Last Exit to Montauk

Phillip
Vega
Genre: 
New Adult

While shopping with his wife, the main character (whose name is never revealed), sees a girl who transports his memories back in time to his high school years in the 1980s and his high school love, B. Strolling down memory lane, the main character tells a story of his high school sweetheart while recollecting cassette tapes, boom boxes, Walkman, and 80s fashion. The story is filled with the main character’s nostalgia for the past.  Although his love is strong, life is not always made of rainbows and fairy tales. Does a first love ever truly completely die? 

This novel is a romantic, fun, exciting, emotionally intense read. All of the characters are keenly described with enough detail for readers to fall in love- or hate- instantly. As the couple begins to explore their growing love for each other, the author includes inner thoughts from our male hero; entertaining and eye-opening thoughts that explain what really goes through a seventeen-year-old boy’s head. The main character is Latino and, as such, a few of the scenes between him and his mother use Spanish dialect. Despite the fact that these conversations seem true to heart, it may be difficult to understand a few of the discussions if the reader is not familiar with Spanish. Readers who would like to reminisce about their high school years and first loves will not be able to put this book down. It is an exceptional story of teenage passion, love, loss, heartache, healing, and growing up.

Tina Donovan