faith & the main character magically "comes back to God" in the end in a very cliche, unmoving way. 
- CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW BORING THIS WAS 'CAUSE IT WAS REALLY BORING
- The "romance" ewwwwwww. The majority of it was just Emily having fluttery feelings, being attracted to Zander's eyes and chest (wuuuuut), and kissing. There was a ton of talk about guys being hot and wanting to be kissed and that was about the extent of the "love." GUYS. This. Is. Not. Love. I'm sick and tired of this kind of romance being catered to teenagers. It felt like just another angsty, drama-filled high school romance novel. NO THANKS.
- Emily was just ??? I DON'T GET HER. She drove me crazy.
- A few things just really got on my nerves. For example, ALLLLLL the stuff about cars. It got old, fast. The same jokes are used over and over again because wasn't that hilarious?? *rolls eyes* Emily also is constantly saying she's sick of stereotypes about girls having to like makeup and shopping, etc. But then she turns around and TOTALLY sterotypes guys by saying video games "must be a guy thing" and that she never understood them. *squints* Ummmmm . . . nope. Totally not just a guy thing. Ask my sister. I'm not even a fan of video games myself, but stereotypes like that drive me up the wall.
- Soooooooo many cliches omw
- I'm just so sick of this book and never want to look at it again lol

WELL THEN. I would say more, but we'd be here all night if I kept going with my dislikes. *cough* Needless to say . . . reading this was a mistake I shall not be repeating. But hey - at least I have a good example of how NOT to write. :P

1.5 stars

Tanner Evans

** spoiler alert **
           I had such high expectations for this book and they all fell flat. I had no idea that this was going to be a "religious" book and that threw me off a lot. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with religion or whatever, but I'm still trying to sort out what I believe in, and instead of feeling like this book helped me, it seemed like it was forcing it down my throat. Emily came off as someone who wanted to feel bad about her situation; instead of trying to make the best out of something completely awful, she assumed things about people and didn't try to get to know any of her "new" family members. She was very ungrateful towards her aunt & uncle and that's something that really bothered me. However, the way she handled things is very realistic and not at all uncommon, so it's hard to pin that against her. I think that Whitney and Emily's relationship could've been really great, but Emily just kept pushing against Whitney and thinking that she was the same person that she was around at her mother's funeral without even trying to get to know her. I just feel like all of the relationships that Emily had with everyone around her was so...blah. Zander was just trying to be a friend and she thought that he was "witnessing" to her (which I didn't see at all, but hey). Her and her father's relationship didn't have a lot of depth. I hate saying such bad things, but I really just didn't enjoy this book.

Julie Nicole Waldvogel

Amazing, great story line. Amy sure knows how to write good novels.

Roadside Assistance

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