Droga do raju

by Paullina Simons

Meet Shelby and Gina. Eighteen years old, fresh out of high school, and once best friends. When Shelby gets a bright yellow Mustang for a graduation gift, she decides to drive across America to find her missing mother, who walked out years before. Gina invites herself along for the ride, in a hurry to get to California to stop her wayward boyfriend from marrying someone else.

What begins as a journey of big dreams and high spirits quickly changes when the girls pick up a young hitchhiker named Candy. Haunted by a mysterious past, she's got reasons of her own to get to California as quickly as possible.

The three girls, uneasy and unlikely companions, find themselves on America's darkest backroads, pursued by fear and betrayal, and slowly learn they cannot count on anything but each other. The road to Paradise, a story of intense friendship, fierce loyalty, and love, will take them to the last place they expected to be.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Contemporary, Drama, Womens Fiction, Romance, Novels

Paperback

First published November 5, 2007

About the author

Paullina Simons was born in Leningrad, USSR, in 1963. At the age of ten her family immigrated to the United States. Growing up in Russia Paullina dreamt of someday becoming a writer. Her dream was put on hold as she learned English and overcame the shock of a new culture.

After graduating from university and after various jobs including working as a financial journalist and as a translator Paullina wrote her first novel Tully. Through word of mouth that book was welcomed by readers all over the world.

She continued with more novels, including Red Leaves, Eleven Hours, The Bronze Horseman, The Bridge to Holy Cross (also known as Tatiana and Alexander), The Summer Garden and The Girl in Times Square (also known as Lily). Many of Paullina's novels have reached international bestseller lists.

Apart from her novels, Paullina has also written a cookbook, Tatiana's Table, which is a collection of recipes, short stories and recollections from her best selling trilogy of novels, The Bronze Horseman, The Bridge to Holy Cross, (also known as Tatiana and Alexander) and The Summer Garden.

Reviews

[Bree T · Rating 1 out of 5]

It took me longer than usual to finish this particular book because I started it before we moved house and then put it aside to pack and move. It ended up in a random box and I only found it yesterday.

Oh yes, and there was the fact that I hated it.

I’ve read a couple of Paullina Simons books before and I’ve enjoyed them a lot, so I thought this would be quite an engrossing read. The blurb on the back of the book sounded interesting, especially as I’m a bit of a road trip fan and what the two girls were undertaking sounded like fun. Basically the story starts out with Shelby Sloane, who was raised by a woman not her mother. When Emma, that woman, gives her a car for her birthday, she decides to undertake a road trip across America from New York to California, to find her mother, who abandoned her at a young age. Her former good friend Gina hears about the trip and decides to convince Shelby that she should come along to get to Bakersfield, California in order to hook up with her former/sort of boyfriend Eddie who looks like developing a wandering eye if she doesn’t get there soon. Shelby isn’t really interested in Gina coming along but she is a practical girl who sees that a second person to share the driving and expenses would be very helpful.

What Shelby doesn’t realise until the trip is underway, is that not only does Gina not have her license, but she’s promised to ‘stop in’ to visit several relatives along the way, delivering things to them. Each relative is not on their way, not on the planned route that Shelby has oh-so-carefully mapped out. I’m sure these interludes are supposed to be humorous diversions, full of too-crazy relatives and dogs. Lots of dogs. But mostly they’re just annoying and show Shelby early on as a girl who has absolutely no backbone. This information is going to be very.very.important later on.

{{contains **SPOILERS**}}

Cue later on and they stop to pick up a hitchhiker. Having seen her once and ignored her, they see her again, an oh-so-impossible distance for her to have covered later, and this time, they stop to pick her up, despite their previously agreed No Hitchhikers policy. The girl, Candy is young but ‘worldly’. How worldly Shelby and Gina have no idea until they realise that every trucker on the interstate is tracking them and reporting back to someone who is looking for Candy. Candy claims that there is no doubt that if the person who is looking for her, finds her than she’s dead – they’re probably all dead.

