Rowell's long awaited sequel to Carry On sends Penny, Simon and Baz on a road trip through the western half of America. Penny's stated goal is to check up on Agatha, who has been living in San Diego and not returning anyone's calls. But her actual reasons are to have a difficult face-to-face conversation with Micah, her long-time, long-distance boyfriend, and to get Simon out of the house. Simon has dropped out of his University classes and has spent the last several months in a depressed stupor lying on the couch. Baz goes along with it because he's getting pretty desperate. They buy the plane tickets with magic money, hid Simon's wings with spells, and use faked passports; none of them tell their parents where they are going. This trip is off to a great start!

This book is tonally and stylistically very different from the first one, and I've heard several friends say they thought it wasn't as good as the first one. I, on the other hand, thought it was better. I like that it takes place over a much shorter span of time. I was very interested to see how Rowell's magical world was adapted to fit into the American setting; I liked the new character who was introduced; and I didn't even mind that it ended on a massive cliffhanger which was an obvious set up for book three!