Review: Two-Way Street

Posted October 2, 2015 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt
on June 26th 2007
(288 pages) • Goodreads • Amazon • Barnes & Noble
three-half-stars

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.

my thoughts pink For an outdated road trip book with characters I barely liked, this book wasn’t bad. It was a really quick read and perfect for Bout of Books (when I read this back in August). I’m glad I finally read it but it’s definitely not a new favorite.

This had alllll the makings for a book I’d love. I read Ex-Mas back during the holidays last year and loved the concept: exes taking a road trip together and falling back in love. In this book, Jordan and Courtney are taking a road trip from their hometown in Florida to their new college in Boston. They broke up a few weeks earlier but decide to make the trip up together still. The gist of the story is that Jordan says he dumped her for some girl he met on MySpace (yep, this book is old) but really that’s a lie. He’s covering ~something~ up that I happened to figure out within the first few chapters.

I really, really didn’t like Jordan that much. He made CONSTANT sexist references to girls, their clothing, their habits, and their bodies. I rolled my eyes and/or cringed at something he said or thought in literally all of his chapters. He’d talk about girls like they were crazy, generalize all of them into one big group, and talk shit about their “slutty” clothes. He even said Courtney looked like a tramp at one point! All of that macho bullshit is SO not okay with me.

Otherwise, I did like Courtney a bit more. She was pretty funny and real. I could definitely relate to a lot of her getting-over-the-ex feelings. It was hard for me to really ship them because supposedly Jordan ~changed~ his icky boy ways because he loved her so much. Okay, fine. Courtney is a special snowflake. I just need a lot MORE about their relationship in order to fully root for them and see why Jordan even deserved any girlfriend at all. He didn’t seem like he had a lot of redeeming qualities.

Another thing worth noting is that this book is super outdated. I understand that it was published in 2007, which is really not THAT long ago, but the constant references to Myspace definitely made me LOL. She also talked about TRL and other very “early 2000” things a lot. It was a fun blast from the past but it was kind of weird to hear at the same time!

I really did enjoy this one overall, but the characters kept me from really liking it a lot. It didn’t help that the book already feels outdated and the plot is, overall, kind of predictable and somewhat boring. I mean, the twist (secret) was actually pretty unique, but I DID predict what it was. I think a lot of other people really enjoyed this one more than me, so maybe it’ll work for you!
feels from friends pink Phoebe and Joey Road Trip