Carrie Arcos, OUT OF REACH

A YA (National Book Award Finalist) about a girl who, with her brother's good-looking friend Tyler, spends a day looking for her meth-addicted brother Micah on the beaches near San Diego. I thought the book did a very good job portraying Rachel's ambivalence about her brother--she loves him but is absolutely furious with him for the lies, the addiction, the pain he's caused the family. But the romance that blooms between Tyler and Rachel during the one day, as they take "time out" from looking for Micah to eat ice cream and ride the roller-coaster and bumper cars, felt forced. The book doesn't cop out (spoiler: they don't find Micah) but the ease with which Rachel accepts that left me a bit cold.