Road Trip Return

Road Trip Rescue #2

by Becca Wierwille

A faith-filled international adventure for kids ages 8-12 about facing the past to embrace the future.

Daniel likes his life the way it is.

Simple. Predictable. And most importantly, just him and his older brother, Mateo. But as Mateo's wedding approaches, life is already changing. And Daniel worries Mateo’s fiancée, Skylar, will ruin everything.

When Skylar disappears a week before the ceremony, Daniel’s concerns are confirmed. Skylar is trouble. The wedding must be stopped.

Drawing on his twelve years of wisdom, Daniel vows to save his family from disaster. Even if that means traveling to Guatemala—the home of his father, and the last place he ever wanted to visit.

Daniel must sabotage the search for Skylar before Mateo makes the biggest mistake of his life.

"A heartwarming read with lots of laughs along the way." —Amanda Trumpower, Author of the Collar Cases Universe
"Feels new and surprising while delivering the same wit and heart that made the first book so special." —Jon Tilton, Author of The Lands of Luxury Series
"A beautiful story of the courage it takes to forgive." —Valerie Fentress, Award-Winning Children's Author and Host of the BookWorthy Podcast

Genres: Middle Grade

210 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 4, 2024

About the author

Becca Wierwille is the award-winning author of the Road Trip Rescue series and other stories that show kids they are wonderfully created for the unique adventures in their lives. Her short stories for children and devotions have been featured in numerous magazines and other publications.

Mom by day and novelist by relatively early in the morning, she wishes she could eat peach pie as often as most writers drink coffee. Despite her dreams of sandy beaches and mountain peaks, she loves living in Pennsylvania with her family.

Reviews

[Lindsey (Books for Christian Girls) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, personally ⭐️ Christian Fiction - Middle-Grade

About this book:

“Daniel likes his life the way it is.
Simple. Predictable. And most importantly, just him and his older brother, Mateo. But as Mateo's wedding approaches, life is already changing. And Daniel worries Mateo’s fiancée, Skylar, will ruin everything.
When Skylar disappears a week before the ceremony, Daniel’s concerns are confirmed. Skylar is trouble. The wedding must be stopped.
Drawing on his twelve years of wisdom, Daniel vows to save his family from disaster. Even if that means traveling to Guatemala—the home of his father, and the last place he ever wanted to visit.
Daniel must sabotage the search for Skylar before Mateo makes the biggest mistake of his life.”


Series: Book #2 in the “Road Trip Rescue” series. Review of Book #1 Here!


Spiritual Content- Jeremiah 29:11 at the beginning and is also discussed in the author’s note at the end; Prayers & Thanking God; Talks about God & His plans; 'H's are not capital when referring to God; Daniel feels like God’s plans for him and Mateo can’t include Skylar or their father because he doesn’t think they would be good for anyone, but hears a voice in his head that tells him that his plans might not be best either; Daniel prays for God to help him stop the search for Skylar, but hears a voice in his head to say a different prayer—and to ask God if he is doing the right thing and maybe even ask for forgiveness, but decides he can’t listen to that voice because of his plan; Later, Daniel wants to pray to ask God for help, but is too afraid how He might answer it; *Spoiler* Towards the very end, Daniel realizes that God has shown him that His plans are better than ours and that God has worked a miracle in his heart *End of Spoiler*; Set around Christmas; Mentions of God, Jesus, His plans, & forgiveness; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of a church, church going, & a pastor; Mentions of a nativity, Christmas songs, and Christmas trees; A few mentions of miracles; A mention of Bible reading; A mention of Heaven;
*Note: An old woman says “gracias a Dios” (Thank God) and seems sincere; A few mentions of a character from Veggie Tales; A mention of being lucky.


