“Daniel likes his life the way it is.
Simple. Predictable. And most importantly, just him and his older brother, Mateo. But as Mateo's wedding approaches, life is already changing. And Daniel worries Mateo’s fiancée, Skylar, will ruin everything.
When Skylar disappears a week before the ceremony, Daniel’s concerns are confirmed. Skylar is trouble. The wedding must be stopped.
Drawing on his twelve years of wisdom, Daniel vows to save his family from disaster. Even if that means traveling to Guatemala—the home of his father, and the last place he ever wanted to visit.
Daniel must sabotage the search for Skylar before Mateo makes the biggest mistake of his life.”
Series: Book #2 in the “Road Trip Rescue” series. Review of Book #1 Here!
Spiritual Content- Jeremiah 29:11 at the beginning and is also discussed in the author’s note at the end; Prayers & Thanking God; Talks about God & His plans; 'H's are not capital when referring to God; Daniel feels like God’s plans for him and Mateo can’t include Skylar or their father because he doesn’t think they would be good for anyone, but hears a voice in his head that tells him that his plans might not be best either; Daniel prays for God to help him stop the search for Skylar, but hears a voice in his head to say a different prayer—and to ask God if he is doing the right thing and maybe even ask for forgiveness, but decides he can’t listen to that voice because of his plan; Later, Daniel wants to pray to ask God for help, but is too afraid how He might answer it; *Spoiler* Towards the very end, Daniel realizes that God has shown him that His plans are better than ours and that God has worked a miracle in his heart *End of Spoiler*; Set around Christmas; Mentions of God, Jesus, His plans, & forgiveness; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of a church, church going, & a pastor; Mentions of a nativity, Christmas songs, and Christmas trees; A few mentions of miracles; A mention of Bible reading; A mention of Heaven;
*Note: An old woman says “gracias a Dios” (Thank God) and seems sincere; A few mentions of a character from Veggie Tales; A mention of being lucky.
Negative Content- Some pain & blood/bleeding (barely-above-not-detailed); A near car accident with ice involved (border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); A few lies & eavesdropping; Daniel feels sudden guilt when Skylar disappears because of his feelings towards the wedding; Daniel’s brother is very shaken when Skylar disappears; Daniel doesn’t want to search for Skylar and plans to sabotage the search because she has hurt his brother again, he doesn’t like the idea of it not just being him and his brother anymore, and thinks it will be the biggest mistake of his brother’s life to marry her; Daniel ignores the voice in his head to talk to his brother about the truth and his fears; Daniel tries not to lie to Mateo, but wants to stall the wedding long enough to make his brother see the truth (this includes him causing in inconveniencing ways like breaking the rules with TSA or turning off his brother’s alarm (which he realizes after doing it that it was wrong to do and tries to think of ways to stall without breaking the rules again); *Spoilers* A bit later he wanders off on purpose to try to miss the flight, feels guilt over the plan, tries to get back to his brother, and panics that his brother will chose Skylar over him when he saw that the plane had left already; They didn’t board and Daniel realizes that he shouldn’t have done that and feeling guilt like he is lying *End of Spoilers*; Daniel wants to keep his plan to cancel the wedding from his brother, which makes him doubt if he is actually doing the right thing if he has to keep it a secret; Daniel has a few opportunities to talk with his brother about his concerns and fears about the wedding, but does not; Daniel does lie to his brother and blames it on being Skylar’s fault that he is in this situation, but a voice in his head tells him that he can’t blame her; Daniel lies again to his brother and feels like he has bitten into a wormy apple and feels a lot of guilt which makes him feel sick and wanting to delay the flight back to miss the wedding; *Spoilers* Daniel sees Skylar and eavesdrops on her conversation, but doesn’t tell anyone because he wants his family to stay just the two of them; He plans to tell the truth after a couple more false leads so they can’t get back before the wedding; Daniel thinks that maybe he is the bad guy after realizing that he is hurting his brother; *Major Spoilers* Daniel tosses his, his brothers, and Kimmy’s family’s passports out the window as a final effort to keep the wedding from happening and feels sick to his stomach for what he has done; He