Genre:
Contemporary Fiction/ Adventure/ Suspense
Description:
"A road trip
that begins in Denver becomes a race to Evergreen when five [people] take a collision course to their respective destinies, and Noah,
Victoria, Thomas, Mule, and Ricky find themselves the target of an
outlaw motorcycle gang, an unscrupulous sheriff, Colombian drug
smugglers, oil industry enforcers, and EPA specialists. The asphalt
between Billings, Montana, and Evergreen, Colorado, is littered with
bodies by the time they reach their final destination."
Author:
"Grace
Jelsnik lives in North Dakota with her husband of fifteen years,
their three children, two dogs, and three cats. Her novels emphasize
plot, each with an element of romance that takes a down-to-earth
approach to the natural give-and-take emotional interaction between
two characters, addressing the sparks that lead to heat, not the heat
itself. Her targeted audience is late teen and older, readers who
enjoy suspense, mystery, and snappy dialogue."
Learn more
about Ms. Jelsnik on her Amazon Author page or follow her on
Facebook.
Appraisal:
This is the
third novel from Grace Jelsnik I have read for review here at Books
and Pals. I don’t normally read contemporary fiction, but Ms.
Jelsnik’s voice and character development have me mesmerized. When
BigAl asked if I would be interested in doing a doubleshot review
with him for Road Trip,
I jumped at the opportunity. Honestly, I didn’t expect to like this
book. Political intrigue and corporate espionage are NOT among my
favorite genres. I read to escape reality, which is why I lean towards
fantasy, paranormal, and romance novels. That is not to say that Ms.
Jelsnik doesn’t subtly weave a little romance into her stories,
because she does. But she does it in such a realistic way that it
feels natural and logical.
Road
Trip revolves around a hot
political topic of the environmental effects from hydraulic fracking.
Noah Severson, a veterinary doctor in Montana, notices the health of
the area livestock is deteriorating before his eyes. When Noah tries to alert the EPA of his findings he is met with bureaucratic
roadblocks and local authorities who are making big money from the
fracking operations. Armed with only his data, a camcorder,
and a disposable phone, he sets out on foot, after watching his house
go up in flames, to a rendezvous point given to him from a mysterious
caller who claims he can help.
Victoria
Winslow is disillusioned with her life and decides to take a
road trip to ‘find herself.’ She drastically changes her
appearance and leaves with no plan or destination in mind. She sets out
on her own to experience life without any celebrity attachments. Her
chance encounter and conversation with a woman named Wanda helps Victoria by
providing focus and direction from insights Wanda shares about her
own experiences and life philosophy. Victoria never suspects how much this meeting will change the course of her road trip, as
well as her life.
Next,
Victoria meets Thomas, a hungry thirteen-year-old runway, and soon thereafter Thomas's younger brother,
Ricky, who change Victoria's plans yet again. Complicating matters even further is an English mastiff desperately in need of a new home.
Then Victoria meets Noah in the most unexpected manner, and the ensuing road trip turns into a journey of
discovery and exposition for all of these participants as they evade
the onslaught of several nefarious adversaries. This character-driven
plot has numerous twists that keep Noah and Victoria constantly aware
of the danger they are in and the action is often fast and furious.
I ended up
enjoying this story a lot more than I anticipated. Ms. Jelsnik has a
unique way of weaving realistic individuals into extraordinary
situations and making them believable. Road
Trip drew me in and kept me
riveted. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys
well-developed, intelligent characters wrapped in an exceptionally
astute story-line.
Format/Typo
Issues:
I ran
across no issues at all.
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: ?wazithinkin
Approximate
word count: 80-85,000 words
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