Summer at Paradise Ranch YA

Lexi is your typical teenage girl who's mom happened to dump her and her dad where they live in Seattle and run off to Hawaii to marry a guy she met on the internet.  Fast forward a year and now her mom wants Lexi to come to the Hawaii for the summer to meet her new step father, Ernesto, and renew their relationship, and well that goes over about as well as one might expect a teenager to take it.  But once Lexi gets there and meets April and April helps Lexi to see there might be a reason to listen to her mother and found out why she did what she did and why she left Lexi and her dad behind.   Needless to say, April becomes Lexi's best friend on the island along with Mitsuo and believe it or not Rory and Kikue (you'll see when you read the book). Over the summer on Paradise Ranch Lexi learns to hula, ride horses, and surf, Lexi will have lots of stories to tell when she returns to Seattle or will she return?
This book is well rounded and will appeal to teens with varying tastes.  Although it will probably be classified more romance it has enough other exciting things going on to hold the interests of those who's interest are not in the romance genre (me).  There are horses, horse thieves, guys with guns, kidnappers, and hula contests just for starters, and this all takes place in Hawaii which by the way you might just learn a few words of the local language if you are not careful.  So, mohalo for spending time with me through my blog and until next time, aloha.

4 STARS

Four months shy of turning sixteen, Lexi Montoya was still trying to come to terms with her parents’ divorce and her mom’s remarriage to a man she met online, relocating to Maui, Hawaii.

Choosing to remain with her dad in Seattle, Lexi had planned to spend her first summer since the divorce hanging out with her boyfriend, Matt, and best friend, Robin. But her dad had other plans, insisting she spend the summer visiting her mom and stepdad at his ranch called Paradise Ranch in Wailuku, in west Maui.

Lexi went there with an attitude. Then she meets a cute Hawaiian guy named Mitsuo, is thrown into a love triangle, become friends with a teen girl living on a ranch next door, April; rides her first horse– an Arabian mare named Poppy– learns to hula dance and surf, and finds herself embroiled in a dangerous rescue mission when Poppy and another horse named Casper go missing from her stepfather’s ranch.

By the time her tropical summer adventure comes to an end, Lexi hates to leave Maui and say goodbye to Mitsuo. But can she stay when Matt is waiting for her back at home to pick up where they left off? Or will he lose her to a summer romance?

SUMMER AT PARADISE RANCH is a great coming of age adventure with young romance and mystery in paradise. Now in eBook, print, and audio.

Book Trailer:
http://youtu.be/ovKiOuEIANY

R. Barri Flowers is the bestselling author of young adult novels, including OUT FOR BLOOD, COUNT DRACULA’S TEENAGE DAUGHTER, TEEN GHOST AT DEAD LAKE, GHOST GIRL IN SHADOW BAY, DANGER IN TIME, and CHRISTMAS WISHES: Laura’s Story. His novels can be found in print, eBook, and audio. In addition to bookstores, many of the titles can be found at public libraries across the country.

The author has also written a number of bestselling teen and young adult related nonfiction books as well, including RUNAWAY KIDS AND TEENAGE PROSTITUTION, KIDS WHO COMMIT ADULT CRIMES, and CHILDREN AND CRIMINALITY.
Follow R. Barri Flowers on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest Goodreads, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, LibraryThing,Flickr,and www.rbarriflowers.net. And learn more about the author in Wikipedia.