"The Long Way Home" by Ann M. Martin

I was surprised how much I enjoyed The Long Way Home compared to Better to Wish. This book focuses on Dana, the daughter of Abby and Zander. She is an aspiring artist who looks up to her father more than anyone. Though she loves her mother, brother and twin sister, she just isn't as close to them. Their lives are happy, until tragedy strikes (isn't that always the way in the literary world?) and soon Dana will have to make some tough decisions in order to live the life she dreams of.

I thought that Martin did a great job with Dana's story. Though I liked Abby's, I felt that her development fell a little flat and her story didn't work as well with the way the book was written. However, it worked well for Dana. In this series, we see glimpses of the girls' lives set over the course of multiple years. Because of this, there is sometimes a little bit too much text devoted to filling the reader in on what they missed from one period to the next, but it seems that Martin had a better handle on this with The Long Way Home.  I was apprehensive to read this book, since I didn't feel that the first was the strongest of Martin's writing. But since the sequel is a much stronger book, I now look forward to completing the series. Tweens looking for a little bit of history mixed in with an interesting style of showing a girl growing up will like these books.

Happy Reading!
-Melly