Tag: road trip romances

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: First Lady

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I said yesterday that whatever I chose today was going to be tricky for one reason or another, so I’ve gone for a rule breaker on the repeat front, rather than tell you (again) how much I love the Peter and Harriet books in the Wimsey series. If you want to know about that, you can go and read this post. So, instead I’m back on the Susan Elizabeth Philips train with a book from her Wynette, Texas series.

This plot is quite a lot, so hold on and bear with me. Our heroine is Cornelia Litchfield Case, widow of the President of the United States and also daughter of a former vice president. She’s found herself being pushed back into the role of First Lady and it’s killing her from the inside. So she gives her secret service minders the slip and escapes DC for a cross country road trip. Our hero is Mat Jorik, a disillusioned journalist whose ex wife has just died and is now taking charge of her children – but only to deliver them to their grandmother on the other side of the country. Nealy and Mat’s paths cross at a service station, and soon they’re on a cross country road trip together -in an RV with a surly teenage girl and a baby. The sparks fly between them – and this is the first time ever Nealy has had the chance to get to know a man who doesn’t know all about her baggage and her background, and who has no expectations of her. What could possibly go wrong?

So this is a road trip romance with a side of found family. I loved Mat from the start – he’s an absolute softie with a heart of gold that he hides behind a bit gruff exterior. And Nealy is one of the more interesting heroines you’ll encounter – her backstory is wild. I wasn’t quite sure how this was going to work itself out at the end, but it did and it was really quite neatly done – although it did all happen quite quickly, which is always annoying. But basically this is a fun read with a bit of an unusual set up and is all the better for it. I have the next two books in the series lined up (because they were on offer, although this was not) so I look forward to reading more of the series – and maybe seeing a bit more of the Wynette of the name!

I have no idea if it’s possible to get this in paperback for a reasonable price – but it’s available on Kindle and Kobo. And yes, I did break my usual pricing rules while buying it, but I’m blaming the jet lag!

Book of the Week, books, new releases, romance

Book of the Week: Mrs Nash’s Ashes

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My excellent summer of romances continues with another new(ish) release for this week’s pick – and I am rapidly working my way through all the books on the romance tables in the shops. Which has been quite fun and is also fairly unusual!

Anyway, Mrs Nash’s Ashes is Sarah Adler’s debut novel and features a former child actress trying to make a trip to Florida to reunite her elderly best friend’s ashes with her lost love. But when the planes are cancelled and Millie finds herself sharing a car with a former course mate of her ex. Hollis doesn’t believe in love that lasts forever and Millie is a born romantic, looking to reassure herself after a break up so how will these opposites get on when forced to share a car and a twelve hundred mile road trip? Hint: this is a romance!

There seems to have been a trend for romances this year where one half of the couple is famous – or formerly famous – and some of them have been good and some have… not. Obviously as this is a BotW post this is one of the good ones. I read this in basically one sitting at the weekend and enjoyed it no end. It has opposites attract, forced proximity and a cynical hero that gets won over by a sunshine-y but unapologetically weird heroine.

I suspect that some will find Millie a little Manic Pixie, but she made sense to me, and it also makes sense that anyone who was in the spotlight as a kid might be a little different. But because you see everything from Millie’s point of view, I (as a reader) understood what she was doing and was fine with it all. And that also means that Hollis is a big old enigma to you as well as to Millie and that worked really well too. And although I’ve read a lot of the celebrity adjacent romances this summer, I haven’t read many road trips so that was a nice change too. Basically, if you’re looking for something to read on your summer holiday, this would be a great choice. I’m looking forward to seeing what Sarah Adler does next.

I bought my copy of Mrs Nash’s Ashes in Foyles and I’ve seen it in some of the other bookshops already too, so I think it will be fairly easy to get hold of. And of course it’s on Kindle and Kobo too.

Happy Reading!