An unforgettable and breathtaking novel of love, loss, and the unexpected routes that life takes from Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Kerry Lonsdale.
With her deceased sister’s Route 66 bucket list in hand, California girl Joy Evers sets out on a cross-country road trip to meet up with her fiancé, checking off the bullets along the way.
Singer-songwriter Dylan Westfield has a serious case of wanderlust and a broken-down car. Stuck at a diner between LA and Flagstaff, he meets Joy, his complete opposite. She’s energetic. He’s moody. She’s by the book. He’s spontaneous. She believes in love at first sight. He thinks love is a complicated mess. But Joy has a brand-new convertible.
They strike a deal. She’ll drive him to New York. He’ll pay for gas. Only three rules apply: no exchanging of last names; what happens on the road, stays on the road; and if one of them wants to take a side trip, they both must agree.
A heart-stirring love story that spans a decade, Side Trip explores what-if. What if Joy and Dylan had exchanged last names? What if he’d told her she made him believe love was worth the risk? And what if they hadn’t made that second deal when they couldn’t say goodbye?
Refreshing Departure. This book evokes both Laurie Breton's Coming Home and Emily Bleeker's Wreckage, and at least to this reviewer those are high compliments indeed - those two books easily rank among the best I've ever read. Here, Lonsdale breaks quite a bit from the mold she's created for herself over the last few years and indeed the one primary commonality across her last four books is not present here at all. Yet she shows her true abilities as a storyteller in still telling a phenomenal story even without that particular device, and truly masters the road trip style tale in the process.
The *one* criticism I have here is that to me, the book could have done without the final chapter and epilogue. To me, the book ends *perfectly* right before that point - but your mileage may vary in this regard, and indeed with the last chapter in particular, Lonsdale does something that would be a spoiler to reveal, but which adds extra depth to the book.
Still, truly a phenomenal work, a very refreshing new style from this author, and very much recommended.
Reading updates
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17 June, 2020:
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17 June, 2020:
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