Book Review: The Mother Road

18 May

Within the course of a week, marriage expert Natalie Marino is dumped by her husband, receives an urgent call home from her father, and discovers her estranged sister, Lindsay, is pregnant.

A road trip on Route 66 may not help, but it sure couldn’t hurt. Or so Natalie thinks, until Lindsay’s boyfriend starts stalking them. Will their trip down the Mother Road bring the two sisters closer, or turn out to be the biggest wrong turn of their lives?

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As a child, Jennifer Allee lived above a mortuary in the heart of Hollywood, California, which may explain her unique outlook on life. She has written skits, activity pages, and over one hundred contributions to Concordia Publishing House’s popular My Devotions series. Her novels include The Love of His Brother (Five Star, November 2007), The Pastor’s Wife, (Abingdon Press, February 2010), The Mother Road (Abingdon Press, April 2012), and the upcoming A Wild Goose Chase Christmas, book two in the Quilts of Love series (Abingdon Press, November 2012). She’s an active member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Romance Writers of America. Jennifer resides in the grace-filled city of Las Vegas with her husband and teenage son.

You can find out more about Jennifer’s writing and speaking at www.jenniferallee.com.

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My Impressions:

Natalie Marino is having a very bad week.  An author and expert on marriage and a popular Christian speaker on the subject, Natalie has just found out that her husband is having an affair and his girlfriend is pregnant.  So what’s a girl to do? Road Trip!  Actually she decides to find her estranged sister and embark on a cross country trek to their home in Illinois following the legendary Mother Road, Route 66.  The road is rocky and detours abound, but the sisters soon find themselves becoming closer.  At the journey’s end, there is still more uncertainties.  Natalie has not been home for years because of her fear of facing her mother’s Alzheimer’s.  But Natalie is through running from a bad marriage, bad memories, and bad situations.  The three week road trip brings her past, present and future into focus.

I found AlLee’s characters and the situations/predicaments they find themselves in very believable.  And the detail of the sights along the Mother Road bring the legendary route to life.  I wanted to hop in a car and feed the donkeys of Oatman and sleep in a wigwam!  A quick read, The Mother Road would be great for book club discussions — the topics of divorce, elderly parents, sibling relations, etc. would make for great conversations.

Highly Recommended.

The Mother Road Virtual Book Publicity Tour Schedule

Tuesday, May 1

Interview at Examiner

Wednesday, May 2

Book Review at Life in Review

Thursday, May 3

Book Review at Book Nook Club

Friday, May 4

Interview & Book Giveaway at I Am a Reader, Not a Writer

Tuesday, May 8

Book Review at Carlybird’s Home

Wednesday, May 9

Book Review at Rainy Day Reviews

Thursday, May 10

Book Review at I’d Rather Be Reading at the Beach

Friday, May 11

Book Review at Splashes of Joy

Monday, May 14

Book Review at A Year of Jubilee Reviews

Tuesday, May 15

Book Review & Guest Blogging at Jersey Girl Book Reviews

Wednesday, May 16

Interview at Blogcritics

Thursday, May 17

Interview & Book Giveaway at Literarily Speaking

Guest Blogging at Motherhoot

Friday, May 18

Book Review at By the Book

Monday, May 21

Book Review at Reviews by Molly

Tuesday, May 22

Book Review at WV Stitcher

Wednesday, May 23

Book Review at Emeraldfire’s Bookmark

Thursday, May 24

Book Review at My Devotional Thoughts

Friday, May 25

Book Review at Celtic Lady’s Reviews

(Thank you to Pump Up Your Book for my copy of The Mother Road.  The opinions expressed are mine alone.)

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  1. Book Review: The Mother Road « BY THE BOOK | Pulplit Magazine - May 18, 2012

    […] this article: Book Review: The Mother Road « BY THE BOOK This entry was posted in Books and tagged beach, club-friday, guest, jersey, jersey-girl, jubilee, […]

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