Negative Content- Some pain & blood/bleeding (barely-above-not-detailed); A near car accident with ice involved (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); A few lies & eavesdropping; Daniel feels sudden guilt when Skylar disappears because of his feelings towards the wedding; Daniel’s brother is very shaken when Skylar disappears; Daniel doesn’t want to search for Skylar and plans to sabotage the search because she has hurt his brother again, he doesn’t like the idea of it not just being him and his brother anymore, and thinks it will be the biggest mistake of his brother’s life to marry her; Daniel ignores the voice in his head to talk to his brother about the truth and his fears; Daniel tries not to lie to Mateo, but wants to stall the wedding long enough to make his brother see the truth (this includes him causing in inconveniencing ways like breaking the rules with TSA or turning off his brother’s alarm (which he realizes after doing it that it was wrong to do and tries to think of ways to stall without breaking the rules again); *Spoilers* A bit later he wanders off on purpose to try to miss the flight, feels guilt over the plan, tries to get back to his brother, and panics that his brother will chose Skylar over him when he saw that the plane had left already; They didn’t board and Daniel realizes that he shouldn’t have done that and feeling guilt like he is lying *End of Spoilers*; Daniel wants to keep his plan to cancel the wedding from his brother, which makes him doubt if he is actually doing the right thing if he has to keep it a secret; Daniel has a few opportunities to talk with his brother about his concerns and fears about the wedding, but does not; Daniel does lie to his brother and blames it on being Skylar’s fault that he is in this situation, but a voice in his head tells him that he can’t blame her; Daniel lies again to his brother and feels like he has bitten into a wormy apple and feels a lot of guilt which makes him feel sick and wanting to delay the flight back to miss the wedding; *Spoilers* Daniel sees Skylar and eavesdrops on her conversation, but doesn’t tell anyone because he wants his family to stay just the two of them; He plans to tell the truth after a couple more false leads so they can’t get back before the wedding; Daniel thinks that maybe he is the bad guy after realizing that he is hurting his brother; *Major Spoilers* Daniel tosses his, his brothers, and Kimmy’s family’s passports out the window as a final effort to keep the wedding from happening and feels sick to his stomach for what he has done; He tries to find the wallet with the passports and realizes that not only does he needs to stop the sabotage to do what was best for Mateo, he has also only been thinking of himself and what he wants; Towards the very end, Daniel confesses what he has been doing and his brother admits to knowing because he peeked at Daniel’s journal that morning before feeling guilty and closing it after seeing a few lines of what Daniel had written; Mateo asks why Daniel didn’t come to him and that he can always talk to him about anything before telling Daniel that he forgives him and that they will talk about it again later *End of Spoilers*); Daniel’s father left him and his brother after Daniel was born to go to Guatemala to “take care of some things” (which Daniel thinks was an excuse, but doesn’t care because he doesn’t need their father who is a stranger to him; Because of this, he calls his father by his first name; *Spoiler* Recently, their father contacted Mateo to reconnect with them after twelve years and Skylar went to find him so Mateo can have closure on his past before their wedding; Daniel eavesdrops and hears that his father is dead, and thinks that while he didn’t want to meet him, he didn’t want him to die; Daniel tries to forgive his father for abandoning him and Mateo and puts it in writing that he forgives him so then “it has to be true” but doesn’t feel better; *Major Spoilers* When looking for his brother’s wallet that Daniel tossed out a window, a man walks by and it is their father; It was a rumor that he had died and Daniel realizes that not only did their father make mistakes, Daniel has as well; The father says that after their mother died, he was lost and didn’t know how to be a father; Daniel tells him that he forgives him, but wonders why it still hurts and talks to Kimmy about it (Kimmy says that sometimes forgiving someone isn’t for them, but yourself and can help you feel free) *End of Spoilers*); Mentions of deaths & grief (including parents and Daniel’s mother who passed away after he was born); Mentions of Daniel wandering off (including the time search-and-rescue dogs had to be called and the event in Book #1); Mentions of a theft, thieves, & stealing; Mentions of poop, peeing, needing to pee, constipation, & throwing up; Mentions of spiders (including a giant one) & an awful smell; A couple mentions of nightmares; A couple mentions of rumors; A mention of a dog by lost by pet sitters (Book #1);
*Note: Daniel has sensory sensitivity in crowds and with loud noises (because of this Daniel lost his cell phone privileges after he dropped it in the toilet and tried to flush it when it buzzed and scared him); Daniel feels an “itchiness” on his skin (he also describes it as “a bunch of invisible bugs are snacking on [his] brain”), his chest tightens, and his stomach also hurts when feeling guilt about trying to sabotage the search for Skylar; As his deception and secrets grow, Daniel feels sick; Daniel is worried that his brother will forget about him after he is married & that the wedding is a mistake; Kimmy no longer hides her arm after the road trip in Book #1 (Daniel notices that others are talking about her little arm and it bothers him because that’s how God made her; Daniel and Kimmy also talk about when her old friend made fun if her arm and how it hurt her); A couple mentions of car brands.


Sexual Content- A few mentions of dating, break-ups, & Skylar running off before on Daniel.

-Daniel, age 12
1st person P.O.V. of Daniel
210 pages

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Pre Teens- Four Stars
New Teens- Four Stars
Early High School Teens- Four Stars
Older High School Teens- Three Stars
My personal Rating- Three Stars (and a half)

I’ve been excited for this story since first reading “Road Trip Rescue” and wanting to see more of Daniel. Both this book and the first in the series have a solid middle-grade charm to them and I enjoyed seeing the characters grow—Daniel particularly in this book.

