Review: Dawn on the Road by Lea Waterhouse

YA Road Trip

Dawn Berlin is a high school senior with her life mapped out for her. At least, her mom has Dawn’s life mapped out, starting with an Ivy League college. But Dawn wants to go to art school and study photography. And her first choice of school has an open day next weekend. Not that she’ll be able to go. No way would her mother allow it.


But then Justin Devenport, her childhood best friend, walks into the diner where she works, and the impossible becomes possible. Justin has a motorbike and a tent, and the time to take Dawn north to Vancouver …

Dawn on the Road is a solid coming-of-age story. 

Sure, there are few glitches. It took a while to get going, and the end was abrupt, if fitting. The story is told entirely in first person, which works for young adult, but which made the repeated I thought” tags feel redundant.

I wasn’t entirely convinced by Justin. 

He was an excellent character—intelligent, ambitious, and growing in his Christian faith. But I wasn’t sure exactly what motivated him to look Dawn up after all those years. I guess that’s one of the down sides of first person—we don’t always understand the secondary characters (because Dawn doesn’t understand him either).

Dawn I understood only too well, the internal battle between doing what she wants and doing what everyone else tells her is the right thing to do.. The desire to try her own way, even just once. And the complete lack of thought over the possible consequences …

Yes, I enojoyed Dawn on the Road. 

It was a quick and easy read, although those readers who prefer the more traditional third person past tense might not agree. Recommended for fans of Serena Chase.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review. You can come back tomorrow to find out more about Lea Waterhouse, as she'll be sharing her Friday Fifteen—her fifteen favourite books and authors.

You can connect with Lea via Twitter or her website.