Jenn Writes

There are so many feels on this wonderfully crazy journey

Samantha and Holly, once best friends, have barely spoken in two decades. Now they’re trapped together with a stranger, two dogs and a cat, driving from California to Wisconsin.

You know that in any good road trip story, where people are forced together, they have to face their life choices, come to terms with their past, deal with misunderstandings, and either find redemption or closure. I thought you said this would work by Ann Garvin does all of that and so much more.

When Katie’s cancer is no longer in remission and she’s hospitalised once again, Samantha and Holly agree, despite their differences, to bring Katie’s much-loved dog Peanut, a giant, somewhat sickly Great Pyrenees, home. Katie says getting Peanut would help her, and the two women are not going to let her down.

With a wry sense of the absurdity of life, Garvin tackles tough topics from love and betrayal to illness and death. And she does in a way that is often side-achingly funny.

Her storytelling brew is a heady one: she tosses in, in fine detail, the intricacies and complications of relationships – between friends, between lovers, between humans and animals, and even between strangers.

She adds a dash of crazy, with funny, unexpected events and characters  – go Summer, the D-grade celebrity!

The she tops it off with a conclusion that provides an aftertaste that lingers for days  afterwards.

This is a snuggle down and read at one sitting book. Just make sure you have tissues next to you.

Available on Amazon or at any good bookseller.