Two-way Street
94. Lauren Barnholdt, Two-way Street
Courtney has just been dumped by her first boyfriend, Jordan, who is apparently now dating some other girl he met on Myspace. To make matters worse, she’s going to be stuck in a car with him for three days: while they were dating, they’d made a plan to drive to college together since they’re attending the same school. Even though they’ve now broken up, the trip is still on, and Courtney has to pretend that she’s completely unaffected by Jordan and his new girlfriend. Little doe she now that Jordan also feels terrible about their breakup, and that he’s hiding the real reason why he ended the relationship.
Despite having just read Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour, apparently I had to read another book about teenagers who fall in love in the course of a road trip - one was not enough! The focus of this novel isn’t really the road trip, though; it’s much more about the drama between Courtney and Jordan as the true obstacles surrounding their relationship become clear. The chapters in this novel alternate between Courtney’s and Jordan’s points of view, and the narrative also skips around in time. Some chapters are set in the present, during the road trip, while others are set in the past, showing how Courtney and Jordan’s relationship first began and evolved. I liked being able to learn the initial love story as well as the story of how they eventually reconcile (come on, that’s not a spoiler). There was a little too much angsty teen drama for my taste, but I can’t deny that the book is a real page-turner! So I liked this novel overall, but I think I prefer Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour.