About the Book
Title: The Road Before Us
Author: Janine Rosche
Publisher: Revell
Released: May 2024
Genre: Women’s Fiction, Contemporary Romance
From the Back Cover
How far would you go to fix the mistakes you’ve made?
For Jade Jessup, the answer is 2,448 miles.
Once one of Chicago’s significant financial advisors, Jade lost her credibility when her fiancé (and coworker) stole millions of dollars from their clients in a Ponzi scheme. Now she’s agreed to help one of them–an aging 1960s Hollywood starlet named Berenice “Benny” Alderidge–seek financial restoration.
Jade sets off along Route 66 with Benny and her handsome adult foster son, Bridger, who is filming a documentary retracing the 1956 trip that started the love story between Benny and her recently deceased husband, Paul. Listening to Benny recount her story draws Jade into memories of her own darker association with Route 66, when she was kidnapped as a child by a man the media labeled a monster–but she remembers only as her dad.
Together, these three travelers will learn about family, forgiveness, and what it means to live free of the past. But not before Jade faces a second staggering betrayal that changes everything.
“This dual-time journey along the Mother Road is not to be missed.”–Amanda Cox, Christy Award-winning author
“An unforgettable ride.”–Christina Suzann Nelson, Christy Award-winning author
“Janine Rosche gets to the heart of family, friendship, and love.”–Toni Shiloh, Christy Award-winning author
About the Author
Prone to wander, Janine Rosche finds as much comfort on the open road as she does at home. This longing to chase adventure, behold splendor, and experience redemption is woven into each of her women’s fiction and romance novels including With Every Memory and the Madison River Romance series. When she isn’t writing or traveling, she teaches family life education courses to college students, takes too many pictures of her sleeping dogs, and embarrasses her four children and husband with boy band serenades.
My Impressions
“people travel Route 66 for all kinds of reasons, but it isn’t just travelers on that specific road who are running. In our own way, we’re all running from or running to something. The lucky ones get to do that with someone they love at their side.”
What a great summation of this book. Janine Rosche’s The Road Before Us is a mixture of women’s fiction and romance, but it is so much more, my mind is reeling. It is going to take me a long time to process it. Rosche deals (well) with so many topics: dementia, child kidnapping, parent-child (or lack thereof) relationships, adoption, betrayal, PTSD, racism, and the list goes on.
The book takes Jade, former financial advisor-turned-traveling companion to her former Hollywood starlet client, Benny Alderidge, on a trip down Route 66 in a 55 Chevy as they relive Benny’s romance with her husband over 70 years before. Accompanying them is Benny’s grown foster son, Bridger. Bridger is a happy-go-lucky videographer who is making a documentary about the trip.
I really loved the characters and their growth. So many characters exhibited growth in different relationships, it was a joy to see. Maybe I was relieved to see a few characters hang onto their anger and bitterness! Real life, without Jesus!
The dementia aspect caught me by surprise. Not that the character had it. But that her episodes were so severe when she would have them, yet she would be so very alert and totally cognizant other times. Having witnessed a parent descend into dementia, that has been a far cry from our experience. I know every experience is different, but I would expect severe episodes to have been preceded by more general, slow memory loss across the board. So I am still pondering how Benny can impart great, deep truths one minute, share memories on command, and (at first) only have the rare episode that is so severe it is a safety concern.
I love the fact that we readers get two romances for the price of one, insights into several parent-child relationships, and sibling relationships.
If you are a woman reading this book and not half in love with Bridger by the end, you may want to check in with the coroner’s office. Swoon, indeed!
The Road Before Us by Janine Rosche may be the heavy-hitter grand-slam of the year! Don’t get caught without having read this book!
I received a copy of this book from Revell Reads via Netgalley. I also bought my own ecopy. No positive review was required, and all opinions are my own.
Notable Quotables:
“You know the best part about being my age? I can speak my mind and if people agree with me, they pat themselves on the back for being on the same side as wisdom.” …
“And if they disagree with me, they pat me on the head and think, What a sweet lady with a few screws loose. Either way, I get to speak my mind.”
“People get to choose who they want to be and how they act. We aren’t responsible for adults’ choices.”
“In Korea, we all bled red no matter what color our skin was.”
“This body I can control. What I can’t control is . . . everything else. God help me.”
“Even though I try to keep the emotions in that back pocket of mine, it doesn’t stop trauma from working its way into who I am.”
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Look for The Road Before Us to be a Christy contender! Your emotions won’t know what hit you!! Thankfully, our lives are based on the Truth of the Rock, evident in some of these characters.
Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions 