Rating: 
Summary: Refreshing & Entertaining while also Thought-Provoking
Review: 15-year-old Lucy Pitt arrives at Kindle Group Home, the last stop on her eight year journey through a foster care system where she has been bounced around since her parents died in a car accident. She's had problems everywhere she's gone and been basically labeled incorrigible. One more screw-up, and she'll be sent to a prison-like facility until she turns 18. Against her better judgment, Lucy connects right away with Leon, one of the counselors who she finds out later has had his own painful foster care past. When he tells her early on that there is "hardly anything in Kindle Home that isn't broken somehow," it resonates with the reader. Lucy later says that the home is nothing more than "a storage shed for broken teenagers," and she isn't too far off. Lucy and her fellow residents have major problems, many of which have to do with having been deprived of love early on.Though only in her mid-teens, Lucy is worn out and on the brink of giving up. She is tired of fighting the other kids; tired of uncaring counselors; most of all, tired of being uprooted continually. So she decides to make an effort to stay at Kindle Home, but right away she finds herself facing obstacles, not the least of which is her own temper. And then things get even more complicated when she gets in a fight at school, one of the fellow residents has it out for her, someone's setting fires in the neighborhood, and the funding for the home is being threatened. Can Lucy pull things together and face up to all the issues that are coming down upon her? In this second novel, following his critically acclaimed GEOGRAPHY CLUB, Hartinger has done a marvelous job of bringing Lucy, the counselors, and the kids to life. He's written the story in first-person point of view, and Lucy's voice is clear and refreshing. You can hear and see her grow throughout the events of the story. From Lucy's first line, "The door was locked, and I sure as hell didn't have the key," until the end of the story when Lucy has managed to find and fully possess all the keys she needs to succeed, I was charmed and moved. THE LAST CHANCE TEXACO is a terrific book geared toward the Young Adult market, but also worthwhile for adults to read, if only to see and understand the world that kids like Lucy Pitt are forced to survive in. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Another Great Book from B. Hartinger
Review: As with his first book, Geography Club, Brent Hartinger has succeeded in bringing to print another great story of young people often seen as outside the norm. The Last Chance Texaco tells the story of a young woman who has been tossed from home to home until she lands at a group home - her last chance before going to a juvenile detention facility. I highly recommend this book to both youth and adults who want an insight into the life of young people such as Lucy. The story also contains an interesting twist that came as a surprise. A very readable book.
Rating:
Summary: Another Great Book from B. Hartinger
Review: As with his first book, Geography Club, Brent Hartinger has succeeded in bringing to print another great story of young people often seen as outside the norm. The Last Chance Texaco tells the story of a young woman who has been tossed from home to home until she lands at a group home - her last chance before going to a juvenile detention facility. I highly recommend this book to both youth and adults who want an insight into the life of young people such as Lucy. The story also contains an interesting twist that came as a surprise. A very readable book.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Fantastic!!!
Review: Brent Hartinger has done it again!!! I finished his latest book, Last Chance Texaco, and I am thrilled. Brent tackles the problems facing young people in creative and realistic ways. Lucy Pitt is a fantasti character in an impossible situation. Mr. Hartinger weaves the details of her life into a story of triumph and heartfelt goodness. This book is fun and exciting. It would make the perfect gift and is a great read for anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a cute little whistlestop cafe story
Review: I first saw this book in the YA section of a hole-in-the-wall mystery store. I started asking questions about it, and got an excited "isn't it just darling. I'm not sure if it's a mystery, but just look at it. It's darling." Brent, if you are reading this, don't worry. I'll set the record straight for you. It is not "darling." It isn't quite "gritty" either, (too much warmth for that) but it is much closer to gritty. The title "Last Chance Texaco" refers to a group home for troubled orphans that is the last stop before a prison-style group home. Lucy, the main character, moves in and instantly sees all the types she's known from group homes in the past -- the mole, the scheming alpha female, the rude alpha male, the prey. The book is worth reading just for the dynamics within the group home, but the story goes farther than that. And yes it is a mystery. The book also has great, tell-it-like-it-is details. Example: love over a happy meal. Here's one fantastic passage: "I knew that I had bigger problems than just starting school in the middle of the year. Almost everyone was white. It's not like I'm racist or anything. It's just that the only time kids in a public school are almost all white is when they're mostly rich. And believe me when I say that it's rich kids, and the parents of rich kids, who have the biggest problem with a kid from a group home going to the same school they do." My real rating for this is 4 1/2 stars. The last 1/2 I'm holding back, because there were some times I wish Hartinger had pushed his narrative a little farther, or where I wanted more of the great details that are in other parts of the book. Definitely worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down! Stayed up late to finish it!
