A GUIDE TO FALLING OFF THE MAP......A DOWN UNDER ROAD TRIP STRIKES SPARKS FOR TWO LOVING FRIENDS SINCE CHILDHOOD (****)

 A Guide To Falling Off The Map by Zanni L. Arnot (2025)

      Heartbreaking thunder from Down Under? Two hurting souls, friends since childhood, finally realizing they're in love? And on top of all that, a rollicking (sometimes poignant) road trip though scenic Australia?

     You had me at all of the above. I couldn't wait to sign on. And this book didn't disappoint in delivering two lead characters you can't help but worry about and care for.

     Vinnie's a born theater girl, rocked by the suicide death of her performing arts loving mother. Big dreams possess her - Julliard, a life in NYC, Broadway stardom, and for the very right now, being picked as her school's Drama Captain. Her lifelong friend Roo dropped out of school to help support his mom and hopefully make something of his gifted eye for artistic photography.

     But life and cruel fate have conspired to turn their lives and dreams upside down. Vinnie feels hurt and betrayed by her best theater pal Lilah, utterly demolishing their dreams of sharing starry acting careers together. Even worse, Vinnie's struggling with the early debilitating symptoms of MS, the disease that led to her mom's suicide.

     Roo's dreams of a photography career flew off the rails too, as he's been bouncing from (and losing) one dead end, low paying job after another. But one thing remains constant for him and Vinnie - their fierce, unending devotion to a loving friendship forged in childhood.

     Can anything heal and redeem these two broken extraordinary young friends. What else but......(let's shout it all together).....Road Trip!)

     And off they do go, in a sputtering old Kombi van once belonging to Vinnie's mom. Planning success and fame for Roo, Vinnie encourages him to take enough memorable photos for her to arrange in a public exhibition. That he does, but Roo becomes well aware of Vinnie's escalating physical deterioration while they both cope with the reality that what they feel for each other is far more than friendship.

     As the book keeps you glued to it, all you'll want to do is either hug the two lead characters or just push them into each other to they can they finally comprehend what we've known all along. But then again, if we did that too early, we'd miss out on seeing them take that postcard-worthy tour of Australia (and saving us airfare and hotel money)

     For everyone who favors a heart tugging visit to "love-dawns-on-best-friends' territory, here's your next stop.

     4 stars (****).

RULES FOR FAKE GIRLFRIENDS......AN AMERICAN STUDENT IN BRITAIN FINDS UNLIKELY LOVE AND A HEARTFELT SCAVENGER HUNT.

 Rules For Fake Girlfriends by Raegan Revord (2025)

     First let me say that for a debut YA novel from a very young author, this is a remarkably accomplished, ambitious first effort.

     In terms of contemporary romance, it's obvious that author Raegan Revord loves and cherishes all the tropes that have been seemingly carved in stone over the years. (You can tell from the chapter headings that announce these many expected, familiar plot turns that by now readers (and filmgoers) know by heart.)

     Much to her widowed dad's worry and disappointment, college freshman Avery puts off her enrollment in Columbia to spend a year at a British seaside college attended by her late beloved mother. Her primary reason - to follow the scavenger hunt clues her mother left for her scattered all around the campus and surrounding countryside. Not even off the train yet, she's managed to fall into a queer fake-dating relationship with live-wire, vivacious Charlie, who's trying to make her own recently ex-girlfriend jealous.

     Avery collects a small coterie of friends, but the fake dating (as we all knew it would) turns into something much more and collides with sudden emotional complications that upends the young freshman's life choices.

     A lot's going on in this book for a fledgling author to take on at one time and author Revord does fall into the inevitable pitfalls of overwriting and repetitious prose. The scavenger hunt, no doubt meant to provide heartfelt moments along the way, struck me as vague, far fetched and not well thought out. And toward the final third, it mostly falls to the wayside when far more pressing issues take hold of Avery (such as her up-and-down Charlie romance, her estrangement from her longtime best friend and worries about her father's now solitary life.).

     But I cannot fault the book's passion, enthusiasm and empathy for all its characters and I think other readers will too, even if the tropes are so familiar to one and all. Once started, I simply had to follow Avery's story to its conclusion, so that makes her creator, Raegan Revord an author to watch out for.

      3 stars (***).