Did I mention that Shelby is driving apparently, the only yellow 1966 Shelby Mustang? Soooo inconspicuous, no? What basically follows is a LOT of driving to random parts of America that Candy decides she needs to go to, and lots of bitchy bickering between three teenage girls. They need to stay off all the interstates because of the truckers reporting their every move, so they take back roads and scenic routes through Nowheresville, America in what feels like 739 states. They take Candy here, they take Candy there, all along the same argument over and over, “let’s just ditch her” and “no, we can’t do that, what’ll happen to her?” Imagine that for about 300 pages and that’s the latter half of this book. And although Candy’s story is seriously screwed up and does inspire some sympathy she is so GODDAMN UN-BLOODY-LIKABLE that my sympathy lasted mere minutes. She doesn’t CARE that she has endangered the lives of these other two girls, she doesn’t CARE that she is the reason later on in the book that all their money gets stolen. She doesn’t CARE that Shelby is the only one who can actually drive and therefore must do all of the driving and is exhausted. She doesn’t CARE that they have to take 2, 3, 4, 10x longer to get to places because they can’t use the interstates.

And her answer to getting money? They should all go out and hook, because that’s what she’s been doing when they’ve needed cash! What, Shelby doesn’t want to? How bloody inconsiderate of her, after all Candy has done for them to get money! Ahh but Candy, you’re the reason they have NO money! And her reaction to that is oh well, now I’m going out to work so we can have some money. So be grateful girls! Ugh! I seriously just could NOT tolerate her. I don’t care how messed up her life was, it’s not an excuse to treat other people like shit, especially people that are trying to stop you getting killed and forgetting their own missions to drive you all around bloody America, which let’s face it, is not exactly small is it?

There’s also quite a bit of religious arguing in this book as Candy’s father is a trappist monk who raised her for the first 11 years of her life before she had to go and live with her mother (when all her life went to hell). They go visit the monk father in… I want to say Iowa, but to be honest, all the towns and states and roads all blurred into one for me after a while, and I’m not American so I don’t know them well enough for them to stick. It really could’ve been anywhere and I am not interested enough to thumb back through the book and find out where it is. Gina can’t understand how Candy can be religious after all the things she has done and Candy just seems to like to argue merely to frustrate Gina and the arguments go around and around and it seems the person who ends up the most frustrated, is me, the reader.

The ending also bothered me majorly. I really loathe books that blah-blah-blah for 300+ pages and then BAM! Action! Last several pages! But The Big Thing happened Offscreen/Offpage so it’s kind of like Shelby goes somewhere, to do something, for Candy (again!) and then she comes back and then it’s kind of a ‘while she was gone, this happened and we’re really going to tell you nothing about it except that it happened’. I feel like I was incredibly let down. What I got was 300 pages of bickering girls when really, what might’ve been more interesting is what happened to Candy after Shelby actually left. Did Candy {{even more **SPOILERS** here}} deliberately send Shelby away so she could steal her car, hock it and disappear with all their remaining cash because she had no use for Shelby now? Or did she try to draw the person chasing her away from Shelby? I find it hard to believe it could be the latter, because if so, why did she not just do it earlier?

All through this book, I just wanted to slap all of them, and I really hate disliking protagonists like that. I don’t want to read about people I think are borderline stupid in every freaking decision they make. I want to like the main characters, to cheer for them, to want them to triumph. A bit of adversity is welcome, even embraced, but all the roadblocks put up on this journey just got too much. Every single person Candy went to see who was supposed to help her, screwed her over. Every time they went somewhere else at Candy’s request it just led to more delays, more wasting of time, more arguments, more frustration. It’s not often I want to throw books at the wall, but with this one, I was sorely tempted more than once. I started off not liking Gina, for her lack of consideration at the beginning of the trip but by halfway through the book I was severely cheering for her every time she suggested they leave Candy by the side of the road to fend for herself. She was clearly more than able – far more able than Gina and Shelby, middle class girls who’d never left their comfortable lives before, were. That being said, why did they pick her up in the first place? Because she was young, and they saw her twice and Shelby felt guilty. Why? She was nothing to do with them and she made it from the first place she saw them, to the second, faster than they did.

