Hope's Highway

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Story!
Review: If you are a Dorothy Garlock fan, you will love this book. I always enjoy all her books and my only problem is I finish them too fast and then can't wait for the next one to come out. This book has romance, suspense and the way she writes about this time in the Depression era is so real. Keep them coming Dorothy!Her books always touch your heart.

Rating:
Summary: engaging piece of Americana
Review: In 1933 three men linked by their work as ice deliverymen agree to travel together accompanied by their families on Route 66 to California. Elmer Kinnard takes his adult daughter Margie though he detests her. Alvin Putnam, his wife Grace and their blind adult son Rusty are in another vehicle. Rounding out the party is Foley Luker, his new bride Sugar and his two teens from his first wife Jody and Mona. On the road they meet Brady Hoyt taking his five year old orphaned niece Anna Marie to her aunt to live.

The road may be filled with hope, but it is a tedious and dangerous trek. Elmer is nasty to Marge and not much better with anyone else. Alvin is kind to all and his wife "adopts" Anna Marie as hers on the trip. Foley sees only Sugar and not how cruel she is to his children. Brady helps everyone, but struggles with doing the right thing for Anna Marie, the survivor of a family tragedy. As romance blooms between Mona and Rusty and between Brady and Marge, some will die on the trip while others will choose an alternate lifestyle than the Golden State fantasy when a new dream beckons.

The sequel to MOTHER ROAD, HOPE'S HIGHWAY, is an engaging piece of Americana before the Interstate system. The ensemble cast each has a distinct personality though Elmer and Sugar are too negative with no redeeming quality between them; the rest of the road show characters display caring warm personalities with flaws and doubts that make them human. Once again Dorothy Garlock proves no one knows the Depression Era road rules like she does.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable but simplistic
Review: Margie Kinnard has always dreamed of going to Hollywood and, when her father announces he's moving to California, she agrees to go with him, even though they have never been close. The trip doesn't make them any closer but, for safety, Margie and her father travel with several other vehicles, including the car driven by handsome Brady Hoyt. Brady is going to California to deliver his niece to his sister-in-law (his brother killed the girl's mother and then himself) and he will then return to his Colorado horse ranch. Margie feels instant attraction to the cowboy, but her father tells Brady that Margie is a slut and a thief and Margie assumes that Brady believes. Brady wants Margie, but doesn't want to deny her dreams of Hollywood. Compared to that, a rural horse-ranch doesn't seem like much.

The depression-era journey across Route 66 is endangered when a pair of thiefs decide that the caravan would make an attractive target. When Brady foils their robbery attempt, one of the thiefs vows revenge--tracking the party across Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. The catty and unfaithful wife of one of the other men in the caravan adds to the problems as does Margie's father's increasing silence and anger.

Author Dorothy Garlock has obviously researched the great depression-era highway and her research shows. The slow and painful drive, frequent mechanical problems, and dangerous fellow-travellers stand in sharp contrast to today's air-conditioned high-speed freeway system and Garlock's description rings true.

After reading a few pages, I turned to the cover to find if this book was targeted at young readers. This seems not to be the case. The sexual and frequently violent content are definitely aimed for adults. But the writing is often simplistic, the characters single-dimensioned, and the plot straightforward. Garlock fans and fans of the Route 66 experience will want to add this one to their to-be-read collection