I’ve read a lot of holiday romances and (recently) more than a few road-trip romances.
But the first title that came to mind when I read this question was an older story: Whispers by Robin Jones Gunn, which was first published in around 1995. But even after almost thirty years, I can still remember most of the key points.
Teri is a Spanish teacher from Glenbrooke, Oregon, who goes on holiday to Maui to visit her sister. She hopes to reconnect with Mark, the marine biologist she met last summer, but (if I remember correctly), he’s now in a serious relationship.
She then somehow reconnects with her high school crush (Steve, I think), and Gordon, better known as Gordo, an Australian pastor with a second job as a pizza delivery guy.
Looking back, the plot has nods to Pride and Prejudice in that Teri is initially attracted to Steve, who now strikes me as a Wickham character, and ignores the slightly uncoordinated Gordo. Gordo isn’t really a Darcy figure – he’s not proud and he isn’t rich and he has no secret history with Wickham – but he’s a good man who loves Jesus and respects Teri.
One of the reasons I remember this story after so many years is because of Y’s catchphrase: “until”. Terri eventually asks him what “until” means, and … that’s the one thing I can’t remember about the story.
If you’ve read it, let me know. Otherwise, I’ll have to re-read it (oh, dear. What a sacrifice).
What about you? What novels have you read that feature a character on holiday?
A few different titles sprang to mind this year: two I’ve read and reviewed recently, two I’ve read and will review soon, and two I read years ago which feature my favourite US state: Hawai’i.
The Roads We Follow by Nicole Deese
The Roads We Follow by Nicole Deese might not count – it’s a road trip across the US, but it isn’t really a holiday. But it’s a great story!
As the youngest daughter of a country music legend, Raegan Farrow longs to establish an identity away from the spotlight and publish her small-town romances under a pen name. But after her dream is dashed when she won’t exploit her mother’s fame to further her own career, she hears a rumor from a reliable source regarding a tell-all being written about the Farrow family. Making matters worse, the unknown author has gone to great lengths to remain anonymous until publication.
Raegan chooses to keep the tell-all a secret from her scandal-leery sisters as they embark on a two-week, cross-country road trip at their mother’s request and makes it her mission to expose the identity of the author behind the unsanctioned biography. But all is complicated when she discovers their hired bus driver, Micah Davenport, has a hidden agenda of his own–one involving both of their mothers and an old box of journals. As they rely on each other to find the answers they seek, the surprising revelations they unearth will steer them toward their undeniable connection and may even lead them down the most unexpected of paths.
A 500-mile tandem bicycle ride isn’t my idea of a fun holiday, but Becca Kinzer turns it into a fun story.
She’s perfectly content leading a quiet life in her small hometown. He’s an adventurer with unquenchable wanderlust. The two couldn’t be any more opposite if they tried. But a tandem bicycle and a 500-mile road trip just might change all that.
After a failed engagement and her mother’s battle with cancer, Charlotte Carter’s life is finally turning around now that she’s landed a dream job teaching music. What she didn’t see coming was the imminent closure of the school’s music program. She’s determined to save it, even if it means getting creative. There’s no way she’s chalking this up as just another failure in her book of recent embarrassments.
Zach Bryant is back in town just long enough to see his brother Ben get married and then he’s off traveling the world again. He never imagined he’d run into Charlotte Carter, his brother’s ex-fiancé, or that everyone would believe he and Charlotte are an item. He certainly didn’t dream he’d end up riding a tandem bicycle hundreds of miles with her in an attempt to raise funds for a defunct music program, but how can he say no when the prize money would help him out of his financial predicament too?
Charlotte is sure she can set aside her differences with Zach long enough to cross the finish line and win the giant cash prize . . . can’t she? A few hundred miles in, she’s questioning her deeply held assumptions about Zach and wondering if maybe tandem biking is only the start of their biggest adventure yet.
