Linda Nelson

Carol Bower wants nothing more than to make amends with Karla Centon for what happened at the party. Karla is suspicious of Carol sitting by her at lunch but agrees to hang out with her after school. When Karla and Carol meet up with Max and Rod on the basketball court for some fun. None of them expected the chain of events that would occur the following days. An unplanned road trip which involves drinking, smoking weed, stealing cars, and so much more. Rod finds Cloud 9 knowing it gives a good high offers to share some with the others but they decline. What are the consequences for the road trip? What is Cloud 9? Find out in Road Salt.

This heartbreaking tale about bath salts is a real eye opener as a reader and a parent of three young adult girls. The story and characters were flawed, honest, real, raw, compelling, and intriguing too. I encourage parents and teens alike to read this book.… (mais)

I thought the author had a nice, easy style of writing, good for young adults to follow and stay engaged. This author also caught the main character’s teenage, whiney, true-to-life ‘angst’ teenagers have against their parents, in particular, her mother. The author hit the nail on the head with that one! Great job! I did enjoy this part because it is so true to life.
I had a hard time writing this review because there are to many things that did not make sense in this book and to many loose ends the author left hanging.
I did feel as if the book dragged out a little too long in some places. I read there is a sequel, and perhaps the sequel and this book should be merged together so this book would make more sense.
Karla had to move because of her parent’s decision to move closer to her father’s new job to accommodate his new commute. The author spent to much time explaining the packing at the old house, driving to the new house, the packing and unpacking at the new house, setting up her bedroom, etc.
Even though I said I really liked the way this author writes, there are some areas where this book dragged on to long. This is where an author could lose the attention of Young Adult Readers by taking to much time to get the story going.
Karla’s mother had Karla go to school the VERY NEXT DAY after moving? It was FRIDAY!! Karla ‘could’ have started on Monday. This could have given Karla some more time after the moving ‘rush’ to unpack and set things up a little slower and not in such a rush? The packing and moving from the old house happened all in one day, as well as the unpacking into the new house. Karla’s mother expected everything to be done in one day? I feel if she had given Karla more time to make the adjustment of her new home, slowed down just a little, perhaps she could have had more time in making better choices when choosing her new friends, instead, she was rushed through all of this.
As Karla started at her new school the very next day after moving to her new house, she met a new WRONG friend named Carol, who, right away approached Karla, trying to make friends with her, and to find out all about her. Carol finds out Karla is from a close by RIVAL school. Hmmm? Carol is a popular girl at this new school, among the Jocks and Cheerleaders. Karla, I think, felt special that she fit in so well with this crowd right away at her new school when she did not fit in with this crowd at her old school, however, she didn’t really fit in with this new crowd at the new school, as the other kids in the group pretty much just ignored Karla. It was Carol who was putting Karla in with this crowd.
Could this rushing Karla to school be where Karla’s parents’, especially her mother, faulted in not learning about her newly found friends? Rush, rush, rush. She asked about the new friends Karla made, but didn’t go deeper into finding out how Karla made friends with Carol, or what ‘other’ friends she had made, or how they all became friends. Could this, perhaps, helped to have stopped Carol from doing what she did at the end if Karla’s parent’s had been more involved with the choice of friends she was making?
Karla was always trying to call her new friend, Carol; having her calls ignored. Hmmm? Carol was NEVER home. Suggest anything? Doesn’t LIKE being at home?? Hmmm? Carol’s parents evidently did NOT teach her any values or else she would have been home more, in my opinion. Carol’s relationship with her parent’s should have been expanded on so we could have learned more about Carol and what she was really like. This was part of the problem with this story. We never learned enough about who Carol really was. I was NOT expecting what happened at the end of the book. Way to many loose ends.
In my opinion, the author should have incorporated many other new friends Karla made. We know she made other friends other than Carol, as that is only natural, but we are never introduced to them, either in Karla’s classes or at lunchtime. Someone, naturally, would have told Karla to be careful around Carol, as it sounded as if Carol had a reputation, and had done things to other new students who came to their school from the ‘rival school’, Karla’s old High School. This is where there is a huge missing link in the book where Karla had no idea just exactly what Carol had set her up for. This could have tipped Karla off at least a little bit if she had made more friends. This is where the book needs to be expanded upon.
We keep reading about how much Karla wanted to get out and go meet Carol here or there, or when Carol ignored Karla, and Karla’s feelings were hurt. When that happened, if Karla had made other new friends, she could have hung out with them other than Carol. Carol took up a large part of the book, too much.
As I said in the previous paragraph, this is where Karla’s making new friends in her other classes should have come into play, and given Karla some ‘gut feeling’ that something was ‘off’ with Carol. Details in this section of the book would have helped the reader understand more about ‘why’ Carol wanted to be friends with Karla so bad. Karla was getting confused about this and a little worried about some of the things that Carol did right away.
When Karla’s friends from her old high school and neighborhood came to spend the night, one of the girls mentioned her parent’s taught her to follow her gut with people and friends, I thought the author was going to go further with this and get Karla thinking more about this new friend, Carol, and using her gut more, but she was ignoring it. Karla did keep feeling a little uncomfortable about them, even to the point where she did not want her old friends to meet her new friend. Was Karla worried her old friends would not like her new friend? That, right there, was her gut working. The author should have expanded on this.
The book is called “Friends of Choice”, and perhaps Karla could have thought about the ‘choices’ of the friend’s she was making, especially when it came to Carol.
What happened at the end of the book? This really bad thing that happens to Karla, and now all of a sudden this book is all about Carol? What about Karla? What about Karla’s condition? She had no voice. What about Karla’s parents? Where are they? We are left hanging terribly. All we are told is they don’t know if she is going to make it? Why such a turn-a-round in the book? I can understand a small chapter on how Carol felt, ‘if’ Carol had talked earlier in the book, but she didn’t. She had no voice until the very end of the book. We should have been left with something about Karla and her condition. Some type of a resolution, but we were left completely hanging. I do see there is a sequel coming from this book, so I hope it is mentioned, or the sequel sold with this first book, so we will get to learn more of the details of why Carol did what she did.
As I said in the beginning, the author does have a talent for making her words flow, even though they were a bit lengthy at times, but this book lacks in this story in several places leaving Karla with virtually no choice in making friends, having nothing to do with the title. It leaves us, with no resolution in the end as to Karla’s condition.
I hope the books (the original and the sequel) are out together so the reader knows there is some type of resolution; more about Karla. Otherwise, they will be just as confused as we are as to why the book reverts to Carol.… (mais)

I received this book free from the author through LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review. This book needs editing very badly. The many typos were very distracting. I do feel that this book is one that should be read by every teen and discussed with parents, teachers, and counselors. Every one of the teens in this book have a very dysfunctional family life with little or no parental guidance and very risky parental behaviors. These teens make very poor decisions and continued with risky behavior. They don’t seem to feel any guilt about what they are doing and seem so tough and hard. This book does emphasize how dangerous and risky the practice of smoking Bath Salts can be.… (mais)