Somewhere between a 2.5 and a 3.

Kendra always feels like she lives in the shadow of her brother Grayson, but more specifically, she felt like she lives in the shadow of his OCD. She puts pressure on herself to be Miss Perfect, so much so it causes her to get involved in some risky business at school. When she's near to being caught for her actions, she takes her brother and runs away from it. Hits the road to escape. But on the trip, she learns so much more about herself and her brother than she could imagine.

While I could see many readers finding Kendra sympathetic, I didn't. She's unlikable, too, and while that nor her being unsympathetic aren't problems, I found myself less-than-invested in her story because she continues to make terrible decisions and she knows she's doing it. Maybe the problem is she's a little too self aware of her behaviors and actions, and because she's so driven to be a good girl, to be Miss Perfect, there's a disconnect and it just didn't work for me.

That said, it's a great sibling story and I think what Kendra ends up realizing at the end with Grayson is worth the journey. Brown's writing is easy to read and the story is easy to fall into, and while I thought many of the events involved with the roadtrip were a little ridiculous, it worked. I dug the rock/fault metaphor quite a bit, and the ending worked. It wasn't cut and dry, which I appreciated, given that I suspect Kendra won't necessarily solve all her problems.

Full review here: http://www.stackedbooks.org/2012/08/p...