Review: Right of Way by Lauren Barnholdt

Right of Way by Lauren Barnholdt
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication date: July 9th 2013.
My rating: 2 stars

Here are Peyton and Jace, meeting on vacation. Click! It’s awesome, it’s easy, it’s romantic. This is the real deal. Unless it isn’t. Because when you’re in love, you don’t just stop calling one day. And you don’t keep secrets. Or lie. And when your life starts falling apart, you’re supposed to have the other person to lean on. Here are Peyton and Jace again, broken up but thrown together on a road trip. One of them is lying about the destination. One of them is pretending not to be leaving something behind. And neither of them is prepared for what’s coming on the road ahead…

I totally went into Right of Way expecting it to be a fun Summery read, with a road trip and a gorgeous romance. However unfortunately this wasn’t the case. Jace and Peyton find themselves helping each other when they least expect to. We know of a brief history between them but we don’t totally know what exactly has gone down. But when Peyton finds herself in a difficult situation, Jace decides to help her out no questions asked. 

The story is given to us alternatively in flash backs from before they knew each other and to their present situation. I was really eager to discover what had gone on between them to make their relationship such a tense one, but as their back story started unravelling I quickly became to realise that I didn’t really care about it. Jace and Peyton didn’t really leave the greatest impression with me, we were given pov’s from both characters over the course of the story, but I had a hard time connecting with either of them. Peyton did have a lot of her own problems to deal with, but she came across as really self-absorbed and whiny. It was totally obvious to anyone that she still cared about Jace, just get it out in the open and admit it already. And Jace too, his big secret of why things didn’t work out in the first place, did seem really pointless. I was all expecting a decent or reasonable enough explanation, but instead found it to be a little ridiculous.

Thing were tense between Jace and Peyton and I usually can deal with this when this happens. I typically like books which put characters that don’t get along in awkward situations and then through the journey they share together they end up growing in strength, discovering who they are and dealing with things in an appropriate way. Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour, Golden and Saving June are perfect examples of when this actually happened. There was so much immense growth for the characters and I truly appreciated when the characters worked together to achieve an end result and feel better about themselves. For me this really didn’t happen for me with Jace and Peyton, Firstly I had a hard time connecting with either of them and there wasn’t really much there between them to win me over either. They both clammed up instead of telling each how they felt, and when we were finally given sweet moments between them it didn’t have me sighing in appreciation for them.

Right of Way was just not the book for me I was expecting a magical road trip and great character growth. But instead was given a book which had flat characters with a flat romance and no road trip whatsoever. I had really high hopes for Right of Way, so I am disappointed that it let me down.