BLOG TOUR: Road to Paradise by Paullina Simons

Hi there!

Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.

So, here we are with another day, another post, and another blog tour stop featuring a TLC Book Tours promotion!  Gotta love that team.  They've introduced me to some great reads over the years and with such a wide array of genres covered, you never know what you'll find next.  Bookmarks up to the TLC Book Tours team!  (YOU ROCK!)  Moving forward...

Today, we're helping to kick off the tour for a title celebrating its BOOK BIRTHDAY today via William Morrow Paperbacks.  It's a work of Fiction infused with the life force of experience straight from the author herself.  Now, that's not to say that she did everything in the book, heaven forbid, but she did actually embark on a SOLO road trip to gather firsthand experience of what it would be like to tackle the world one road at a time.  It definitely gave it an extra dose of authenticity, but that's just a small portion of the overall read.  Ladies and gents, grab your suitcases and make your funds as safe as you can, we're going on a road trip with today's blog tour guest...

Road to Paradise

by

Paullina Simons

William Morrow Paperbacks

About the book...

Love, passion, and friendship collide on the road trip of a lifetime in this breathtaking novel from Paullina Simons, internationally bestselling author of The Bronze Horseman and Tully.

There’s no telling where a journey will lead you…

Shelby Sloane has big plans for the summer of 1981. She’ll drive cross country in her graduation present—a classic yellow Mustang. In California, she hopes to find the mother who left her behind long ago, and then return East in time to start college. Her childhood friend Gina is desperate to reunite with her boyfriend in Bakersfield and has convinced Shelby to bring her along.

With Gina on board, Shelby’s carefully mapped-out itinerary is quickly abandoned. Soon, so is their “no hitchhikers” rule when Shelby picks up a mysterious girl named Candy Cane, who sets them all on a new and dangerous course. Streetwise beyond her years and decked out with tattoos, piercings, and spiky hair, Candy is on the run from a past darker than anything the two suburban girls have ever known. Candy draws Shelby and Gina into her terrifying world, where life as they know it is turned upside down and there is no place left to hide

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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An innocent road trip to rediscover her roots takes a turn for the worst and before you know it, spirals so far out of control, you'd never recognize it even if it was stamped with a "you-were-here" moniker with your picture superimposed on the image from the exact moment you began reading.

*blink blink*  I'm sorry, but for me, this just wasn't what I thought it was going to be.  I know the synopsis hints at darker times and "terrifying worlds", but really, there is so much DARK in here, it's almost impossible to see the light.  Let's review (since that's why we're here), shall we?

Shelby is a good kid with good intentions.  She longs to reconnect with a mother that she's not seen or heard from in most her lifetime before she makes the jump to college.  A simple request, no?  Eh, negative.  Enter one former best friend, Gina Reed.  Despite the "John-Jacob-Jingleheimer" moment I had upon reading about a character with my (first) name, I just couldn't stand the girl.  Her bad attitude and sniping at Shelby is explained further on in the story and while she has a right to some degree to be snotty, seriously...she invited herself, nay practically BEGGED to be on this road trip, that becomes more trippy by the moment, so forgive me if I can't really forgive her.  These two set off like oil and water on what promises to be a delightful ride (hahahahahaHA!) for them both, until after one too many setbacks and side trips lands them in trouble with a capital T...or perhaps it would be more prudent to say with a capital C.  Let's add another soul to this car ride from you-know-where by the name of Candy...Cane.  *blink*  Her actual name?  I think not, but are YOU going to argue with her, especially when things take a turn for the downright creepy and dangerous as we discover she's not exactly an innocent hitchhiker, and her "baggage" is about to become theirs as well...and this kind can get you killed.

You think you're getting a road trip and you wind up with a cross between a visit to that really warm place beneath purgatory and the movie Hitchhiker.  Seriously!  This is one roughed up ride in a spiffy car that goes pretty much EVERYWHERE and covers SO much rocky terrain, I don't even know where to begin.  We've got long lost mothers, cheating friends, cheating girlfriends, child pornography, snuff films, more than enough leery dudes for a lifetime, a glimpse at the true extent of the trucker network, the lengths to which a kind soul will go to help another, and the battering that same kind soul can take without truly breaking.  I was utterly surprised by the ending, and saddened to some degree, but the lessons learned were much to great to really have it any other way for our road weary gals.

In the end, it was much darker, more twisted, and intensely searching than I ever anticipated or was hinted at in the synopsis. I truly wasn't prepared for this road trip and while I made it through mostly unscathed, I can't say I'd necessarily do it again.  It was definitely a one way ticket for me, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't recommend venturing out onto that literary road to discover all you can along the way.  Just go in with a word of caution on all that you'll uncover...you might be shocked and very surprised.  Recommended for older teens through adults due to content and concepts covered.

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About the author...

Paullina Simons is an internationally bestselling author whose novels include Bellagrand and The Bronze Horseman was born in Leningrad in 1963. As a child she immigrated to Queens, New York, and attended colleges in Long Island. Then she moved to England and attended Essex University, before returning to America. She lives in New York with her husband and children.

Find out more about Paullina at her website, follow her on Twitter, and connect with her on Facebook.

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Special thanks to Trish at TLC Book Tours and the folks at HarperCollins for the copy for review and chance to bring this promotion to you.  (THANKS!)  For more information on this title, the author, the publisher, THIS TOUR, or those forthcoming, feel free to click through the links provided above. This title is available TODAY via William Morrow Paperbacks, an imprint of HarperCollins, so be on the lookout for it on a bookstore shelf or virtual retailer of your choosing.

Until next time, remember...if it looks good, READ IT!