Lauren Barnholdt

Told in their separate voices, 17-year-old Peyton convinces 18-year-old Jace to drive her from a Florida wedding toward her Connecticut home with the intention of staying in North Carolina rather than face her parents' marital and financial problems, while both avoid the obvious attraction they have felt since they met at Christmas.

Right of Way

"She's the only girl who's ever broken my heart, and it's a very weird, uncomfortable feeling for me. I like to be the one doing the heartbreaking. Well, not really. No one ever likes to break someone's heart, but sometimes it has to be done." ~ Jace



  "I am freaked out, Jace. I'm freaked out because for some reason, I can't stop thinking about you. I can't stop thinking about how it feels to kiss you, about how happy I was when we were going to be together, about how even though I feel like I should hate you, my heart knows that I don't." ~ Peyton

 
Meet Peyton and Jace. Peyton lives in Connecticut. Jace lives in Florida. Peyton and Jace met each other in Florida over Christmas and fell hard and fast. It all fell apart when Jace learned Peyton lied to him about the fact her parents were going through a divorce. In May, they found out they would be attending the same wedding. In June, they came face-to-face with each other again.

We learn more about Peyton and Jace and their history through a series of alternating perspectives that, for the biggest portion of the book, also alternate between May and June. Jennifer Echols does this frequently in her books. While it sounds complicated and it can, at times, be hard to follow (if you, like me, tend to NOT read the chapter titles), I've grown to appreciate this style of storytelling. I like the "not knowing" the entire backstory. I love getting bits and pieces along the way. It definitely keeps my attention and makes me want to continue reading.

Both Peyton and Jace were flawed characters. Peyton was high-maintenance, though I don't think it was entirely her fault. She was a product of her environment. Her mom was a real piece of work. A steal-your-daugther's-identity-and-open-countless-credit-cards-in-her-name piece of work. She was pretty immature. She did grow throughout the book. Jace wasn't your typical swoon-worthy book boyfriend. He was hot, of course, and intelligent and mostly sweet. He was also a bit of a jerk. I'm sorry, nice guys don't abandon girls in a strange town. That really, really bothered me. Sure they had a fight and she told him to leave, but I'm relatively sure she didn't think he'd leave her in a hotel room and take her only mode of transportation. Not cool.

I liked this book quite a bit. It was a little overly-dramatic to me though. I tend to forget, as it's been quite a few years since I was a teenager, that everything that happens at that age does feel so huge and so damn dramatic. Of course, there was tons of miscommunication - or lack of communication, more specifically - and a fair amount of assumptions and jumping to conclusions, which even adults are guilty of. But, all in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable story. I liked the characters. I cared to see what happened with them in the past and what would happen next. I also liked the reappearance of Courtney and Jordan from Two-Way Street. I especially loved Jordan's advice to Jace:


  "If there's one thing I've realized, it's that you have to be honest. Even if you're scared, even if you're worried that you're going to get your heart stomped on, even if you think that the truth is going to ruin everything, you have to put it out there. Because otherwise, you're fucked." ~ Jordan


Find this review and more on my blog.

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

4.5 Stars!

Fact number one: I love road trip books.
Fact number two: I love YA contemporary romances.
Fact number three: I loved this book.

I have to start by saying how much this story reminded me of 
  
    Two-Way Street
  
, its companion novel, which I listened to on audio about a month ago.  I adored Two-Way Street, and I was so happy to see that this story was just as cute, just as fun, and just as easy to read and get into.  I may have liked the storyline in TWS a bit more, just because I fell in love with Courtney so quickly and easily.  Plus I often really bond with characters in audios where the narrators are so incredible.  I have a feeling I may end up with the audio of of this one too.  (A bit obsessive? Maybe.  But I love me some audios! :P)  At the same time, it's not necessary to have read TWS first.  They are companion novels and can be read separately.

At first I wasn't sure how I felt about Peyton.  She came off very petty and insecure at first.  But as the story progressed, I got a look into what she was dealing with in her personal and home life, and that helped explain her not-so-lovable personality.  I did, however, completely fall in love with her thought process.  She was all over the place!  I laughed hysterically when she would be discussing one thing, then go off on a tangent about something totally unrelated.  Peyton grew on me completely.

Jace had me at hello.  Right from the beginning I knew there was more to him, and I was so excited when I saw that the chapters alternated between his POV and Peyton's.  It definitely brought a lot more to the story to see both sides.  I also love the flashbacks, which was very similar to TWS and something I always enjoy in a story.

* Possible spoiler for Two-Way Street coming up... *

Anyone who read TWS will be happy to know that Courtney and Jordan make a cameo appearance in  Right of Way!  It was great to see that they're still adorably in love and their relationship is holding strong.  :)

* Two-Way Street spoiler ended.*

The story progressed at a perfectly consistent and steady pace.  The waiting and wondering about the secrets that wouldn't be revealed til the end kept me flipping those pages so fast to see what could possibly have changed the lives of these two teenagers so drastically.  Another great book from Lauren Barnholdt!  I'm hopeful that there's another road trip book in the works.  If you enjoy road trips, YA contemps, and a cute story, definitely grab a copy of this one!

Thanks to Edelweiss and Simon Pulse for the review copy.

This review can also be found at Lost in Literature!

Right of Way

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