West with Hopeless

Rating:
Summary: Mostly fluff but no objectionable material
Review: Thirteen-year-old Carin finds her summer vacation suddenly marred by a road trip with her half sister Hope instead of her usual flight to visit her dad. Both girls are headed to their father's home in Reno and must make the thousand-mile journey in a tiny hatch back with broken AC and radio. Convinced in her angst ridden way that being with Hope for a week will suck her will to live, Carin initially seems unable to accept her quirky sibling although she admits to loving her, just not liking her. In the standard road trip style, things go array and adventure ensues, however the girls never seem to be in any real danger. The novel has a highly nostalgic quality that younger readers won't be able to appreciate and its slow and generally odd pacing makes it all too easy to skip whole chapters. Eventually the sisters have a series of bonding moments in which they finally learn to appreciate each other but in the mean time there is little humor or sentimentality to support this touching scene. The most redeeming quality of this work is to remind readers of personal road trip stories that in all likelihood were much more fun than reading this book.