RIDING THE UNIVERSE

Seventeen-year-old Chloé Rodriguez is most alive when she’s racing her best guy friend, Rock, down the Florida highway on the back of her kitted-out Harley, which she’s named Lolita. To Chloé, Lolita is much more than a set of wheels, in large part because she built Lolita together with her recently deceased uncle Seth. So when this biker chick begins failing chemistry and her parents threaten to ban her from Lolita until she brings up her grade, Chloé reluctantly signs up for tutoring. Despite dreading tutoring, when Chloé is paired with the hot and brainy Gordon Spudinka, their partnership sets off a chain of unexpected reactions that leave Chloé exhilarated, but also with some major life-changing choices. Although the plot is somewhat predictable, Chloé’s tough exterior, layered over her introspective inner voice, and the inclusion of such multidimensional topics as adoption and parent/teen relationships drive this text onto an open road that’s filled with enough unexpected speed bumps to engage readers. (Fiction. YA)