Saturday, June 4, 2011

Book Review: Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt

Published: June 26th 2007
Publisher: Simon Pulse
288 pages (Paperback)
Genre: Young adult fiction/romance
Acquired this book: at the library
Warning: may include spoilers

 

Synopsis, taken from the dust jacket: This is Jordan and Courtney, totally in love.  Sure, they were an unlikely high school couple.  But they clicked; it worked.  They're even going to the same college, and driving cross-country together for orientation.  Then Jordan dumps Courtney - for a girl he met on the internet.  It's too late to change plans, so the road trip is on.  Courtney's heartbroken, but figures she can tough it out for a few days.  La la la - this is Courtney pretending not to care.  But in a strange twist, Jordan cares.  A lot.  Turns out, he's got a secret or two that he's not telling Courtney.  And it has everything to do with why they broke up, why they can't get back together and how, in spite of it all, this couple is destined for each other.

I saw this book reviewed on a number of book blogger sites, so I decided to give it a try.  It got rave reviews from most bloggers, but I'm going to be perfectly honest: I can't say I really enjoyed this book.  To be fair (I hate giving bad reviews, it feels like bad karma since I'm a writer myself), whenever I don't like a book, I always try to say at least a few good things about it.  I liked that it was told from both Courtney's and Jordan's perspectives, that was really different and interesting.  As readers, we rarely get to see both sides of a story, but in this book, we get to see things from both their perspectives and in their own words.  Another good thing was that there were parts that were laugh-out-loud funny, which is always a good thing for me because I love to laugh.  I also appreciated the twists in the story.

However, those things didn't really outweigh the things I didn't like about the book.  I didn't like Courtney at all.  She was annoying and immature and I found myself rolling my eyes at a lot of the things she said and did.  As for Jordan - it was weird for me, because I've gotten used to reading books where the boys/men are amazing, sweet, funny, and usually mature, but Jordan was just your average horny teenage boy.  That being said, I did like him much better than Courtney, and he did have his moments and redeeming qualities.

There was no real character development - no great revelations, neither of them changed or learned anything and because of that, I didn't really take anything away from it.  I like books that give you some insight into a character that sometimes reflects on yourself, or if that's not the case, they should at least leave you feeling satisfied.  All I felt at the end was relief that it was over.


*I belong to Amazon Affiliates - anything that you buy from my blog through Amazon gets me a small commission, and as a struggling freelance writer, I can use every cent I can get!  If you're considering buying this book or any other book I review, if you go to Amazon through the links on my blog to buy, I'll be eternally grateful!*

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