Panama ARC Review + Trade

Panama ARC by Shelby Hiatt; 2009.

At fifteen, a girl moves from a small town in Ohio to Panama while her father takes part in building the Panama Canal. This trip comes just at the right time for her. She yearns to see more of the world than her small mid-western town has to offer. She wants to meet new people. Visit exciting places. Panama with its lush rainforests and myriad of people is the perfect place for her desires to be fulfilled. Then she meets Frederico, a Spanish aristocrat who is working as a digger, one of the masses who toils daily in the heat and the dust and the danger of the canal. He embodies everything she's looking for: he's exotic, exciting, intelligent and pushes her beyond the limits her sequestered life has set for her.

When I had first picked up this book I thought it was going to be more historical, I’m thinking a book on the Panama Canal that could be interesting, but no it was more about the main character and her relationship with Frederico. I’m sure you can guess the kind of relationship that they had without me telling you.
I cannot believe that this book is marketed as YA; it should have been run as an adult title. I must have skipped like 20 pages at the very least do to content that is most inappropriate in books that are geared to teenagers.
The thing that was the most madding about Panama was that the how the relationship between the MC and Frederico, because if you stepped back and really took a look at their relationship would notice that it wasn’t love that they felt for one another, it was plain and simply more like lust. I know you’re are most likely wondering why I would say that, but the way that both used the other one for their personal gain was just wrong and should not be in a book that is advertised as YA.
Panama came across as a book trying to hard to please readers without knowing what makes for good reading.
The only thing I really enjoyed about the book was how well the author described how oppressing the heat and humidity and the landscaping of Panama. She made it just come alive and like you were there.
One of the things that annoyed me the most about this book was that the MCs name was never mentioned, not even once.
I know that this must seem like a very short review, but I honestly cannot think of anything else I would like to say about it, and I don’t feel the need to be any harsher then I already have been concerning it.

Since Panama wasn’t exactly my cup ‘o tea, I am willing to trade it away to a US resident (over 18) interested in reading it for themselves. Just let me know by going to my contact page and letting me know. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Panama earns 1 out of 5 pineapples.