When you get to the 50 percent mark of a book and ask yourself why are you reading it that is not a good thing.

I just didn't care about Amy her dumb detour with Roger and just rolled my eyes since I assume they are going to be all in love by the end of their road trip.

It doesn't help that reading this via Kindle does not allow you to blow up some of the graphics/pictures that the author includes in this book either. I think the whole thing was just a bit gimmicky and then I started to nitpick how far they could drive realistically on tank of gas and how they seemed to avoid certain states and then just gave up any urge to keep reading this. 

"Amy & Roger's Epic Detour" is about one woman's totally messed up idea to force her daughter to drive across the country with some random dude she (the mom) and the daughter have not seen since he was 5, or maybe it was 6. Seriously, I just had a hard time believing the circumstances that popped up in this book. I think I was supposed to feel sympathetic towards Amy while reading this book, but I was too busy thinking how selfish and not realistic the mother was in this book and how much Amy was working my nerves. 

We have the book starting off with Amy watching two people sitting in a car. You don't know what is going on but you get enough details that Amy is not happy. Then the book jumps around a bit and then you jump back in time (get used to that a lot) Amy is home alone eating pizza on the one plate she keeps reusing. Cue sad violin. And then she gets a call from her mother telling her that due to expenses, she can't have the car flown out to Connecticut (where the mom and now Amy is going to have to get herself moved to) and so she plans on her daughter and a friend's son to drive the car across country since circumstances have Amy no longer driving. 

BTW I already guessed the circumstances and so would any reader within the first few pages. I honestly started hating the back and forth timeline that Matson does with this story. We get what happened (no spoilers) and if it was supposed to be some big revelation it didn't work. If anything, it just made me dislike Amy and her mother even more. I just got sick of reading a story about two people who just don't have any sense to talk to each other and get their issues out there. And there's random throwaway lines about Amy's twin brother Charlie that is in rehab in North Carolina. 

I ultimately didn't get a sense of any character in this book and I was tired of reading about Roger and his fixation on his ex-girlfriend that even though she broke up with him he decided he was still going to go and see cause hey, why not be a cross country stalker. 

Bah. 

in July I read four books (including a re-read). It's not that much if you compare to the amount of books I usually read but all of them were really great. I went to camp for 10 days so I could not read that much and then I have to admit that Pokemon Go did not help with the reading...  I hope August will be better, there are so many books I want to read right now!

I'm also almost done with A Game of Thrones, if I manage to follow my schedule, I'll be done on Thursday.

What I read:

- Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum (3/5)

- Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone the illustrated edition by J.K Rowling and Jim Kay (4/5) (Review)

- City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare (3/5) (Review)

- Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson (4/5) (Review)

What I watched:

I finally decided to watch Gilmore Girls from the beginning. I have already seen the show, but I've never really followed it like from season 1. I just finished the first season yesterday and I really adore it so far. Lauren Graham is one of my favourite actress, she is so funny. The series is funny and I'm looking forward to continuing the series.

I hope you had a great reading month!

Thanks for reading,

Line.

It was my second Morgan Matson book (the first one I read was Since You've Been Gone). And I have to admit I prefer Since You've Been Gone. Don't get me wrong, this one was fantastic as well, but not such a light read.

Amy's character is not really complex and is easy to understand. Amy is a typical teenage girl who is experiencing some tough things. This book tells her journey (across the USA) but also her journey to find herself back. We get to know her better and we finally discover what she is hidding and why she is so scared of driving.

Roger is not as developed as Amy. He goes onto the journey as well and has a quest of its own.

Though the book, we discover what Amy and Roger will find, which is not exactly what they were looking for.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It was perfect for the summer and I just wanted one thing: to get in the car and drive. The concept of road trip is kind of different to us in Europe (or at least in small european countries like mine). First of all you have to be 18 to drive. Then  cars are expensive. People my age take the bus, few of them have their own cars. And the longest journey I could do while staying in my country will be of more or less 3 hours. That's why it's even more appealing to me. It's something I've always dreamed of. While I was reading I had Google Map open and I was checking the states Amy and Roger were crossing (because yes, I know where California is but when it's question of Utah, Connecticut or Tennessee I'm a bit lost). It seems wonderful and I had fun discovering stuff about the USA through this book!

I really recommend reading this book if you love contemporary and if you're searching for a fun read for the summer (well, not everything is fun, some parts were quite emotional)

This book was fantastic.  It is such a great summer read and it makes the reader want to go on their own road trip.  The characters in this book were beautifully written and the developed in an amazing way.  Morgan Matson never fails to write an amazing contemporary novel.