Review: Good story, annoying characters
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 21, 2014
I was sent an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.OK, first of all, I have to say this book is a YA story and I don't belong to the intended audience for the book, since I'm not a teenager. However, I enjoy reading YA books from time to time and I think I can be objective enough as to judge any book that falls in my hands. This book started in a very promising way, and the truth is that I finished reading it in a matter of three days. The pace is fast, it doesn't linger in unnecessary details, and it makes you turn the pages in quite a fast fashion. But then what happened? The story started losing steam and I just wanted the book to finish, mainly to put the characters out of their miseries.The characters... Well, we have two points of view here and the book is narrated in the first person singular. Normally, I would find that fact so annoying that I would stop reading the book, but in this case it kind of worked. The book is written by two authors, so that's why we have two points of view, but the two voices mix so well that you cannot really say who is writing what. But that has a problem too: the two main characters have a very similar voice, to the point that I had to go to the beginning of the chapter a couple of times to check who was telling the story, Charlie or Lucy. So thumbs up for connecting your voices so well; thumbs down for not creating two powerful characters. Honestly, they are so whiny and so centered on self-pitying themselves that they become quite annoying by the time you reach the middle of the book.The story was a good one. Two sisters who want to find their place in the world, two sisters against their strict parents, two sisters who want different things and cannot manage to communicate with each other. The idea of a road trip was a brilliant one. I have travelled across the States myself and such a road trip can be quite an eye-opener about yourself and it can help you to bond with people you never thought you would create such a close relationship with. But the story also includes music, nature, horses, and cowboys. I mean, cowboys! They provided a good contrast against the two main characters, so I think they totally gained their place in this book.So, overall, it is not a book that makes you exclaim, "I love it! I want to read more!", but it is not a book that you can hate either. I quite enjoyed it when I wasn't wishing I could kill Charley or Lucy.