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Where The Road Takes Me by Jay McLean

2/10/2015

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Chloe has one plan for the future, and one plan only: the road. She’s made a promise to herself: don’t let anyone in, and don’t let anyone love her. She’s learned the hard way what happens if she breaks her rules. So she’s focused on being invisible and waiting until she can set out on the road—her dream of freedom, at least for a little while.

Blake Hunter is a basketball star who has it all—everything about him looks perfect to those on the other side of his protective walls. He can’t let anyone see the shattered pieces behind the flawless facade or else all his hopes and dreams will disappear.

One dark night throws Chloe and Blake together, changing everything for Blake. For Chloe, nothing changes: she has the road, and she’s focused on it. But when the so-called perfect boy starts to notice the invisible girl, they discover that sometimes with love, no one knows where the road may lead.

Review by Amanda

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Chloe only has one plan for her life, to remain invisible and not form any lasting attachments with anyone - to not love or be loved.  The only thing that she has ever committed herself to is to leave town after graduation and to follow the road wherever it may take her.

Blake Hunter is the basketball star of the school.  He has a seeminly perfect life - he is dating a beautiful cheerleader, his friends are bountiful, he lives in a good neigbhorhood and his parents are still together.  However, everyone knows that appearances can be deceiving.

Blake and Chloe meet on what could ostensibly be the worst night of Chloe's life.  Blake immediately steps into protector mode and helps her recover all of her missing possessions.  He offers to take her home, but she wants to go for a twilight breakfast.  They spend this time finding out quirky facts about one another, he then takes Chloe home and gives her a sweet kiss goodbye.


Blake and Chloe initially appear to be completely different, however, as the story develops, we soon discover the similarities.  Although Blake comes a home where his parents are still married - they live completely separate lives, almost to the point of ignoring him.  Chloe is living in a foster home, her mother having passed away when she was 8.   They are able to connect over these similarities and a friendship is formed.  Chloe is still committed to not letting anyone too close, and regardless of their , friendship, she makes it clear to Blake that things cannot continue past the school year as she is still planning on leaving.

One of the aspects of this book that I really loved were the background characters.  We got to meet Josh, Blake's best friend.  A high school dropout raising his child on his own.  He filled the scenes with hilarity and was more times than not the voice of reason between Blake and Chloe.  We also got to meet Chloe's foster family.  The children will steal your heart and the parents were a refreshing change.  More often than not we read about these abusive foster homes, but this foster home was filled with love.  The twerking scene at the family dinner table made me laugh out LOUD!

I loved Blake he is the epitome of what all book boyfriends should be and he had me swooning on more than one occassion.  When we first meet him he is totally detached from life.  He only focuses on two things - basketball and whether or not he should enlist in the army.  Chloe is his game changer, she brings him back to living.  As he gets to know Chloe he becomes this caring, passionate and outrageously romantic man.  I love Blake Hunter.

Chloe took a little bit more time to warm up to.  Her unwillingness to form any real bond - even with her foster family, who clearly loved her really was frustrating at times.  However, as we got to know Chloe better, we were also given insight into what had made her become who she was.  It was heartbreaking to read and you almost wanted to step into the book and shake her.  As the book develops however, Chloe does start to thaw and we are given glimpses of what could be if she finally opened her heart to Blake.  When Chloe takes Blake to Duke to meet the Coach for the first time, she leaves him alone with the Coach for an hour.  When she returns and tells Blake what she was doing whilst he was with the Coach literally made me squeal like a little girl.  It was one of the most beautiful moments of the book.

I loved this book - there were so many different aspects that had me gripped from beginning to end, I almost wish the book had been another book longer.  It truly was an amazing read.

The storyline is something that we can all relate to, high school is not easy for anyone and we are subjected to so much during our time there.  Although on different sides of the spectrum, Blake and Chloe both had difficult times there albeit for different reasons.

The book is beautifully written, it took me through every spectrum of emotion I could possibly feel - sometimes laughing uproariously and other times snivelling in tears.  The characters are so real, they are like old friends you know, I honestly would not have been surprised if they stepped of the pages of the book and walked into real life.  That is truly one of the aspects of Jay Mclean's writing that I love - she writes real, and Where The Road Takes Me is no exception.

The book is also filled with the most amazing quotes.  I am a person that is inspired by words and the things I read, so this is one part of the book that had me absolutely melting:

"Love me when I least deserve it, because that is when I need it the most." - Where The Road Takes Me, Jay Mclean

"You can run, you can hide, you can choose not to see, but where the road takes you will always lead to me." - Where The Road Takes Me, Jay Mclean

"You must make a choice, to take a chance, or your life will never change.  She reached up on her toes and kissed my nose.  "You're my change, Blake Hunter," she said quietly." - Where The Road Takes Me, Jay Mclean

There were also the most amazing romantic moments throughout the book that literally made me melt into a puddle.  Blake continually leaves letters for Chloe always with red writing on them.  He eventually explains the significance of this to Chloe and my heart literally melted.

I am giving this book 5 amazing stars, Jay Mclean is a master at her craft and she had me feeling every emotion under the sun.  I laughed out loud and then was a sniveling mess.  There were parts of this book that were painful to read and I loved every single moment of it.  This is an amazingly beautiful book from the equally amazing and talented Jay Mclean.


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Amazon US
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Meet Jay McLean

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Jay McLean is the author of the More Series, including More Than This, More Than Her, More Than Him and More Than Forever. She also has two standalones coming soon titled Where The Road Takes Me, and Combative.
Jay is an avid reader, writer, and most of all, procrastinator. When she's not doing any of those things, she can be found running after her two little boys, or devouring some tacky reality TV show.
She writes what she loves to read, which are books that can make her laugh, make her smile, make her hurt, and make her feel.
You can follow Jay on Instagram and twitter @jaymcleanauthor. You can also find her on her blog at www.jaymcleanauthor.com where you can subscribe to her newsletter and get teasers and updates first hand, her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/jaymcleanauthor or her fan group on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/mores..., or you can contact Jay directly at jay@jaymcleanauthor.com
All her other social media links can be found below.

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/jaymcleanaut...
Google Plus: http://bit.ly/1uY8DJY
Google Plus Jaybirds group: http://bit.ly/1n66EhR
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4724550.Jay_McLean

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