I think Candy was severely overdone. Just too much all round. Shelby was one of the most pathetically weak characters I’ve ever come across, the way she was so easily manipulated by Candy and ends up ridiculously attached to her in some kind of unbelieveable crazy almost Stockholm Syndrome.

I finished it because I wanted to see if who was chasing Candy actually caught them. But I got ripped off there too, as it all happened while Shelby was on some fools errand and we were with her narrative the whole time. So all in all, it was a very disappointing read from an author whose books I have really liked in the past. Massive let down.

[Just A Girl With Spirit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, there’s not much I can say without spoiling the story so I’ll just say this. This book was not anything I expected. Do not let the cover or the title fool ya because man does it pack a punch like no other. Paullina gets a little wordy sometimes, but damn is she an amazing writer. This one got me good and made me pause to think about things. Just because someone may look one way on the outside, you never know what they are carrying or been through in their young or old lives. To quote my friend Mollie, who said it perfectly: “This was a character who had everything to worry about, but no worries at all, so strong and so sure of life.” “So flawed, but also flawless.” I’m so glad I’m working my way through Paulina’s work. She’s one of the good ones.

[Ursula Colmer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well. Where to begin? I have just finished this book after struggling through it for what felt like years. I must admit, I had to skim read the final quarter as it was just SO. BORING. I absolutely LOVE the Bronze Horseman trilogy, but since those have found a lot of her books largely self-indulgent and rambling. This was no exception. If the irritating main characters aren't enough to put you off, the pages and pages of religious preaching should be. The plot is almost non-existent, and what little there is develops at a snail's pace. After forcing myself to finish the book, the ending was not even worth it, as everything was wrapped up "off screen" and the main character given a completely unsatisfactory end. Honestly, I had grown to hate Shelby, Gina and Candy so much by this point, with their constant squabbling, missteps and failure to make ONE rational decision, that I didn't even care. I do not recommend this book. Highly disappointing.

[Abbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved the TBH Trilogy and I enjoyed Red Leaves.

But this book is not worth your time. I’d give it a lower rating if zero was an option.

[Zeek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tough book to process:

Road to Paradise is nothing like The Bronze Horseman Trilogy by this author- LOVED those books- and can't really be compared to her other books either. The book is all about dialogue- both internal and external.

Road To Paradise centers around Shelby Sloane- a young woman unsure of who she is and unsure of who she Shall Be. So she decides to take a road trip across the states in her mint condition canary yellow mustang, given to her by the woman who raised her. The same woman who is not her actual mother but the one who was her mother, none the less.

Which brings us to the point of the road trip:

Shelby needs to know why her birth mother just up and left her and her father all those years ago. She believes her mother is in Mendocino, CA, and, more than anything, she knows she needs to settle that aspect of her life before she continues on to Harvard where she's been accepted on a track scholarship.

When once best friend, Gina, discovers Shelby's making the trip to Cali, she horns in on the escapade to get to a boyfriend who left her behind. Shelby does, and doesn't, want Gina to come along. You see, they've had a falling out over that same boy, (of course!). But she also misses their longtime friendship and when Gina swears she'll help with the financial aspect of the trip- sensible, plan-everything-to-a- T Shelby, agrees.

From the get go, the trip is sidetracked- much to Shelby's frustration. Gina promises her Mom they'll stop by several relatives houses- SO not on Shelby's plotted course- and when they pick up a young girl abandoned by the side of the road, Shelby might as well have thrown her best laid plans out the window right then and there.

The girl has issues. SERIOUS issues. Yet Simons gave her a wisdom beyond her experiences and years.

Simons obviously also uses the dialogue between the girls while on the trip as a way to express her personal opinions, which didn't bother me one iota because I liked her opinions! You just have to resolve yourself to that aspect of the story telling to "get" this book. Still, it took me til the end of the tale to fully appreciate what all was going on- but, I swear I did get there- because, after all, it's not the destination, it's what we learn along the journey that counts.

And THAT is what this book is all about.

[DJ Sakata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite Quotes:

If people ask, I say I'm a Christian because Christianity is the one religion where you don't have to do anything to still be a member. I like that, and since I don't want to say I'm nothing, I call myself a Christian.

Aunty Betty was waiting for us out on the dirt driveway. She was tall and thin, with watchful, perpetually moist brown platters for eyes. Her mouth was slightly ajar, as if she was about to say something, yet didn't.

'Sloane,' Gina said to me quietly, 'honestly, don't let it slip how you feel about small furry pooches. Even Hitler liked dogs.' 'Yes,' I barked. 'Preferred dogs to children. Quite the paragon of canine-loving virtue, that Adolf.'

You know how often I hear your little likely sob story... About twice a day, honeybunch. You're in Reno. The things I hear would make God lose faith in man, would make Jesus drink whiskey straight from the dog bowl. I've heard it all.


My Review:

Road to Paradise was not an easy read. Had I not read this deeply talented author before, I most likely would have given up, several times. However, knowing it would be worth the effort, I sucked it up and stuck it out to the end, and am ever so grateful that I did... although... I may have frequently cursed the author and also may have mumbled something about her being the cause of my early demise. The writing was darkly humorous with puns, snark, irony, and tons of cultural and musical references of the time. I became nostalgic between readings, I would have been finishing up graduate school during this period and my brain flooded with memories of clip-clopping in Dr. Scholls sandals, listing to the BeeGees and Elton John, and taking long car trips with my college friends during breaks. As the girls bickered through thirteen or so States, thousands of little incidental yet insightful details and ever-observant descriptions were mentioned - little details that later clearly became germane to the overall story. Tricky writer that Paullina Simons! She is also a remarkable observer of human nature as well as a clever wordsmith. I covet her mad skills!

Basically, this book of 530 pages printed in tiny font, chronicles three teenaged girls bickering for 4000 miles during a cross-country trek on small roads (no interstates) in a classic Mustang during the summer on 1981. Shelby was conned into giving Gina - her previous best friend from childhood (before a falling out), and a chronic liar, a ride from New York to California after Gina wears her down and points out that she would help Shelby by splitting the costs and driving. Shelby quickly learned that Gina was not going to be of much assistance as not only did Gina not possess a drivers license, she was also unable to assist with navigation or map reading... but she did manage to add many extra miles and days to their journey with family errands and deliveries along the way - which ended up being several States out of the way and not on the way. Shelby, being spineless, continued to acquiesce to every hair-brained scheme Gina concocted. Despite warnings and promises to their guardians not to do so, Shelby was unable to leave a mini-skirted, pink haired, and fragile looking young hitchhiker named Candy behind, and the three girls' adventure quickly became a perilous journey fraught with danger and one bad decision after another. Candy was enigmatic and fascinating to me although I found her arguments with Gina over religion to be increasingly tedious - but that may just be my own bias since religion is something I purposely avoid - as I tend to do most repellent and aggravating things. My advice to those of you who may be tempted to give up, pass it by, or have already declared a DNF - if I my agnostic brain could digest this tome and still tag it with one of my rare five-star reads, it may be worth your while to stay the course and give it a shot.

[Deva · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a fan of Paullina Simons but this is definitely my least favourite of her books thus far. The plot is interesting enough, the characters aren't that bad, but although I can't quite put my finger on what it lacks, it was an effort to finish this book. I actually skipped to the end to see what happened, which is not something I ever do. I found the dialogue pertaining to Christianity incredibly tedious, and despite trucking through it, I still had to agree with the character of Gina when she says "Same damn idiotic difference."

If you're looking for an excellent book from this author, I recommend 'Girl in Times Square' which is a better example of this authors writing and her ability to bring her characters to life and wrap you up in their story.

