It took me a bit to get into this book, and even then I wasn't fully invested. I suppose because I found it difficult to connect or bond with the characters and their decisions. ( )

Road to Paradise by Paullina Simons is a novel about teenage girls on a cross-country road trip in 1981.

After graduating from high school and before she heads off to college in the fall, Shelby Sloane plans to drive across country from Mamaroneck, NY, to Mendocino, CA. Her mother, whom she hasn't seen since she was a young child, supposedly lives in Mendocino. Her father died years earlier. Emma has taken care of Shelby. Emma also gives Shelby a classic bright yellow 1966 Shelby Mustang as a graduation gift. Shelby's former friend Gina hears about her cross-country plans and begs to go with her. Gina wants to reunite with her boyfriend who is living in Bakersfield, CA.

Soon Gina is part of the planned road trip but her addition adds other problems, like several side trips to run "quick" errands for various family members. Oh, and Gina forgets to tell Shelby that she doesn't have her driver's license, so Shelby has to do all the driving. Along the way the two girls run into a hitchhiker who calls herself Candy Cane. Once she joins the two, their road trip takes a dark turn.

First things first: I would read a few pages of Road to Paradise, and then have to set it aside so I could rant at all the characters. Mainly, at the beginning, I wondered how Shelby could be so foolish and stupid. I wondered who in their right mind would not say it was a bad idea to take this trip, especially to a young woman who has never traveled anywhere. Now, I was a young adult in 1981, in college and a few years older than these girls, but still.... Even then I would have considered this a bad idea. Then I was wondering why Emma would buy her that car. Why not save the money for her college fund. Don't even get me started on what Shelby didn't realize about Emma's relationship to her. How could this have never been discussed?

There were so many ignorant, incompetent decisions that it was incomprehensible. And they just kept coming. Why wouldn't they have just left "Candy Cane" at a gas station and keep going. Why couldn't Shelby just say "No." No I won't drop these dogs off 250 miles out of my way. No, that is not going to happen. No, Gina, I don't want you to go with me. UGH!

I would have set this book aside and informed the publisher that I simply could not finish it because it was not a book I was enjoying at all, but I had a commitment to TLC. I dearly love reviewing books for TLC, so I finished reading the whole hot mess. I admittedly did start skimming through the middle of the book because it is 544 pages of a hot mess. The epilogue did make it all a wee bit better - not enough to raise my rating, but at least I didn't feel as much resentment over reading it.

Obviously, I don't recommend this book, but be sure to read other reviews and see how other readers felt. It just wasn't a good choice for me.

Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from HarperCollins and TLC. ( )

Just like a real road trip, it was long, slow and boring. In fact, I don't know why I bothered finishing it. Must have thought it had to get better at some point. ( )

I have enjoyed quite a few of Paullina Simons's books in the past, and this was no exception! I managed to read it in just over a day (it's approx 500 pages long).

This story follows Shelby Sloane, who receives a bright yellow Shelby Mustang as her 18th birthday present, and decides to go on a road trip to California to discover what happened to her mother, who left when she was very young. Her former best friend, Gina, asks to come along so she can visit her boyfriend, who lives in California - reluctantly, Shelby agrees. While the trip isn't ideal, things really begin to liven up when Shelby decides to pick up a hitchhiker, Candy.

The characters are so realistic and so believable, I was sucked in from the start and couldn't put it down. The plotline is also really exciting, with lots of twists and turns, which kept me guessing and interested in what was going on. The ending was quite sad, and I would have liked more detail on what happened afterwards, a longer epilogue - the ending felt a little rushed. It also had a lot of interesting ideas about God and religion, as the characters argue about their beliefs while on the road. ( )

When Shelby Sloane is given a rare, bright yellow 1966 Mustang for her birthday, she decides to drive it from her home in New York, across to Mendocino, California, to find the mother who left when Shelby was just a child. Her sometime friend Gina comes along for the ride, with her own motives.

Along the way, Shelby breaks their 'no hitchhiking' rule and picks up a hitchhiker in the shape of wild and carefree, pink haired Candy Cane. What Shelby and Gina don't know is that Candy is running away from a life so desperate and dark that the two girls cannot begin to imagine it, until they realise that their own lives are in danger.

Along the way, the girls learn some lessons about life, love and themselves.

I enjoyed this offering from Paullina Simons - an author I have always enjoyed The character of Candy was fascinating - not always likeable, but always interesting to read about. Generally the story flew along at an exciting pace, although in the middle, I felt it 'sagged' slightly. However, the first and final thirds of the book were excellent.

The book is told from Shelby's point of view, and this meant that at times, knowing what we as the reader do of Shelby's mind set, some of the decisions she made seemed implausible. Her friend Gina, who was probably the most unsympathetic of the three main characters, was more believeable in that regard.

However, none of these slight criticisms detract from the fact that this book, on the whole, is a real page turner, with genuine tension for the reader, as the girls face fresh problems and fewer solutions, the further along their journey they go. ( )