Review: The Way Back to You by Michelle Andreani & Mindi Scott
SYNOPSIS:
In this witty, heart-tugging novel, two teens take a spontaneous road trip across the Southwest to meet three strangers who received the life-saving organs of their late best friend—charting a journey of loss, hope, and love along the way.
Six months ago, Ashlyn Montiel died in a bike accident.
Her best friend Cloudy is keeping it together, at least on the outside. Cloudy’s insides are a different story: tangled, confused, heartbroken.
Kyle is falling apart, and everyone can tell. Ashlyn was his girlfriend, and when she died, a part of him went with her. Maybe the only part he cares about anymore.
As the two people who loved Ashlyn best, Cloudy and Kyle should be able to lean on each other. But after a terrible mistake last year, they’re barely speaking. So when Cloudy discovers that Ashlyn’s organs were donated after her death and the Montiel family has been in touch with three of the recipients, she does something a little bit crazy and a lot of out character: she steals the letters and convinces Kyle to go on a winter break road trip with her, from Oregon to California to Arizona to Nevada. Maybe if they see the recipients—the people whose lives were saved by Ashlyn’s death—the world will open up again. Or maybe it will be a huge mistake.
With hundreds of miles in front of them, a stowaway kitten, and a list of people who are alive because of Ashlyn, Cloudy and Kyle just may find their way to back to her…and to each other.
REVIEW:
*Book Received in Exchange for Honest Opinion/Review*
I am having a serious love hate relationship with this book. Upon initially picking up the book, I had a mental outline of how the book would flow and how it would end. Now the first 64% was really slow for me, it was a lot of background information and just learning about the characters and it just didn’t do anything for me. I honestly almost DNF-ed the book. I needed more, and wanted more. Cloudy is very one-dimensional, you don’t learn alot about her other than she is hiding her grief, and loves to cheer. I wanted more depth from her.
Then bam! The ending really picked up, I got the romance I wanted. I got more surprises and action then I have seen in the first 100+ pages. I needed some wild card factors to fall into place and they finally did. The ending still left me with questions though, it felt like there were loose ends that hadn’t been tied up. How did Cloudy’s parents find out? How did Matty find ARM? What’s the deal with Matty and Zoe? What’s the deal with Kyle and Cloudy? I need a epilogue or one more chapter that closes this book for me!
In the end, this story was just okay for me. I don’t think it is one where I will be pining over it for the following months but it was a light read (at least for me). The moral of the story is, everyone grieves differently.
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