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County Lines Road: A story about two families pulling together to overcome adversity and hardship.
Next-door-neighbours, Karen and Terri, have always tried to do right by their errant kids but when a simple joyride goes horribly wrong and the two teenagers are captured by a county lines drug gang, they’re not sure who to turn to. Dragged away to the gang’s suburban lair will Tomas and Jodie find the strength to escape? And even if they do escape, how can they protect their mums and everyone else they love from the gang’s threat of retaliation?
313 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 17, 2021
7 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 27, 2021
4☆ A Pacy and Gritty Contemporary YA Read
County Lines Road is a story about two teenagers who go for a joy ride but end up in a whole heap of trouble.
Coming from a tough neighbourhood, and being raised by single Mums who are trying their best to raise Tomas and Jodie, it's not long before the two are skipping school and dabbling in a bit of weed.
If only they stayed in school!
Today was the day their whole lives changed. From a fun joy ride, to being shot at, to being kidnapped by a drug pushing empire and forced to sell drugs on the street to earn back the money they destroyed in the crash.
Missy is the king pin of her drugs empire and she isn't someone to be crossed, she has everyone terrified and downtrodden. No one has ever been foolish enough to try and escape!
Living in a tiny room with only a bucket for a toilet and a bed frame to sleep on, the glamourous life of drugs, most definitely don't look so glamourous now!
But can Tomas and Jodie escape alive?
Will Missy's Men Get to their Mums first, and kill them, like she promised if they escaped? If they do escape can they ever go back home or will they live in fear of retaliation forever?
At times this book did feel a lil overzealous, however expanding your imagination as you often do in books, I soon settled into this book and found myself feeling really sorry for Tomas and Jodie.
Yes they shouldn't of been skipping school and joy riding, but they never expected to be taken and forced to sell drugs and threatened with violence.
The story is fresh and current, and opens your eyes to what can and Is happening to young children when they potentially fall into the wrong crowd.
The story is Pacy, Compelling and keeps you on your toes.
If you enjoy gritty Contemporary YA Gang-Lit stories then you will really enjoy County Lines Road!
Thank you to Heather at Overview Media Tours for this copy which I reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
You can Find this Review and all my Other Reviews on My Blog :-
https://dashfan81.blogspot.com/2021/0...
County Lines Road is a story about two teenagers who go for a joy ride but end up in a whole heap of trouble.
Coming from a tough neighbourhood, and being raised by single Mums who are trying their best to raise Tomas and Jodie, it's not long before the two are skipping school and dabbling in a bit of weed.
If only they stayed in school!
Today was the day their whole lives changed. From a fun joy ride, to being shot at, to being kidnapped by a drug pushing empire and forced to sell drugs on the street to earn back the money they destroyed in the crash.
Missy is the king pin of her drugs empire and she isn't someone to be crossed, she has everyone terrified and downtrodden. No one has ever been foolish enough to try and escape!
Living in a tiny room with only a bucket for a toilet and a bed frame to sleep on, the glamourous life of drugs, most definitely don't look so glamourous now!
But can Tomas and Jodie escape alive?
Will Missy's Men Get to their Mums first, and kill them, like she promised if they escaped? If they do escape can they ever go back home or will they live in fear of retaliation forever?
At times this book did feel a lil overzealous, however expanding your imagination as you often do in books, I soon settled into this book and found myself feeling really sorry for Tomas and Jodie.
Yes they shouldn't of been skipping school and joy riding, but they never expected to be taken and forced to sell drugs and threatened with violence.
The story is fresh and current, and opens your eyes to what can and Is happening to young children when they potentially fall into the wrong crowd.
The story is Pacy, Compelling and keeps you on your toes.
If you enjoy gritty Contemporary YA Gang-Lit stories then you will really enjoy County Lines Road!
Thank you to Heather at Overview Media Tours for this copy which I reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
You can Find this Review and all my Other Reviews on My Blog :-
https://dashfan81.blogspot.com/2021/0...
April 22, 2021
Karen and Terri, both 38, live next door to each other in a block of flats on a deprived estate near Reading. Karen with son Tomas, 14, and Terri with daughter Jodie, also 14. The women are best friends and help each other out when they can. At least Terri has a legal job, working at the local corner shop and can afford a little bit more in life, like a decent washing machine, but neither of them are well off. That doesn’t stop them worrying about their kids and the influence of the estate where they live. Karen is right to be concerned about Tomas and his continual bunking off school. One day he and Jodie, together with his best mate Mumbles, get in a car driven by the Spinner twins, Ronnie and Martin, and go off for a joyride that ends in disaster, death, drugs and guns. Two rough looking men grab Tomas and Jodie and whisk them away in their 4x4 to a house where they are beaten and imprisoned. They soon find they are not alone – there about a dozen other children there too – and there is a price to pay for spoiling the gang’s product. It’s a County Lines/modern slavery operation, vulnerable kids being forced to carry and sell drugs and ruled by fear, although keeping them captive and turning them into dealers instead of the usual mules seems a step up from the usual scene. Escorted everywhere by armed guards, can Tomas and Jodie formulate a plan to escape? Who can they depend upon? And will they ever be safe again?
I like that it is written from quite a naïve childish point of view rather than how an adult would tell the story. Tomas and Jodie have had a few hard knocks but they are not exactly streetwise, and their optimism stops the story from being as grim and depressing as it probably would in real life. They are good kids at heart who just haven’t had the opportunities and encouragement they needed to succeed. It speaks volumes about what is considered the norm that after their kids have been missing for 2 days, the mothers agree it is “a bit odd” and wonder where they are, rather than showing any real signs of distress. They really are a self-centered stupid pair who just accept that criminality is a way of life. They know the realities of what kids in drugs rings have to do and yet don’t even worry if their children have been interfered with or assaulted in any way! I really liked Neville, even though I probably shouldn’t! Missy is super, like a modern day Fagin Disney baddie with her odd eyes and swishing stick, and it is certainly an interesting take on a very real and current problem. 4*
I like that it is written from quite a naïve childish point of view rather than how an adult would tell the story. Tomas and Jodie have had a few hard knocks but they are not exactly streetwise, and their optimism stops the story from being as grim and depressing as it probably would in real life. They are good kids at heart who just haven’t had the opportunities and encouragement they needed to succeed. It speaks volumes about what is considered the norm that after their kids have been missing for 2 days, the mothers agree it is “a bit odd” and wonder where they are, rather than showing any real signs of distress. They really are a self-centered stupid pair who just accept that criminality is a way of life. They know the realities of what kids in drugs rings have to do and yet don’t even worry if their children have been interfered with or assaulted in any way! I really liked Neville, even though I probably shouldn’t! Missy is super, like a modern day Fagin Disney baddie with her odd eyes and swishing stick, and it is certainly an interesting take on a very real and current problem. 4*
August 28, 2021
I have heard about the 'County Lines' crimes and it makes me feel terrible that vulnerable young people are abused. I did enjoy this story though because the mums pulled through. Terri and Karen manage to keep things ticking over and formulate an escape plan for their teenagers, who through no fault of their own were kidnapped by a gang and forced to sell drugs.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews