Book Review: Two-Way Street

Title: Two-Way Street
Author: Lauren Barnholdt
Genre: YA Fiction
Rating: B

Summary (from BN.com): "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."

Review: Okay, so in all honesty, I knew what the secret was on page 53 of 288. I knew almost from jump. I also knew that said secret would come out, what her initial reaction would be, and what the eventual outcome would be. So, that being said, the fact that I kept reading (and couldn't quite make myself put it down) and read the whole thing in about three hours must mean there was something good, right?

Well, yeah. As per my usual, the Jordan's POV was really amusing (and actually so was Courtney's). She wasn't too stereotypical (except in her reactions to the secret). The only thing that I wasn't 100% crazy about were the flashbacks. I'd rather have had more in the present tense and have the stuff from the past tense just woven in via dialogue or remembrances in the narrator's internal monologue. Don't get me wrong, the back story stuff was essential (and interesting in it's own way), but it threw the pacing off. It was during the back story stuff that I found myself able to put the book down (and go to the bathroom or whatever other super important stuff I was supposed to be doing on a Saturday afternoon).

So, if she'd have changed things around (perhaps moving all the back story stuff to the front and just telling chronologically or following my advice to make the back story not really "back story"), then it would be all good and could move up to an A in my literary gradebook.