I really felt for both Daniel with all the changes that are upcoming for him and also for Mateo with the hurt of Skylar running off. As an adult, I have to admit questioning the two of them together still, but hopefully it will work out for them and Skylar won’t be so…questionable on her quick decisions. 😅 I think for the middle-grade readers there are good lessons in this book (especially the ones that Daniel learns by the end!), but I would also suggest for parent or a trusted adult to discuss about Skylar going off and her lack of communication due to it not being the healthiest idea for her and Mateo’s relationship. I wanted to shake some sense into her, personally, and make sure she and Mateo have strong Christian couples in their lives to have as mentors. I hope we’ll see everyone again in the third book and I’m looking forward to reading it soon!



Link to review:
https://booksforchristiangirls.blogsp...



*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.

[Mikayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this as much as the first one, but the characters are all really well done. I just wish we got to see more of the happy ending.

[Minda Gomez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Road Trip Return is a middle-grade novel by Becca Wierville featuring a trip to Guatemala, themes of forgiveness and acceptance, and Latino characters.

Daniel has been raised by his older brother Mateo since he was a baby, when his mother passed away and his father returned to his home country of Guatemala. Now, 12-year-old Daniel is resistant to the idea that Mateo is getting married to Skylar, a pink-haired free spirit and aunt to his best friend Kimmy. When Skylar disappears a week before the wedding, Daniel accompanies Mateo, Kimmy, and her parents to Guatemala to find her. While they are there searching for Skylar and their father, Daniel does everything in his power to secretly sabotage the search. I found myself wincing as I read all of the ideas Daniel had to try to prevent his brother from getting married. The story brings together multiple storylines to demonstrate the power of forgiveness.

Now, to the fun part! Most of the book is set in Guatemala, a country that I hold in a very special place in my heart. It is told from the perspective of a second-generation immigrant to the US who does not speak Spanish and has never been to the country where his parents and brother were born. It was beautiful how the author naturally wove in Spanish words that were significant to the culture, and how readers could learn the words along with Daniel, who was seeing it for the first time.

I absolutely loved the descriptions of the landscape, people, food, and culture. It was very evident that the author has spent significant time in the country, and read like a love letter to Guatemala.

I especially enjoyed the description of the "chicken buses," the brightly-painted school buses which are such an iconic part of Guatemala. As she described how a camioneta can never be too full, it brought back so many memories of three adults in every seat, plus people standing in the aisle, and a man squeezing through to ask for payment, as we raced other buses to the next stop, praying we wouldn't go off the edge of the steep drop-off. Vendors selling through the windows, animals on people's laps, and so many smells. This scene made me smile.

The descriptions of Lake Atítlan and Panajachel were so beautiful and had me itching to go back to Guatemala. I also appreciated the disability awareness, as one character has a limb difference, and the protagonist appears to have a sensory processing disorder. This was all handled in such a graceful way, and made the characters seem even more real. What a wonderful book, and one that I thoroughly recommend!

[Heirloom Book Club · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twelve-year-old Daniel believes he and his adult brother, Mateo, have it all together. Saturday nights are family pizza nights, and ever since Dad left years ago, Mateo has done a pretty good job raising Daniel himself. A rock of support and a good provider, Mateo is the best older brother a kid could ask for. There’s just one problem: Mateo’s getting married!

Daniel—prone to sensory overload—is hesitant to share his brother with the wild, bride-to-be, Skylar. Mateo’s fiancée may be fun and full of flavor, but she’s also loud, messy, and the opposite of Mateo in every way.

But when Skylar disappears one week before the wedding, Daniel breathes a sigh of relief. Naturally, Matteo holds his breath, frantically searching for clues as to where his bride might have gone and why.

With the help of their in-laws, the brothers discover that the ever-unpredictable Skylar has booked a flight to Guatemala in hopes of locating the boys’ long-lost dad. Skylar is a firm believer in “how important it is to reconcile with our past before moving on to our future.”

Matteo is certain he wouldn’t want to meet Dad if he had the chance. But with Skylar’s phone turned off and Matteo worried sick, there’s now only one way to find her: head to Guatemala and find Dad.

Meanwhile, young Daniel sees this as his opportunity to sabotage the wedding. He makes every effort to cause delays and disrupt his brother’s search. The boy starts small by bringing large shampoo bottles through airport security and gradually resorts to throwing Mateo’s wallet out of a hotel window.

Author Becca Wierwille does a fantastic job with the intersecting paths and choices of her characters. She lands each story beat with perfection as Daniel and the others drift apart and are pulled back together in soul-stirring confessions.

Skylar could use some course correction in her communication skills and maybe not go running off to different countries without a working phone. But that doesn’t mean she’s the only one in the wrong. Mateo has been hiding the fact from Daniel that Dad has long wanted to reconnect. They may have lost their chance when locals share a rumor that he’s dead.

