Review: Six Degrees of Lost

Six Degrees of Lost by Linda Benson
Published July 15th, 2012 by Musa Publishing
//Amazon//B&N//

Olive’s mother is headed to jail and her brother to join the Army, so thirteen-year-old Olive is uprooted from sunny California and dumped in Washington State like a stray. That's exactly what she feels like surrounded by her aunt’s collection of homeless dogs, cats, and horses. 
Fourteen-year-old David’s future is already carved in stone. From a military family with two brothers serving overseas, he’s been pointed towards the Air Force Academy his entire life - but a rafting trip gone awry might ruin his chances. 
When a runaway dog is almost hit by a car, the search for its owner leads Olive and David, two kids from entirely different backgrounds, to an unlikely bond. Will their growing attraction to each other be enough to keep Olive from a foolhardy journey to find her mother? Will David risk his family’s plans to save her?

As you found out recently, I'm leaving. This is my second-to-last book review. I saved it--I had read this some time ago--because I figured it would be best to leave this blog on a sugary sweet note.

So with those words, let me begin my second-to-last book review on this blog.

Six Degrees of Lost is somewhere between the MG and YA category--David and Olive are fourteen and thirteen. But the book has some heavier topics (war, jail, etc.) so I'm going to classify it as YA.

The beginning of the book was very slow for me. It was hard to push through the first few chapters. Gradually, the pace sped up.

This story was an easy, fun read. I don't usually read books that have animals as a significant part--I don't know why, either. But anyways, the importance of animals in this novel is probably what made me enjoy it so much... or maybe it was Olive and David. The two characters, who shared their perspective throughout the novel, were strong and easy to care about. 

Another thing that was refreshing about this book was the romance. It wasn't the heavy, hey-I-just-met-you-and-this-is-crazy-come-have-sex-with-me-maybe type, but a light buttery thing that was a relief to read about after all of these sex-crazed books coming out these days. (And I understand the craziness in the YA genre; many teens deal with it.)

All in all, this was a nice, short read. Thank you, Linda Benson, for approaching me in the first place and asking me to read your novel. 4/5 stars. xx~Megan