Dotted Lines

Runaway, Book 5

By: Devney Perry

Narrated by: Ava Erickson, Teddy Hamilton

From USA Today best-selling Author Devney Perry comes a small town, second chance romance.

Clara Saint-James is completing a journey started by an old friend. She’ll return a Cadillac to California, a place she’s avoided for more than a decade. But it’s time for closure and to put old ghosts to rest. And it’s time to find out if the feelings she’s cherished for the boy from her past are just fanciful memories - or if there’s a chance they are real.

Timing was never on her side, especially when it came to Karson Avery. The two of them lived in a junkyard as runaway teens, and though she wanted more than his friendship, he always belonged to another - until that one night when he was hers.

When Clara finds Karson living in a small, coastal town, she’s not surprised the beautiful boy from her past grew into a stunning man. His smile is as captivating as ever. His eyes have the same roguish glint. But timing is still working against her.

Clara must decide how far she’s willing to go to battle for Karson’s heart. Or if it’s time to let him go and surrender to the dotted lines that have always kept them apart.

©2020 Devney Perry LLC (P)2021 Devney Perry LLC

Wonderful stories.

I ended up loving all the people I the books. love that they all found their perfect matches. I really love. Dev run Perry’s books

The Red Cadillac

This author keeps you drawn to her books. Best new author for me. I Love each series. But I think this one is favorite. I couldn’t stop listening.
On to the next series for me.

The series

I loved this entire series. Each time a new book started, I was sure that it couldn’t be as good as the one before. I was wrong.
Will wait a little while and then start it over. Worth another listen.

Final Runaway book, sweet epilogue!

Dotted Lines is the 5th and final book in the Runaway series by Devney Perry. This was the last series I needed to read to be caught up on Devney Perry’s backlist and I had such a great time! I love the premise of this series so much: “one car, one cross-country road trip, five stories about six runaways finally finding home!” In the author’s note it says how this series was inspired by her love for The Boxcar Children series and wondering whatever happened to those kids once they were adults. I loved those books growing up too and was so excited for this series because of that!

Clara and her son August take a roadtrip in the red Cadillac, ready to take it from Arizona to California to drop it off to its original owner Karson. And it becomes Clara and Karson’s second chance romance!

Almost the first 50% of the book is the flashbacks to when they were teens and first met and lived together in the junkyard in California. Clara secretly crushed on Karson for a while and they finally got their own little teen love story before going separate ways. Clara and her twin Aria went to Las Vegas once they were 18, with Aria eventually ending up in Oregon and Clara ending up in Arizona. After the flashbacks we get to see Karson being surprised by Clara, and her son August in tow, when they show up with the Cadillac. It’s been 12 years since they saw one another and they definitely have a lot to catch up on.

This was a sweet second chance. I wanted a bit more time in the present day and was surprised with how much of the book the flashbacks took up. With all the kids who ended up living in the junkyard, Karson and Clara had rough lives and things they were escaping as teens. We do get to see them in present day to back to the junkyard. I loved the epilogue, 23 years later and we get to see all the junkyard friends and their partners together! Seeing all the couples from the series, hearing about all their children, and getting to see the red Cadillac living on with the next generation was so sweet and fun! This was a great series to binge and follow the Cadillac’s journey with all of these characters!

Solid ending

3.5 stars — I think inevitably these books in this series are solid, just a little underwhelming somehow. Like, they’re just a bit too short, missing that extra something to give me the satisfaction I’m looking for.

Unlike many reviewers, I actually really enjoyed the flashback to the past! I loved seeing Clara and Carson’s crushes turn into something more, and get a better glimpse of what it was like for them. It gave me a better understanding of their feelings, and the tumultuous end of their time together.

It was actually being back in the present that I found a bit more underwhelming. There was a wrench that I wasn’t expecting and, while it didn’t feel gratuitous, maybe it just wasn’t what this book needed since it was dealt with in exactly the way I expected…ie, it barely added anything in the end. Just not for this reader anyways. And while I really appreciated seeing them (and us as readers) finally get some closure on a few things, I just didn’t feel like we got enough time seeing their relationship develop as adults.

The narrators were pretty solid. I’ve enjoyed both of them in the past, though I found I was a bit more confused on who was speaking, or speaking vs thoughts this time…but that could have been just me.

So yeah. I enjoyed it, but I was left wanting more.