[Mollie · Rating 4 out of 5]

***I listened to the audio, so I'm expecting to love the paperback so much more. Can't wait for that reading experience.***

What can I say about this book without spoiling? Very little. I thought it was going to be a light, fun road trip story. Thelma & Louise straight out of high school is more like it, because it wasn't as superficial as I'd expected. All of the sudden I'm reading with a new understanding on life and I've fallen in love with (to my knowledge) Paullina's most damaged character yet. Someone who has everything to worry about but no worries at all, so strong and sure of life. It was refreshing because as many flaws as she had, she seemed so flawless. I underestimated the work of Paullina Simons, I'll tell you that much.... Again! She will get those emotions out of you one way or another. Bittersweet!

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shelby never knew her mother or her father. The latter she knows is dead but the former ran off not long after Shelby was born, sending just a postcard as a clue to her whereabouts.

Now, newly graduated and with drivers license and new car in hand, Shelby is off to see if she can find her missing mother. With careful planning, she thinks she can get to Mendocino and back in just under two weeks. But her plan is immediately off to a rocky start when an ex best friend decides to tag along. And when Shelby breaks her steadfast rule about hitchhikers, her plan takes a dangerously unexpected detour.

Unexpected is an understatement considering the book begins with Shelby holed up in a motel in Reno. Her car is gone as is her money and her companions. And apparently Shelby is convinced someone is coming to murder her!

Shelby is a wonderful character. She has more patience than me, but hits her breaking point early on with her friend's lack of help in the trip. And the elephant in the room is the fact that their friendship broke up ages ago thanks to horrendous gossip about Shelby's family. Gossip Shelby herself believed.

As their trip progresses, things run further off the rails bringing our main character (and her companions) well beyond what they think they can handle. It's mostly light and amusing, but there are some dark turns as well. That light and dark, though, make the book a compulsively readable one! For me, a person who likes the idea of a road trip more than the reality of one, it's kind of perfect. All of the ridiculous things I can imagine going wrong on a road trip - and a few things I would never imagine - seem to happen in Road to Paradise.

Oh, and it's made that much more fun by being set in 1981!

Road to Paradise is such a fabulously fun read. I love Shelby, I love the setting, and I really need to go make a playlist off of all the songs mentioned!

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in India when I found it on a random bookshelf, and it drew me in because the only Paullina Simons books I have read are the ones following The Bronze Horseman (which I loved) - so I gave it a go. There were many aspects I found interesting about the book, maybe Paullina herself more so.. The fact that she actually traveled around America herself to write this shows for sure - you can see that she did more than go on Google Images and imagine what a place was like - you could tell she had been there and encapsulated each location the book was set in brilliantly. But other than that, the story wasn't too strong, and I felt the ending was most definitely rushed. It seemed like Simons got bored and had no where else to "travel" and said "Well, here we go, lets just end it here" and whacked in a bit of an odd ending that wasn't more of a twist, it was more of a random shock. An ending you usually wait for could have been good following the journey that was taken, but here it was a big disappointment considering she's written other such amazing books.. This one seemed like it was almost written by a different person.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have loved all her books I have read, I don't even care what it's about, I know it is going to be good.

While this wasn't the best book I'd read from Paullina Simons, I still enjoyed it. I am still trying to analyze why I liked it as much as I did. I think in many ways I identified with the main character - how she got swept up in the situation, was probably not like I would be, but I admired her compassion. I had read some reviews on this book while I was still reading it, and then I slowed down my reading, because I felt I was going to be disappointed. I am glad I continued on - and I wasn't disappointed.

[Lori Connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just don't know what to say about this book....... I have been thinking about it for several days. The subject matter is what I think disturbs me the most; young woman making really bad mistakes. Much of the book is dialog between the young woman and a lot of it didn't ring true for me. I'm still undecided as to wether this was a 2 star book or a 4 star book.

[Annabellap07 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst book I have EVER read!!!!! I would give it 0 if I could 👎🏻

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you for the Paradise of serendipity Paulina. The road is long and winding and hard but in the end beneficial to our lives. ☜(˚▽˚)☞

Enter: The road to Paradise.

