The Travel Auction - Mark Green

This is everything you want in a light read - interesting characters, a fascinating set of circumstances and a story that evolves to create curiosity and the need to see what is next.  So what if your fiance leaves you for a plumber just as you are about to head to South America for a month.  You have the tickets and the time, but you also have an allergy that demands a companion to give you a shot if you should eat the wrong thing.  What to do?  Well, you have a ticket, its just that is has the name of your ex and she is not going to change her mind (why would you want her too?)  So it is simple.  Go on ebay and advertise for another woman who has the same name and can just up and go with a stranger almost immediately.

It is improbable, but that is what makes it fun and of course a woman is found to meet the requirements - its just that she is blind and comes with a lot of baggage.  That will not stop a good story from evolving so the two travel together - each dependent upon the other and we are taking for a ride.  The places are fascinating and the people they encounter are colorful and help sustain the flow of adventure.

Of course we want to know if these two will become a pair in a more significant way, but the author is witty and will keep the story light with humor and provides just enough tension to sustain the overall story.

The author has a wonderful sense of character and the two primary individuals work out their complex individuality as the travels progress and we see that their relationship is definitely tempered by their surroundings - hot and humid, rainy and muddy, cold, isolated... At the end you will encounter your own laughter and a genuine love of the individuals.

Of course it is not right to tell you what happens, but suffice it to say that the author avoids cliche endings and it is enjoyable to the last word.