Conviction comes even stronger through Daniel’s many attempts at sabotage. At times, he prays that he will succeed in breaking up Mateo and Skylar, to keep his older brother for himself. But Holy Spirit says otherwise, challenging the boy to “pray a different prayer.”

Wierwille handles the boy’s change of heart realistically and effectively, displaying true growth in the Lord from beginning to end. Told from Daniel’s point of view, Wierwille’s dialogue is authentic and relatable throughout. With Daniel’s voice as the prose, the intertwined events play out with charming, funny, and at times deeply moving revelations.

With colorful and lively Guatemala as the backdrop, Wierwille guides young readers into an encouraging lesson on the power of forgiveness and how we often have to keep forgiving, long after we’ve said, “I forgive you.”

“Road Trip Return” by Becca Wierwille earns our highest recommendation.

[Lacey Markt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel works through the changes that come with his older brother getting married and the possibility of finding his long-lost father. I really enjoy this series and love the switch from Kimmy's perspective in book one to Daniel's here. It was fun to jet set to a different country. And I loved the how Daniel wrestles with his plans vs. God's plans. It felt true to a faith journey. While the books could be read standalone, the characters reference events in the first book and I think it would be best to start with Road Trip Rescue if possible for that reason. I'd say kids 8/9-12 who enjoy realistic and faith-filled fiction would enjoy this series. My 9 year-old daughter has loved all of these!

[Bo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good book from this new author. I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the first book, but still found it a good read and a "shareable" book. Daniel was slow to learn his lesson, but aren't we all at times? Again, a good emphasis on forgiveness, and that's it's not necessarily a "one-time does it" situation. Some interesting twists and turns, with some humor in there as well. Looking forward to reading the third and final book in the series.

[Ashley Litwiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly love Becca's writing for this middle age group that does not have aton of fiction with substance. This novel covers important emotional growth of this age group and tough conversations parents/caregivers need to have with readers - Becca starts those conversations beautifully in her novels. Highing reccommend for curious middle level readers.

[Maryna Doughty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Road Trip Return by Becca Wierwille is a middle grade novel about a boy named Daniel who tries to stop his older brother's wedding from happening. It has a wonderful lesson on forgiveness and trusting God over ourselves.

I’d recommend this book to kids ages 8-12 who enjoy weddings, books about God, and traveling to new countries (this book takes you to Guatemala!).

[Allie Slocum · Rating 5 out of 5]

This sweet sequel to Roadtrip Rescue takes a deeper dive into Kimmy's new friend Daniel's young mind. He wholeheartedly takes on the task of stopping his brother's wedding, even in the foreign country of Guatemala! Yet the anxiety of his brother potentially finding out weighs on him as the wedding day gets closer.

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my opinion, her first book in the series was mediocre, but I enjoyed it better than the second book. Too much illogical thinking, illogical actions, inconsistencies and coincidences in this book for me to relax and enjoy story. I do appreciate her spiritual emphasis and the fact that the main character learned some important lessons! I probably won't read this one again!

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an adventurous and meaningful story about family, friendships, forgiveness, and trusting God when you can’t understand the big changes in life. Absolutely loved Daniel’s story and the lessons learned that were highlighted by godly truths. For a young adult book I was hooked and devoured it within 24hours.

[Nicole Jennings · Rating 4 out of 5]

We enjoyed listening to the audiobook version of this story! After our family visited Guatemala, this book reminded us of many of our own experiences. I especially loved the rich themes of forgiveness included in the story. If you are looking for a book with solid values and good storytelling, this one was great!

[AJ Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just like the first in the series, this one keeps the pages turning. The Guatemala location is a unique setting for a middle grade book, and the characters come across with a strong sense of life-like reality.

[F.C. Villani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an incredible novel. Loved the first book ‘Road Trip Rescue’ and was so glad to go back to this world. Fantastic messages for children and adults alike in this story. The author note particularly touched me. Thank you Becca for this book!

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great sequel to Road Trip Rescue. I liked that we were inside a different character's head for this book. Strong faith elements and a lesson in forgiveness. My favorite thing about this series is how it shows everyday kids living out their faith. That is so important for kids today to see!

[Sunshyne Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

From my 10 year old: “Very exciting. I’ve always wanted to visit Guatemala so I learned lots of new things! This book is packed with adventure, suspense, you never know what’s going to hope ! This book is an absolute must read!”

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast, fun, easily done!!!! Great for your middle grader.... Values and a good story! Five stars all the way!

[Bridget Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars 🌟

[Christine Barth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very relevant message about change and forgiveness for middle schoolers. I did wish we heard more from Kimmy in this one.

[Kelly Strenge · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wholesome book about forgiveness and family. The author shows us that although our families may change and grow, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It also takes us on a beautiful journey to Guatemala, which is where my cousin was born, so that was fun for me.