Title: Right of Way
Author: Lauren Barnholdt
Release date: July 9, 2013
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 320
Source: Publisher
Reading level: YA
Challenge(s): YA Contemp Challenge
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…
Right of Way, the companion novel to Two Way Street, was high on my wishlist from the first moment I heard about it. Lauren Barnholdt is one of my favorite contemporary authors and I’m usually very impressed with her books. However, that just wasn’t the case with Right of Way. I enjoyed it but it fell short of my expectations.
Right of Way is a fun, fast-paced book that’s perfect for a lazy day reading by the pool. It took no time at all for me to get sucked into the story and once I started, I couldn’t put the book down. Lauren Barnholdt’s style of writing is easy to read and easy to like. It’s one of the main reasons why I love her books so much. It’s a simple style of writing that gets the point across without giving unnecessary details.
Peyton and Jace, the two main characters, weren’t nearly as awesome as Courtney and Jordan from Two Way Street. I never felt like I really connected with either of them. Peyton was a little too whiny for me and she was so closed off. She didn’t have very good reasons for keeping things to herself either. I understood that she didn’t want to let people close to her because she was afraid of them hurting her but she just ended up hurting them by pushing them away. Jace had a near perfect life but it wasn’t enough for him. He was valedictorian and going to college where he wanted but for some reason that didn’t make him happy. Instead of preparing for graduation he runs away with Peyton the day of and has no plans to present his valedictorian speech. I just felt like Lauren Barnholdt tried too hard to make the characters have problems. As for Courtney and Jordan, they don’t have a huge role in the story but they are there. I still like them although, to be completely honest, I’d forgotten about them between the time I read Two Way Street and now. It took me a while to realize who they actually were.
The story is pretty fun. Part of it is your typical road trip story between two people who aren’t quite sure how they feel about each other but there’s also flash backs to Peyton and Jace’s previous relationship. It’s Lauren Barnholdt’s standard style and it really works for her stories. You get to see how things started with Peyton and Jace and how they spiraled so out of control. While I didn’t care all that much for them, I did enjoy their story.
Overall, Right of Way is a fun read that will satisfy fans of Two Way Street. I would recommend not getting your hopes up though since it’s not quite as great as the first.
What others have to say about Right of Way:
Rachel Reads’ review: “Right of Way is a great quick read that I’d recommend if you’re looking for a summery road trip that’s more character driven than plot driven.”
Other reviews for this author:
Good review. Still iffy about picking this one up but the story does sound interesting so maybe one day.
Oh bummer! I still need to read Two Way Street as it was on my wishlist for quite a while and I was super interested in this book. But.. yeah, I’m also not big on whiny characters..
It seems like everyone that read Two Way Street first had a lot of the same feelings about this one. This was actually the first Barnholdt book I had ever read, which I think definitely made a difference in my reading of it. I adored this book, but then again, I had no expectations or anything.
I have this to read to, but I didn’t realize it was a companion novel. I haven’t read Two Way Street yet, so I guess I need to read that first. I was hoping this would be good since I love road trip books. Thanks for the great review.
Aw, I’m sorry to hear it didn’t meet your expectations!
I remember liking Two Way Street but it was a while ago, and I don’t remember much about it. Were Peyton and Jace some secondary characters in it?
Yeah, I was not impressed and I agree that Peyton’s motivation for keeping such a big secret was very weak.
Kate @ Ex Libris
Lauren Barnholdt is one of my favorites too, and I LOVED Two Way Street. Jordan was a nice guy, with a legit reason why he broke up with her, and she was trying to be mature about everything and she still cared about him.
I also loved Sometimes It Happens. It’s about cheating, but I have to say I totally shipped the cheating couple! And I loved them and why it all happened and it’s one of my favorite contemporaries ever.
She knows how to write excellent voice 🙂
Lovely review 🙂