I chose this book from an ARC program because the synopsis was intriguing and I love a good YA.

The Premise

Jackie is all set for the adventure of a lifetime — a two-month road trip in a food truck, selling cookies at events. Her plans are soon thwarted when she discovers she’s got company — her estranged childhood friend Silas, whose path diverged from hers after a tragedy that occurred when they were ten years old, resulting in them both being orphaned. While Jackie got adoring adoptive parents, Silas went down a dark road with abusive relatives. Coupled with his grief, nightmares and poor decision-making, he’s now a hothead with a criminal record, a drinking habit, and nothing to lose.

Jackie organises an arrangement for Silas to stay with her under remote supervision via daily check-in calls with her adoptive father, and they are soon off to adventure on Trudy the food truck. Will Silas’ bad-boy behaviour get in the way of her perfectly-planned summer, or will they be able to rekindle their childhood friendship… and perhaps, even more?

The Pros

This was a great read with a wonderfully balanced blend of witty banter and amazing characters with a deeper underlying message in its themes about mental health and teenage addiction. Jackie’s maturity and determination to get through to Silas were admirable, and Silas’ broodiness that eventually cooled off was really lovely to experience as a reader. Both main characters had so much depth, and even the side characters like Richard (Jackie’s adoptive dad and Silas’ step-in case worker) were given enough of a personality to round out the story nicely.

The dialogue was just splendid, and worked well to build my images of the two characters. There was just enough age-appropriate sexiness for the novel’s target market, and the build-up of romance was well deserved by the time it got there. It was amazing to see the growth of both Jackie and Silas, and the pacing as this unfolds is done well. Jackie discovers her true passion, and Silas makes peace with his past and is able to focus on fixing his present so that he can have a future.

The Cons

I enjoyed this novel throughout, but I had a small issue with one of the factual elements. As someone who actually uses Fiverr as both a seller and buyer, this entire storyline had some flaws — there is no marketplace to upload pre-made covers and have someone purchase them right off. Fiverr is for putting up your “gigs” as a freelancer, then someone has to book the gig. You also don’t get to miss deadlines and then “decide” to reimburse someone; Fiverr acts as an intermediary so that you just wouldn’t get paid if you don’t deliver… the client has to accept the finished product and mark it as complete — LONG before you get a dime. Fiverr also sends you a bunch of reminders, so I found it strange Jackie missed deadlines (and apparently all the reminders as well). Sorry if I’m off on a tangent and this plot hole is really minor for others, but as an author I check out *so* much stuff when I’m writing to see if it would apply… and if I’m not 100% sure, I make up a fictional company that works exactly how I want it to. Here, there were so many *specific* details that I found myself actually stopping reading, putting down this amazing book, and searching through Fiverr to verify all of this… because at that point I genuinely wasn’t sure!

Conclusion

Despite my mini-rant above, this was an excellent read and I would highly recommend to anyone but particularly female readers in their teens and early adulthood. It’s a coming-of-age story with both boy and girl characters that are easy to love and root for, and the banter and dialogue are simply amazing. While it’s a YA read, I enjoyed it as an adult and appreciated that it’s not the usual fluffy YA read that skirts around serious issues. I loved this book and would also love to read others by the author.

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