“I wish she could teach me how to keep body and mind so calm, when ahead and behind was so much imponderable noise, when all three of us waded through a loud mire of delusional shadows.”

Loved loved loved this book.
(*≧▽≦) (*≧▽≦) (*≧▽≦)

This book follows the story of three girls, all varying so differently in personality from one another, on their own quests to find themselves and their lives while stuck in a Bright yellow Shelby Mustang heading across the USA.
……………………………………
What I loved: <3 <3 <3 <3

• Road to Paradise is a slow burning book that does slow right. It wasn’t boring to me in the slightest. Yes, it was metaphorical, in the best way and we had a constant setting of being in a claustrophobic little car (at least I felt that. As a reader I can appreciate when I’m transported into a story), but this was countered with the plot always moving forward and always being in a different town with the girls in some kind of strife. Oh the lessons I learnt.

• All I wanted to know was what was going to happen to the characters – Candy was very complex character. At first I was suspicious of her and didn’t know her intentions, I think I felt think that throughout the majority of the book. She was hard to relate to because of her actions, in the same way I could see so much of myself in her. The more I kept finding out about her the deeper the connection I felt for the story. In the end I was defiantly on Candy’s team. What great character development.

Gina. Oh Gina. What a great character you were. At first she’s likable---ish and she was sweet---ish? But throughout the story her character changes so dramatically. I can see how she was integral to the story too. Although Gina was a bitch she was a voice of reason and quite honestly the only person that represented reality, so how could you possibly hate her? She’s right after all, Candy was not their problem.

Shelby was so unrealistic. Nobody does those things for a stranger but, at the same time the only character with any type of merit. I wish people in the world were as caring as Shelby.

• Setting – The story takes place throughout a few weeks on the road from New York to California. Love the road trip vibe. Also, reading this in the present, I love how this is set in 1981.

• That ending

Things I hated: (((p(>o<)q))) (((p(>o<)q)))

The one thing I really hated about this book and something I have realised about Paulina Simons' work is that there is always some degree of cheating. I HATE IT. We don’t like it when it happens to us. It’s never okay and yet authors try to justify it. AH YEAH, NO!!! IT. IS. NEVER. OKAY. TO. CHEAT. And as authors I believe you should be teaching people the difference between that. Not leaving it as a grey area or making it okay. How are people ever to learn this if all they read is that “oh it happens, you might as well do it too. Because hey, no consequences for hurting other people.”
(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ {{|└(>o< )┘|}}

All in all: DON’T BE AFRAID TO READ OLDER BOOKS.

[Lynette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well this took me a long time to read and for a Paullina Simons book that it unusual.
To be honest at times it became a bit dull, the middle chunk of the story dragged a little.
But as ever she pulled it right around at the end and it's left me thinking about it for days since it finished.
Overall I still adore her writing, it's just she's set the bar so high with her other books.

[Rosa Harper · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is a reason this book can almost always be found on the shelves of second hand book stores. Enough said.

[Paweł Czarnecki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rozkręca się wolno, w przeciwieństwie do żółtego mustanga, ale warto przeczytać na urlopie na plaży historię o trzech dziewczynach przemierzających Stany Zjednoczone ze wschodu na zachód.

[Sage · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for something like The Bronze Horseman but didn't get it. Still worth the read

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It hurts me so much to give this 2 stars because Road to Paradise started out so perfectly. I was swooning pretty much all the first half; that's how awesome it was. Two girls headed on a road trip before college starts after the summer. What could be better than that? I immediately connected to the characters and I simply added the simple storyline. The writing was just as beautiful as in Paullina Simon's other books. Those who read my review knows by now that she's my favourite author in the world. But unfortunately the book started going downhill for me when the girls picked up hitchhiker Candy Cane. She was fun and all colourful in the beginning but her own story line bored me to death. One day I WILL pick this up again and maybe my opinion will change. I really hope so.