Review: I really enjoyed this book, so much that once I started reading it, I could not put it down. If you liked "Geography Club", you will like this as well. I was trying to decide which one I liked better, but to be honest, I couldn't decide. GREAT second novel. Keep up the good work, Mr. Hartinger!
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: Just finished Last Chance Texaco and loved it as much as Mr. Hartinger's first book. Lucy Pitt is a great, fun character and I'm impresed Mr. Hartinger can write such a convincing girl cahracter. She's tough and smart, but wants a family like everybody. And the group home stuff was really interesting as I don't know much about it. I don't know if we had any group home kids when I was in shcool, but now I understand a lot more about them. Read this book! And you won't be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: an authentic voice
Review: Last Chance Texaco, by Brent Hartinger, has a lot of strengths. The one that strikes me most is the authenticity of the main character's voice. By the end of the book, I felt that I had actually met someone; I could hear her voice as I read, and I cared what happened to her. As she learns about the possibilities of life, and takes each step toward letting hope back into her thinking, I felt the opening in my own heart as well. This is an excellent book; positive without being sappy, encouraging without glossing over the work that life demands.
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Summary: Last Chance doesn't mean Lost Hope
Review: Life as a groupie is hard. Groupie as in a resident of a group home. They have laws unto themselves, these kids. Secrets that the adults - the counselors, the therapists, the educators - who work with them will never know. Not even there non-groupie classmates are let into their world. They wouldn't want in anyway. The groupies in Hartinger's LAST CHANCE TEXACO live with daily distrust and suspicion, if not outright hatred. The title comes from the nickname of the group home. It's their last chance before their misbehavior gets them sent off to Rabbit Island Detention Center, aka "Eat Their Young Island." Author Brent Hartinger used to work as a counselor in a group home and his depiction of the characters in this book seems very authentic to me.The main character, Lucy, is struggling to find the good in herself and her housemates. When she gets into a fight with the ultra popular superjock Nate at school, they both end up picking up trash after school, thanks to the intervention of a counselor who knows the "equal punishment" rules. What ensues is a romance you'd never expect in a million years and a crime drama with an unexpected resolution. The plot requires some suspension of disbelief in a few places, but all in all, a good book and an enjoyable read. ~ Roxyanne Young
Editorial Director, www.SmartWriters.com
Rating:
Summary: first chance at hope & love
Review: Lucy Pitt is a foster home veteran who now, at 15, lands in San Francisco's LAST CHANCE TEXACO, a group home for kids who no one wants.
Lucy is no shrinking violet, in fact she's quite used to defending herself. She knows well the pecking order, & the Kindle Home alpha-female, Joy, is a bully with a conniving streak a mile wide. All too soon she's got Lucy in her cross hairs.
Come with Lucy as she warily learns the ropes, finds her place. Come with her to her new school which turns out to be for rich kids, one of whom, Alicia, sets her up for humiliation. Then in Biology Class Alicia's boyfriend taunts her & Lucy hauls off & gives him a black eye.
Naturally, there are consequences.
Rebeccasreads highly recommends THE LAST CHANCE TEXACO as a thrilling & thought-provoking story about growing up when you've got nothing left to lose, & then finding that you actually have the rest of your life to live.
Could not put it down!
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