(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Sixteen-year-old Eva has never been in love. But when she meets Will, everything changes. With him, her grief over her father's death fades, and she can escape from her difficult relationship with her mother. Then, without any warning, Will picks up and moves to California. So Eva—with the help of her best friend, Annie—concocts a plan to travel across the country to see him again. As they leave New York City for the first time and road-trip across America, they encounter cowboys, kudzu, and tiny towns without stoplights. Along the way, Eva and Annie learn the truth about love and all its complexities.

When you look at the cover, and read the blurb, you go into this book with a preconceived idea of what it is about. And then you start reading and realise that the title and blurb on the back cover really do nothing to tell a story about the book.

To start, there is very little kissing. The problem is that Eva has one kiss with a boy, who then moves to the other side of the country. She spends the rest of the book on a cross-country voyage with her best friend to go and see him again. That's the story in a nutshell. Eva's travels bring her into contact with a lot of interesting characters, and they make up for the rather repetitive (and slow) story of the trek across the country.

Eva wasn't easy to like - she had no real idea what love is but thinks she is in love with Will - to be fair to the guy, he never gave her any real reason to think that. Eva, however, reads a lot of romance novels and has an unrealistic expectation from romance. And that is the real kicker for me - I just wanted to yell at her, tell her to wake up to herself. Sure, she has some family issues, but really, who doesn't nowadays - but most of us are able to live our lives on the right side of common sense.

I am not too sure whether I would read another by this author - I guess it would come down to the subject matter. We will see...


Paul
ARH