Review: Road trip, cowboys and singing
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 8, 2014
This was gifted to me for an honest review.I really enjoyed this book as it is more of a coming of age story that focuses on the relationship between sisters Charlie and Lucy more than focusing on romance. There are a couple of romances throughout but they are more in the background. This book alternates POV’s between Charlie and Lucy but is free flowing and well done.Charlie and her best friends Hope, Cassie and Jade are having an end of high school road trip from Illinois to California as a farewell to Hope who is heading off the attend college in LA. As part of the deal for letting her go on the road trip Charlie’s parents have insisted that her younger sister Lucy must go as well and they have to stop off at their grandparents’ ranch in Texas. What Charlie’s parents don’t know is that the girls (excluding Lucy) are also going to participate in a singing competition in LA. It is Charlie’s dream to win the competition, get a recording contract and become a world famous singer. She isn’t planning on coming back from LA as she is determined they are going to win.Charlie is the outgoing, outspoken oldest child who didn’t really do that well at school and didn’t get into a good college like all her friends did but her overbearing father believes that she should go to the local college and study business. All Charlie wants to do is sing but he won’t listen to her.Lucy is the quiet, wallflower younger sister that excels at school and is the “perfect child” in her parents’ eyes. They are always telling Charlie that she should be more like Lucy. Charlie is obviously jealous of Lucy but deep down she admires her. Lucy seems to be afraid of Charlie but actually idolises her and wants to be more like her.As I said there are a couple of romances in the background that help the girls discover themselves and also their deeply set admiration of each other. The sisters really have trouble communicating with each other but their mutual love of music brings them together. There is of course some heartbreak in this book as well but it is all to help the girls become stronger characters.I really liked that this book didn’t portray a perfect family, but also it wasn’t a completely dysfunctional family like in most YA books. They seemed like a pretty normal family that have their problems and issues with communication. I don’t have sisters but do have 2 older brothers so I could relate a bit to the situation, particularly with the father who thinks he knows best for his kids.