Summer’s here, and it’s time for a road trip! If the price of gas is keeping you close to home, take a virtual trip with a fictional road trip. Here are several I recommend:
This Life by Jennifer RodewaldIf you’ve read books 1-3 in the Murphy Brothers series, you probably didn’t care much for cold, snooty Kate and Jacob. Especially once you learned that they’d betrayed Jackson Murphy. There’s a world of pain and insecurity hiding beneath that hoity-toity veneer, and Jennifer Rodewald exposes every last drop of it by letting her characters hit rock bottom and then sending them on the road, where simplicity and intimacy is forced upon them.
As the story says, the worst times can end up becoming the best times, once we’ve stripped away all the excess that has been distracting us from what’s most important: God and relationships being at the top of that list.
This Life also delves into a theme I’ve not often seen in romance – the dignity of work. God made work for man, not the other way around, and that’s ably demonstrated here.
This isn’t your typical romance – the characters are already married – but it’s an important story about redemption and second chances. And even if you’ve never declared bankruptcy and boondocked across the American West in a schoolie, you may recognize yourself in Jacob and Kate – your shame, pride, cowardice, and your resistance to complete honesty and vulnerability, even with those closest to you. Even your spouse. I know I saw a little of myself there, and I’m better for having read This Life.
Relevant Fiction Reviews: Road Trip Romance! Avoid the pain at the pump and take a fictional ride. Share on X
The Noble Guardian by Michelle GriepWhen I think of a road trip novel, I think contemporary. But Michelle Griep busted all of those notions with this 19th c. English novel of a gruff horse patrol captain guarding a lady and a baby (neither of whom belong to him) from inn to inn across dangerous countryside.
Despite the fact that Captain Thatcher is escorting Miss Gilbert to the manor of her betrothed, as you’d expect, they grow to care for one another as they survive discomfort and peril.
All together an enjoyable read with a satisfying ending! I have not yet read the previous two books in the series, and this one can stand alone quite nicely.
A Cross-Country Christmas by Courtney WalshThis Christmas romance was a wonderful escape! I know it’s supposed to be on the lighter side – and there is some levity – but by the end, I was thoroughly moved by Will’s regret and the sting of rejection Lauren never got over (no matter what she says). The pain of unrequited love runs deep.
This was my first Christmas book of the season, but I have a feeling it will remain a favorite.
Infinity + One by Amy Harmon“I can put this book down at any time. It’s different than Amy Harmon’s other books I’ve read.” That’s what I kept telling myself until I realized I was lurking outside my own bedroom door after 1:00 a.m. knowing I had to be up in under five hours but was intent on finishing the novel!
Amy Harmon creates wonderful characters who are simultaneously unique and universal. Take Finn Clyde. Probably not many ex-con/surviving twin/mathematicians in the reading audience, but plenty of people who know loss and loneliness. Or how about Bonnie Rae Shelby? Very few hillbilly singing/songwriting superstars, but lots of people who know how it feels to be trapped, not in control, or grief-stricken. That juxtaposition of ordinary and extraordinary makes the characters both memorable and relatable.
I love that Amy Harmon’s romances do not include explicit sex scenes for a host of reasons. When it became obvious **spoiler alert** that Finn and Bonnie were going to consummate their marriage I was anxious that it might degenerate into a description of parts and actions which, frankly, would have been a huge letdown. Instead, I was treated to about the most beautiful (non-explicit) description of married love I’ve ever read.
I thought I would be put off by the switch between the first-person and third-person point of view, but I wasn’t. It was seamless. As usual in Amy Harmon’s book, there are lots of interesting layers. There’s history, morality, action, romance woven all over the place.
Kudos, Amy! Another book that will stay on my Kindle indefinitely to be re-read and savored.
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