Review: 16 Things I Thought Were True by Janet Gurtler

16 Things I Thought Were True by Janet Gurtler
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication date: March 4th 2014
My rating: 2 stars. 

Heart attacks happen to other people #thingsIthoughtweretrue When Morgan's mom gets sick, it's hard not to panic. Without her mother, she would have no one-until she finds out the dad who walked out on her as a baby isn't as far away as she thought... Adam is a stuck-up, uptight jerk #thingsIthoughtweretrue Now that they have a summer job together, Morgan's getting to know the real Adam, and he's actually pretty sweet...in a nerdy-hot kind of way. He even offers to go with her to find her dad. Road trip, anyone? 5000 Twitter followers are all the friends I need #thingsIthoughtweretrue With Adam in the back seat, a hyper chatterbox named Amy behind the wheel, and plenty of Cheetos to fuel their trip, Morgan feels ready for anything. She's not expecting a flat tire, a missed ferry, a fake girlfriend...and that these two people she barely knew before the summer started will become the people she can't imagine living without

16 Things I Thought Were True was really different to what I was expecting. I think things happened way too quickly for my liking that before I could even get a grip with what was going on, we were thrown into the next incident. Also I didn’t get the chance to form a connection with our MC Morgan either, she’d been having a tough time with a video of her being leaked by her former best friend of her dancing in boys shorts. Morgan had practically become the laughing stock, she couldn’t go anywhere without someone sniggering behind her back, or bringing up what had happened. I was fully on Morgan’s side, as she had just made that video when she and her best friend were messing around, she didn’t expect everyone to see it. Then to make matters worse, Morgan’s mum ends up being rushed to the hospital with a heart problem. Morgan’s never been so scared in her life, Morgan has twin brothers in Josh and Jake to look after her, but her mum is all that she has parent-wise, her dad walked out on her before she was born. Morgan’s mum is convinced she is going to die from a small operation, so encourages Morgan to find her dad. Morgan doesn’t want to leave her mum during such a crucial time, but every time Morgan has even tried to mention her dad, her mum just shuts her down, so with her mum actually totally behind Morgan doing this, Morgan decides to go and find her dad. 

With the entire backlash she is receiving for her video, Morgan doesn’t really have anyone to go with her to Canada to find her dad. But then she finds two unexpected friends in Amy and Alex. I absolutely adored Amy, she reminded me of myself at times with her ability to talk non-stop. And although I could see how things would go with Alex and Morgan, I wasn’t really behind it, or more especially care for it. And what really bugged me was how unrealistic this road trip to see Morgan’s dad became. Morgan literally had a couple of conversations with Alex and Amy and then all of a sudden Amy had volunteered to drive her there and Alex to accompany them. And even though this road trip was meant to be a one of a kind experience of discovery and making connections, I just didn’t get this vibe from this road trip. 

I really had the hope that I would be able to make a better connection with the characters or story but unfortunately this was not the case. The whole meeting with Morgan’s dad wasn’t an emotional one as I expected and ended way too quickly for my liking. And then we had two bombshells at the end where the heck did they come from? I’ve had luck with Gurtler’s books in the past, but this book just wasn’t my cup of tea.