Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Title: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour

Author: Morgan Matson

Publisher: Simon & Schuster BFYR

Release Date: May 4, 2010

Source: Purchased

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

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. 

Thanks to the seemingly never ending winter we've been having here in Canada this year, I made the decision to start reading the summer romances sitting on my shelves as a way to escape the snow and cold. But I also got to read a bunch of books that I've been meaning to read for who knows how long. And in the process, I realized how stupid I had been for not picking up Morgan Matson's Amy & Roger's Epic Detour. You read that right. I, the contemporary love, didn't read Amy & Roger's Epic Detour until about a month ago.

For the past month, Amy has been living alone in an empty house, finishing out her junior year before driving her mom's car across the country to her new home in Connecticut. But the last thing Amy really wants to do is drive. Since her father's death in a car accident a few months earlier, nothing has been the same. To help her get the car to Connecticut, Amy's mother enlists Roger, the son of an old friend. Amy isn't particularly looking forward to speeding long expenses of time alone in a car with someone she barely knows, but before she knows it, she finds herself enjoying her time with Roger more than she thought she would. Somewhere along the way, Amy starts coming to terms with her father's death and starts piecing her life, and her heart, back together.

So yeah, despite being the contemporary lover--and borderline fanatic--that I am, up to about a month ago, I still hadn't read Morgan Matson's Amy & Roger's Epic Detour. Which I know, bad on many levels. But in an effort to escape the never ending winter we've got going on over here, I decided that it was the perfect time to read all the summer romances I had sitting on my shelves. And so when I picked up Amy & Roger's Epic Detour I realized how big a mistake I had made not reading this book sooner. I mean, I had read Morgan Matson's Second Chance Summer when it first came out, so it's not that I didn't know whether or not I would enjoy the book. I knew I would on some level that I would love the book, I guess I just forgot I had it? But seriously, why had no one forced me to sit down and read this book before? Because I LOVED it. It was everything everyone had told me it would be and I loved every page of it. The story completely sucked me in and it felt like I was right in that car with Amy and Roger. And as can be expected, once I finished reading the book, I basically just wanted to hop into a car and go on a cross-country road trip of my own. This book made me realize that there's so much of the world, heck of my own country, that I haven't seen and that I just want to see.

Of course as much as I loved the story, I loved the characters even more. Right from the start, I just knew that Amy and Roger would be good for each other. Each one came with their own baggage and I loved seeing them grow and slowly start to let go of some of that baggage. Amy was clearly suffering because of her dad's death and I knew there was more to it than she was letting on, especially with her reluctance to drive. And I loved seeing her start to discover how she really felt about everything, especially where Roger was concerned. And Roger, what can I even begin to say about him? I loved that for once, i was reading a story where the guy was just a good guy, plain and simple. Because that's who Roger was: a good guy. Granted, a good guy who had some issues, but still. I was just reading, waiting of him to realizes that he should just get over his old girlfriend and do something about Amy. So basically, this book, and these characters in particular, just kinda gave me all the feels.

Why I didn't read Amy & Roger's Epic Detour sooner? WHY? I loved it. Actually I more than loved it. And now for a small PSA: If, like me, you still haven't read Amy & Roger's Epic Detour (or any of Morgan Matson's books for that matter), get on that. Don't do what I did and wait to read them. They are more than worth it.