Review: The Way Back to You by Michelle Andreani, Mindi Scott

The Way Back to You by Michelle Andreani, Mindi Scott

In this witty, heart-tugging novel, two teens take a spontaneous road trip across the Southwest to meet three strangers who received the life-saving organs of their late best friend—charting a journey of loss, hope, and love along the way.
Six months ago, Ashlyn Montiel died in a bike accident.
Her best friend Cloudy is keeping it together, at least on the outside. Cloudy’s insides are a different story: tangled, confused, heartbroken.
Kyle is falling apart, and everyone can tell. Ashlyn was his girlfriend, and when she died, a part of him went with her. Maybe the only part he cares about anymore.
As the two people who loved Ashlyn best, Cloudy and Kyle should be able to lean on each other. But after a terrible mistake last year, they're barely speaking. So when Cloudy discovers that Ashlyn’s organs were donated after her death and the Montiel family has been in touch with three of the recipients, she does something a little bit crazy and a lot of out character: she steals the letters and convinces Kyle to go on a winter break road trip with her, from Oregon to California to Arizona to Nevada. Maybe if they see the recipients—the people whose lives were saved by Ashlyn’s death—the world will open up again. Or maybe it will be a huge mistake.
With hundreds of miles in front of them, a stowaway kitten, and a list of people who are alive because of Ashlyn, Cloudy and Kyle just may find their way to back to her...and to each other.

Publishes in US: May 3rd 2016 by Katherine Tegen Books
Genre: ya contemp
Source: e-arc from Harper Teen via Edelweiss
Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC (advanced review copy). I am not paid for this review, and my opinions in this review are mine, and are not effected by the book being free.
Series? no

Buy it:  Amazon B&N iBooks Your Local Indie! Book Depository

Author stalk away: Michelle ~site Email Twitter Instagram Goodreads Pinterest
Mindi: site

 

    I wanted to read The Way Back to You because I liked the road trip aspect paired with the friends trying to make sense of the death of their friend by tracking down the recipients of her organ donation. 

    The first part getting to know the two main characters is like a study in different kinds of grief. Claudia AKA cloudy is trying to go about her life still and it's hard on her because they were best friends and they did cheerleading together. it's hard for her whenever she has moments like she turns around to tell something to Ashlyn but she is obviously not there having passed away.
Kyle is the boyfriend and when we first meet him he is seeking out churches in Hope of some kind of comfort. He's never been to church much but according to him he remembers seeing the movies and books and stuff that people can find answers or Comfort or whatever they need at churches.
He someone gets a sign because when he comes out of the church he finds this little cat and it's freezing outside so he decides to adopt the cat which is interesting because of how involved Ashland was into Pet Rescue Pet rights that sort of thing so I think it was fitting and for some reason the cat just reminded Kyle of Ashland so he decided that he was going to adopt her. it's interesting how a cat can just wiggle its way into your heart or any kind of pet really I have never been a cat person myself but I guess I just meant pets in general. they can be stress relievers and they are someone who is going to be loyal to you and provide a source of love and comfort.

    As for the road trip part of this, cloudy realizes that Ashlyn's Mom has been in really close contact with the family of some of the recipients. she accidentally season email about one of the little boys who was the recipient and he was going to be performing in a play so it hits her that Kyle has been struggling a whole lot and so is she in this that maybe this could bring some kind of Peace so she wrote them into a road trip but she doesn't tell him a whole lot about what's going on. Of course that doesn't take him long to figure it out since they were hours from home and cloudy can't really keep it a secret anymore but whenever he sees a little boy up on stage something really just clicks with him so they continue on the road trip.

   As their time together increases we get to see some of their memories and we see that their history isn't as black-and-white as it seems at first. we find out that cloudy light Kyle first but then she was trying to heal from a break up and it ends up that Ashlynn and Kyle start dating and she made some mistakes and they were both keeping it quiet so they didn't hurt Ashlynn but there have been some chemistry Between the two they were Lab Partners and they had spent some time together and over this road trip they have to overcome the awkwardness and the secrecy and also all of that mingled in with their grief over losing their best friend and girlfriend respectively.

    Again we get to see the different types of grief, and how this trip and seeing old friends as well as the organ recipients affects the two. A big part of their life passed, and they saw her in ICU, and they see some of the parts of grief they were doing wrong, and start to try to learn newer and healthier ways to express that. 

   I liked the ending, and how it all wrapped up.

Bottom Line: Well done road trip and healing story.

My question to you, my lovely readers:
Whats your most epic road trip?