Review: Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt

Posted June 28, 2010 by Ames in Reviews | 8 Comments

There are two sides to every breakup.

This is Jordan and Courtney, totally in love. Sure, they were an unlikely high school couple. But they clicked; it worked. They’re even going to the same college, and driving cross-country together for orientation.

Then Jordan dumps Courtney — for a girl he met on the Internet.

It’s too late to change plans, so the road trip is on. Courtney’s heartbroken, but figures she can tough it out for a few days. La la la — this is Courtney pretending not to care.

But in a strange twist, Jordan cares. A lot.

Turns out, he’s got a secret or two that he’s not telling Courtney. And it has everything to do with why they broke up, why they can’t get back together, and how, in spite of it all, this couple is destined for each other.

Here is another excellent road trip novel. Not on par with Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour, but still very enjoyable.

The book begins with Courtney’s point of view on the first day of the road trip. She does not want to go on this road trip because a few weeks earlier her boyfriend broke up with her – and that’s who she’s going on the roadtrip with. No big deal, but her parents refused to let her get out of it, because she did make a big stink about doing it in the first place. The trip by the way is to her and her ex’s college, where they start in a week. And the break up was a big surprise – she thought her and Jordan were closer than ever, but then one day, he claims to have met someone online and that he wanted to be with her.

Then we get things from Jordan’s point of view. We quickly find out that he still wants Courtney but that her stepdad made him break up with her. And Jordan still wants to be with Courtney, but now apparently her and her guy best friend Lloyd have hooked up and are together.

But we the reader know that Courtney still wants Jordan too.

So angsty and delicious!! I loved it!

Alternating between the points of view of Courtney and Jordan, Two-Way Street was so much fun to read. Interspersed between each character’s account of the roadtrip are flashbacks to how they hooked up in the first place and that story moves along as Courtney and Jordan get closer to their college. So we find out WHY Jordan breaks up with Courtney around the same time they arrive at their destination after a trip filled with yearning and misunderstandings. And since we the reader know what’s going on in each character’s head, it’s lots of fun to watch the characters see the whole story unravel and to see the character’s discover what really is going on. Like I said, delicious!

Two-Way Street also has some interesting secondary characters that provide some laughs and a little bit of angst. I also had to laugh at the MySpace stuff – this book was written in 2007 and already MySpace is old. LOL Now it’s all about Facebook. That didn’t detract from the story, but it was something to think about, how fast technology and social networking can change.

Anyway, Two-Way Street gets a B+ from me. I can see myself re-reading this one every now and again.