I have enjoyed other Gabrielle Williams books but found it hard to engage with plot here. Good character development near the end but too little, too late. ( )

One of my top reads for 2013. I just loved this book. Gabrielle Willams has created the ultimate road trip novel here. I am not sure this can be topped!
Dodie Farnshaw and her younger sister Coco live an average life, in an average Melbourne suburb, with their average parents. Things change quickly when Mr and Mrs Farnshaw disappear without a trace. When Dodie is approached by Enron, a boy at school she barely knows, and he says her mum and dad were watching over something for the Church and that is why they are missing, Dodie thinks he has a screw loose. However, Enron convinces her to look to for the key he says is in her house and find the basement he claims is there. Dodie does these things not expecting to find anything, but is shocked to actually locate the key and the entrance to the basement. What they find there is, quite simply, life-changing. (No spoilers). Now Dodie, Coco, Enron and two guys she has only just met are setting off for Sydney on a road trip of mind-blowing importance. Driving unlicenced, Dodie and her entourage are chased by the police, nameless bad guys and even manages some romance on the way. One big secret, one big adventure.
This entertaining novel is a delight full of humour, gravity, excitement and heart-break. I heartily recommend this to everyone from 13 to 93. I might just read it a second time because it was THAT MUCH FUN!