Review: Road Trip
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 22, 2013
I was given this book in return for an honest review. Kate feels invisible, everyone thinks she has the perfect life, great house, great clothes, pretty. They are wrong, her father is an alcoholic who goes on rampages, destroying everything in his path and her mother excuses his behavior. During one of his drunken rages, he destroys Kate's term paper, without it she will fail. Her teacher, discovering the situation, gives her a replacement assignment, go interview someone, anyone. Get their whole story, and make it good. Not wanting to interview her father, Kate decides to interview a bum that sits on a bench in the park every day. At first she's nervous, but finds that he has a story, just not one she's sure she believes. When he gives her a golden idol that he says he stole from a cave in Ecuador, while on a mission as a Navy Seal sniper. She does thinks he's a bit crazy, until he disappears and people are trying to kill her. With the help of her ex-boyfriend Jeff, they set off on an adventure to return the idol, all while avoiding capture or worse. This book had a good story, it just kind of dragged out a bit. Kate's character came across as whiny and ungrateful through the entire story and Jeff was unrealistically optimistic and patient. The travel, history and adventure was interesting and I enjoyed that. I think that the book itself had a great story idea, but the characters need a little bit of tweaking, my favorite character was Max, the bum on the park bench. I wanted to see some growth in Kate's personality and it only came, suddenly, in the last chapter of the book. Still definitely worth a read.