Long Way Home - Review

Long Way Home (Thunder Road, # 3)

By: Katie McGarry

Published: January 31st 2017 by Harlequin Teen

448 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Source: Personal Kindle Library

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Goodreads description--Seventeen-year-old Violet has always been expected to sit back and let the boys do all the saving.

It’s the code her father, a member of the Reign of Terror motorcycle club, raised her to live by. Yet when her dad is killed carrying out Terror business, Violet knows it’s up to her to do the saving. To protect herself, and her vulnerable younger brother, she needs to cut all ties with the club—including Chevy, the boy she’s known and loved her whole life.

But when a rival club comes after Violet, exposing old secrets and making new threats, she’s forced to question what she thought she knew about her father, the Reign of Terror, and what she thinks she wants. Which means re-evaluating everything: love, family, friends . . . and forgiveness.

Caught in the crosshairs between loyalty and freedom, Violet must decide whether old friends can be trusted—and if she’s strong enough to be the one person to save them all.

I read the first chapter of Long Way Home at the end of my copy of Walk the Edge. Obviously, Chevy and Violet have been secondary characters in the prior two books in this series, and their backstory has been set up all throughout the series. And then the publisher released a sampler (the first 60ish pages) on NetGalley. I didn't realize that it was a sampler until I downloaded it to my kindle. It was such a disappointment that it wasn't the full book, but since that 60ish pages ended at such a crucial part I decided to go ahead and preorder my copy. And I'm glad that I did. Katie McGarry is one of those authors that I can count on to be really consistent with her writing and characters.

I wasn't sure I was going to love Chevy and Violet. More Violet really. She was really angry with the club, with Chevy, in general after her father died. And she was kind of mean to Chevy when it was obvious that he only cared about her. Plus Violet's angry with the club for not treating her like one of the guys at times. I mean it's not like she wants to join the club, but she does want to be clued in to whatever information may pertain to her. And while I can respect that, I just got sick of her whining about not being treated how she wanted to be treated because she was a girl. If you've read the prior two books, you know that even Oz and Razor weren't getting all the answers they wanted and they were both guys. So I could understand Violet's point of view while also being a little annoyed with her issues at the same time.

Chevy was easy to like. He wants nothing more than to love Violet, but he knows how she feels about the club. Yet they are his family. I mean beyond friends that feel like family. They actually are his blood family. Yet even his mom isn't excited about him joining the MC. Chevy is being pulled in all different directions in this book, and I appreciated all that he was up against. I especially love the tie in with Isaiah from Katie's Pushing the Limits series. I want more more more information about this.

Katie McGarry does a good job or making the reader question the motives and intentions of the club with each book. You'd think that having been through two prior books where we find out that the Terror has nothing but good intentions for the characters they consider family that the MC would be beyond questioning, but with each book there's plenty to create doubt.

I also get so attached to Katie's side characters. Pigpen and Addison are both ones that I want more from. I hope she explores both of their stories in the future.

Favorite quotes:

-"I've got you, Violet. I swear to God I've got you."

-"The words out of your mouth aren't the only things she hears."

-"I'm secure in who I am and other people's definitions don't define me."

I do have to say that even though I enjoyed Long Way Home and read it quickly, this is not my favorite of Katie McGarry's books or even my favorite of the series. I want more of the side characters, and that's one of the best signs that I look for in a good series. Even without this being my favorite Katie McGarry book, Long Way Home gets 4 Stars. Have you read Long Way Home? What did you think? Let me know!