An unusual and unpredictable unplanned holiday leads to Kelsey having a total rethink on life … and love. My full review will publish in July, but I couldn’t help myself – I had to read this as soon as I got my review copy!
Sometimes you’re so busy writing other people’s stories that you can lose the plot of your own.
This wasn’t how Kelsey Worthington’s day was supposed to go. She wasn’t supposed to be picking up Starbucks for her smarmy boss. She wasn’t supposed to get hit by a car that jumped the curb. And she certainly wasn’t supposed to wake up in a hospital room next to Georgina Tate—the legendary matriarch of New York City businesswomen.
Kelsey and Georgina couldn’t be more opposite. Kelsey’s a dreamer, a writer who questions her own skill. And Georgina is a confident businesswoman whose years of shouldering her way into boardrooms and making her voice heard have made her far too outspoken for the faint of heart.
But now, when Georgina’s failing kidneys force her to face some big regrets about the way she’s lived her life, the two women recognize they share a common thread. Maybe it’s time to confront a few things. They must ask themselves: What if I said yes to everything I’ve always said no to?
With Georgina as her companion, Kelsey soon finds herself doing things she’s never done before. Eating street food. Swimming in the ocean. Matchmaking for Georgina with the help of Georgina’s handsome son. And writing her own romance—both in book form and in real life.
Join Jade, Benny, and Bridger on 2,448-mile road trip down the historic Route 66. Now I want to My full review will publish in May.
How far would you go to fix the mistakes you’ve made and regain the trust you lost? 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 daddy.
Together, all three of these pilgrims 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.
I’ve visited Hawai’i several times, including two visits to the Big Island and one to Maui, but I’ve never been to Kauai. Hawai’i is my favourite US state – its the best of New Zealand combined with the best of the USA (although I haven’t yet visited Alaska yet, so that view may change …)
When a young woman stumbles out of the Hanalei Mountains on the island of Kauai with no memory of who she is or how she got there, Cameron Pierce reluctantly agrees to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding her arrival. As pieces begin to fall into place, he suspects her injuries were no accident, but he’s far from convinced she’s an innocent victim. And there’s that nagging feeling he’s seen her somewhere before….
Now known as Jade, the woman begins to recall fragments of what led her to this place, and she realizes the danger isn’t over. Jade and the cynical Hawaiian investigator attempt to reconstruct the threads of her identity, but the stakes are far higher than either expected.
I enjoyed the entire Glenbrooke series, but love the first three books the most. Whispers takes us hiking in Maui, and it was great to see the island through Teri’s story.
Version 1.0.0
Teri leaves Glenbrooke thinking her visit to see her sister on Maui is going to be her chance to reconnect with the Marine biologist she met last summer.
She’s surprised to run into an old high school love interest from Escondido. And who is this clumsy, endearing guy from Australia who keeps showing up? Three men want her attention. What a vacation this is turning out to be!
Only one of them makes it clear that he’s got what it takes to win her heart. How does Teri know? The answer comes to her in whispers.
Come to Glenbrooke – a quiet place where souls are refreshed.
I read that so many times while I was writing and editing. I honestly can’t say how many times. I can say that I didn’t read the whole book each time—I read as much as I had written, and moved forward from there. I’m currently following a similar process for my second book.
If we exclude books I’ve written (or edited), then there are a few I can think of:
An Echo in the Darkness by Francine Rivers is the second in The Mark of the Lion series, and my favourite. I’ve definitely read it more than either of the other two books in the series.
Secrets by Robyn Jones Gunn is the first book in her Glenbrooke series. I read and enjoyed all the books, but I think Secrets and Whispers were my favourite.
Love Finds a Home by Janette Oke is the final book in the Love Comes Softly series, because this was the book where Belinds and Drew finally (finally!) get their happy-ever-after.
And the Bible. I’ve read through the complete Bible several times as part of a Bible in a Year challenge, but I consciously selected a different version of the Bible each time. So is that one book or several?
What about you? What’s a book you’ve read more than three times?
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