[Tina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't read these kind of books very often any more, but this was a pretty slow read. The content scared me almost as much as "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" did (it was less graphic though..). Mostly, I just found it hard to empathise with the characters, so though the circumstances were sad, I continuously found myself annoyed with Gina, and then Shelby for making the decisions they did. The characters didn't really develop well, if at all. However I did manage to finish it, just because I can't start a book and not see it through to the end.

[Pugsykat · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is definately disappointing. The whole time I spent reading it expecting something to happen and invariably nothing did. I struggled through to the end and wondered how somebody who had wrote The Bronze Horseman could have come up with this.

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book is driving me mad...it's so boring but I can't not finish it...then my next thought is life is too short to read bad books...
ok I've finished it. very tragic I think but not tragic enough to warrant anyone reading it. def don't recommend

[Vicky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really disappointed. Didn't relate to the characters. I gave this book away once read!

[Tonia Elson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book just dragged on, too much religious rubbish, and nothing interesting really happens - pointless.

[Marika · Rating 5 out of 5]

One thing this author does really well, is female protagonists looking to escape their lives. I really enjoyed this story, it's sense of adventure, and the depth that is always in P.S.'s characters.

[Riki-lee Unsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book but it is very slow to start I find it odd how many one star reviews it got but I would highly recommend it

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shelby Sloane has received the best present a graduating high school senior in 1981 could receive – a 1966 yellow Shelby Mustang. She has lived a sad life wondering what had happened to her mother after she was abandoned as a child. She decides to take the yellow Mustang on a road trip west after graduation to California to try to find her Mom. Her ex-best friend Gina finds out about the road trip and asks to tag along to meet her boyfriend in California. Shelby has everything meticulously planned and doesn’t really want a companion until she realizes that Gina will pay half of the bill. They start on their road trip and things immediately go from bad to worse. Gina’s family has stops set up all along the route that are out of the way and include the two carting dogs around the country. Shelby also picks up a hitchhiker which is expressly against everything their families had told them before leaving and against the rules that Gina and Shelby have made together.

The girl they pick up, Candy Cane, is mysterious, troubled and also wants a ride to California. When the girls discover that there is a threatening man after Candy Cane, they decide to take her with them. Will they make it to California? What is the secret behind Candy Cane and what happened to Shelby’s mother?

I was very interested in reading this novel as I’ve heard a lot of great things about Paullina Simons, in particular, The Bronze Horseman. I’ll admit I was disappointed by this book. The writing was excellent, but I found I didn’t really like the characters and it felt like their story was never ending with not much movement. Once they got on the road and picked up Candy Cane, the story seemed to be constant fighting about whether to keep Candy in the car or not and a very long journey on 2-lane highways across the country to avoid pursuit. I felt the ending was a letdown as well. I don’t want to give more details as I don’t want to ruin the story for others, but I felt there were no surprises and the characters were not compelling enough for me to care about their story.

Favorite quotes:

“But there is another road in Nevada that takes you almost there: U.S. 50, the loneliest road in America.”

“I was young, that’s what the young are supposed to do, not think about much, not thing about consequences, and so I hadn’t.”

“You know what I have been thinking traveling with you through every mile of this country? What if there is no place in the world for me?”

Overall, Road to Paradise is a road trip and coming of age story that had good writing, but characters that I did not find compelling.

Book Source: Review Copy as part of the TLC Book Tour

This review was first posted on my blog at: http://lauragerold.blogspot.com/2016/...

[Emilia · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Droga do raju" to moje drugie spotkanie z twórczością Paulliny Simons. Myślałam, że gorzej niż w "Jeźdźcu miedzianym" być nie może, ale niestety okazało się, że może.

Shelby kończy szkołę i dostaje od ciotki kultowego, jaskrawożółtego mustanga. Zamierza jechać nim do Kalifornii, by odnaleźć tam swą matkę. Dołącza do niej Gina, pragnąca spotkać byłego chłopaka i naprawić związek. Po drodze zabierają Candy: nieznośną i tajemniczą dziewczynę, która przeszła w życiu prawdziwe piekło i przed czymś wyraźnie ucieka.

