Amy Curry thinks her life sucks. Her mom decides to move from California to Connecticut to start anew–just in time for Amy’s senior year. Her dad recently died in a car accident. So Amy embarks on a road trip to escape from it all, driving cross-country from the home she’s always known toward her new life. Joining Amy on the road trip is Roger, the son of Amy’s mother’s old friend. Amy hasn’t seen him in years, and she is less than thrilled to be driving across the country with a guy she barely knows. So she’s surprised to find that she is developing a crush on him. At the same time, she’s coming to terms with her father’s death and how to put her own life back together after the accident. Told in traditional narrative as well as scraps from the road–diner napkins, motel receipts, postcards–this is the story of one girl’s journey to find herself.

I’ll start with saying that Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour is a pretty cliched, typical teenage road trip book. That’s not to say I didn’t like it–I enjoyed it, in fact–but it’s pretty basic. Despite my initial misgivings about the premise (would any parent really let their teenage daughter take a trip across the country with a guy she barely remembers? Without even asking her first before arranging it?) I was able to sit back and enjoy the ride (see what I did there?).

The biggest complaint I have with the book is that Roger was a stalker. I’m not even going to beat around the bush with that: He was a stalker. If a girl stops answering your calls and e-mails after breaking up with you, you should probably stop trying to contact her. You should definitely not call her at three in the bloody morning, or go to her house in a last ditch effort to talk to her. And yet we’re supposed to see this as heartbreaking and sympathize with him. No, thanks. I kept hoping Amy would get over her fear of driving and ditch Roger some place and finish the trip herself. This was likely a large part of why I didn’t love this book. Just like with Anna and the French Kiss, I have to like the other half of the couple if I’m going to be invested in their burgeoning relationship, waiting for them to kiss and all that.

The writing was smooth and, while not anything too remarkable, wasn’t horrid either. There were a few really funny moments, and I did like the inclusion of little things from the trip, like receipts and photos. It added an extra level of fun to the whole thing. Matson actually does manage to convey the general feeling and atmosphere of a road trip quite well, to the point where I was itching to get out and go somewhere myself. The times when Amy is reminiscing on her father were also touching and well written. The pacing sort of meanders along, and in the middle it does drag a bit before picking back up near the end.

The characterization was rather one dimensional, with neither Amy nor Roger ever becoming fully three dimensional. Amy’s development might have been stronger if some of it had happened naturally, or by her own choice. For instance, there’s a character in the book called Bron, who Amy meets during the trip. Bron is fashion obsessed and her dorm room is packed with clothes she barely even wears. When Amy and Roger leave, Amy is told that she can’t open her suitcase until they’re off driving. When she does open it she finds that Bron had broken into her suitcase, stolen her old clothes and replaced them with all new ones, without permission or consent. It’s obviously done to jump start some development with Amy, who has mostly only been wearing t-shirts and jeans since her father died, which is understandable. But it feels incredibly cheap because the decision was forced on her; she has no choice but to wear the new clothes, so her development felt a little flimsy. If she had out right asked Bron for some new clothes because she realizes she’s tired of wearing the same basic outfit day after day, that would have been so much stronger for the character.

There was also the scene near the end where it just didn’t feel natural at all, for both of the characters. They’d only known each other for a handful of days at this point, and while I can swallow the idea that love happens that fast, I wished there could have been more build up to that particular point in their relationship.

Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour is a fluffy, fun, light summer read with some darker stuff mixed in. It’s not the greatest thing ever written but it is a good novel for a hot, summer day when you just want to laze about and do nothing but read. While it could have been better in some areas, overall it’s an enjoyable read.