tries to find the wallet with the passports and realizes that not only does he needs to stop the sabotage to do what was best for Mateo, he has also only been thinking of himself and what he wants; Towards the very end, Daniel confesses what he has been doing and his brother admits to knowing because he peeked at Daniel’s journal that morning before feeling guilty and closing it after seeing a few lines of what Daniel had written; Mateo asks why Daniel didn’t come to him and that he can always talk to him about anything before telling Daniel that he forgives him and that they will talk about it again later *End of Spoilers*); Daniel’s father left him and his brother after Daniel was born to go to Guatemala to “take care of some things” (which Daniel thinks was an excuse, but doesn’t care because he doesn’t need their father who is a stranger to him; Because of this, he calls his father by his first name; *Spoiler* Recently, their father contacted Mateo to reconnect with them after twelve years and Skylar went to find him so Mateo can have closure on his past before their wedding; Daniel eavesdrops and hears that his father is dead, and thinks that while he didn’t want to meet him, he didn’t want him to die; Daniel tries to forgive his father for abandoning him and Mateo and puts it in writing that he forgives him so then “it has to be true” but doesn’t feel better; *Major Spoilers* When looking for his brother’s wallet that Daniel tossed out a window, a man walks by and it is their father; It was a rumor that he had died and Daniel realizes that not only did their father make mistakes, Daniel has as well; The father says that after their mother died, he was lost and didn’t know how to be a father; Daniel tells him that he forgives him, but wonders why it still hurts and talks to Kimmy about it (Kimmy says that sometimes forgiving someone isn’t for them, but yourself and can help you feel free) *End of Spoilers*); Mentions of deaths & grief (including parents and Daniel’s mother who passed away after he was born); Mentions of Daniel wandering off (including the time search-and-rescue dogs had to be called and the event in Book #1); Mentions of a theft, thieves, & stealing; Mentions of poop, peeing, needing to pee, constipation, & throwing up; Mentions of spiders (including a giant one) & an awful smell; A couple mentions of nightmares; A couple mentions of rumors; A mention of a dog by lost by pet sitters (Book #1);
*Note: Daniel has sensory sensitivity in crowds and with loud noises (because of this Daniel lost his cell phone privileges after he dropped it in the toilet and tried to flush it when it buzzed and scared him); Daniel feels an “itchiness” on his skin (he also describes it as “a bunch of invisible bugs are snacking on [his] brain”), his chest tightens, and his stomach also hurts when feeling guilt about trying to sabotage the search for Skylar; As his deception and secrets grow, Daniel feels sick; Daniel is worried that his brother will forget about him after he is married & that the wedding is a mistake; Kimmy no longer hides her arm after the road trip in Book #1 (Daniel notices that others are talking about her little arm and it bothers him because that’s how God made her; Daniel and Kimmy also talk about when her old friend made fun if her arm and how it hurt her); A couple mentions of car brands.
Sexual Content- A few mentions of dating, break-ups, & Skylar running off before on Daniel.
-Daniel, age 12
1st person P.O.V. of Daniel
210 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
I’ve been excited for this story since first reading “Road Trip Rescue” and wanting to see more of Daniel. Both this book and the first in the series have a solid middle-grade charm to them and I enjoyed seeing the characters grow—Daniel particularly in this book.
I really felt for both Daniel with all the changes that are upcoming for him and also for Mateo with the hurt of Skylar running off. As an adult, I have to admit questioning the two of them together still, but hopefully it will work out for them and Skylar won’t be so…questionable on her quick decisions. 😅 I think for the middle-grade readers there are good lessons in this book (especially the ones that Daniel learns by the end!), but I would also suggest for parent or a trusted adult to discuss about Skylar going off and her lack of communication due to it not being the healthiest idea for her and Mateo’s relationship. I wanted to shake some sense into her, personally, and make sure she and Mateo have strong Christian couples in their lives to have as mentors. I hope we’ll see everyone again in the third book and I’m looking forward to reading it soon!
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.