Wiele bohaterek w książkach mnie denerwowało, ale żeby denerwowały mnie wszystkie naraz, to chyba zdarza się pierwszy raz. Przede wszystkim jak można wyruszać w podróż po własnym kraju i nie znać go w ogóle? I zabrać do pary drugą taką samą dziewczynę, która zamiast podstawowej wiedzy geograficznej ma wiele nieprzydatnych ciekawostek i na tej podstawie zamierza zostać nauczycielką, a nawet mapy nie potrafi czytać. I jak można zabierać w podróż autostopowiczkę, która wydłuża podróż i przez którą nie można później wrócić do domu? Dziewczyny są najzwyczajniej głupie, nieodpowiedzialne i zachowują się jak rozkapryszone dzieciaki. Może autorka chciała pokazać ich młodzieńczą beztroskę, ale nie wyszło i pokazała bezgraniczną głupotę.

Sama podróż też była po prostu nudna. Jakoś nie porwały mnie opisy miejsc, nie potrafiłam sobie ich wyobrazić. Niby autorka aby to urozmaicić próbowała dodać tam przemyślenia głównej bohaterki, ale przez to pogrążyła ją jeszcze bardziej. I te nudne rozważania o Bogu i wierze... Na co to tam...? Kolejnym nieudolnym urozmaiceniem była historia Candy. Zbyt nieprawdopodobna i przyczynek wiecznych kłótni o to samo między bohaterkami. W pewnym momencie miałam ochotę je pomijać, bo miałam wrażenie, że czytam to samo.

I jeszcze to beznadziejne zakończenie, które podejrzewałam od początku. Chyba najbardziej w tej historii było mi żal samochodu.

Niestety, ale to była bardzo nieudana książka. Strasznie nudna, niepotrzebnie wydłużona i zbyt nieprawdopodobna.

[Miss · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book in a salvos store and I decided to buy it knowing that the other Paullina Simons book I had read was the Bronze horseman triology, which is my all time favourite Simons. Unfortunately I was really disappointed. In fact I struggled to finish.

I feel as if the story really dragged on. So many ridiculous set backs. Parts that took chapters to read, could of been done in a lot shorter time. There was also what I felt was unnecessary religious conversation between characters, that in the end let to nothing.

Additionally, I felt as if there were major gaps in the storyline. It's as if at times they would forget the major trouble that was pursuing them.

Occasionally when I read a novel I will find an unsavoury character, but it is rare that I dislike them all. I will admit I found Gina humorous at times, but in general I found Gina, Shelby and Candy to be frustrating. They often made terrible decisions, constantly but it got to the stage where it was beyond frustrating. And what irritated me overall was that in the end nothing was really achieved. I do appreciate a unhappy ending, because I mean in reality the fairytale ending doesn't exist but these characters didn't even grow or change. They remained the same.

The ending was horrible. I was actually dumbfounded. I reread part of it just to ensure I had read right. I don't know if it was rushed or what the issue was but it did not feel finished.

However, on a final note I would like to say that I really appreciate the fact that Paullina Simons took the time to go on a similar road trip and that she used this for her inspiration.

[Judith Mariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A girl starts out wanting to find her birth mother with plans set and a yellow stang in hand. She gets a companion who used to be her best friend. Starts out and makes the first wrong decision she promised she wouldn't do, picked up a hitchhiker. With every subsequent page, she tries to rescue Candy even though her situation is unsalvageable. I felt like flinging the book across the room with every bad decision she makes. It took me ages to finish the book because I was postponing knowing how far the narrator's foolhardiness would take her. In the end she loses her audicious and most conspicuous twenty thousand dollar car. She never gets to meet her mother. Candy dies a painful death. And the narrator, Shelby, finally settles down with Noah. That last pages really picks ones interest but I felt like the author prolonged the story to far from what it should have been. Nevertheless, I have been left with the wow factor!