The Road To You by Marilyn Brant - Book Review

Sometimes the only road to the truth...is one you’ve never taken.
Until I found Gideon’s journal in the tool shed — locked in the cedar box where I’d once hidden my old diary — I’d been led to believe my brother was dead. But the contents of his journal changed all that.

The Road to Discovery...
Two years ago, Aurora Gray’s world turned upside down when her big brother Gideon and his best friend Jeremy disappeared. Now, during the summer of her 18th birthday, she unexpectedly finds her brother’s journal and sees that it’s been written in again. Recently. By him.

The Road to Danger...
There are secret messages coded within the journal’s pages. Aurora, who’s unusually perceptive and a natural puzzle solver, is hell bent on following where they lead, no matter what the cost. She confides in the only person she feels can help her interpret the clues: Donovan McCafferty, Jeremy’s older brother and a guy she’s always been drawn to — even against her better judgment.

The Road to You...
Reluctantly, Donovan agrees to go with her and, together, they set out on a road trip of discovery and danger, hoping to find their lost brothers and the answers to questions they’ve never dared to ask aloud.

In that expectant space between silence and melody, our trip began...

 

REVIEW -

It started when she found the key to the tool shed and Gideon’s journal with it. Gideon and his best friend, Jeremy had been missing, or presumed dead for more than two years, but after reading the contents of her journal, suddenly Aurora found herself hoping that everything she was led to believe for is a lie. 

The journal is filled with numbers and coded messages. Aurora decided to follow the lead that Gideon has left on his journal. She asked help from the person who had suffered the same lost as she did, Jeremy’s older brother, Donovan. A guy she had been crushing on for quite a while.

Donovan already accepted Jeremy’s demise, and didn’t want to stir trouble. But he also didn’t want Aurora to go alone. So against better judgment, they set out on a road trip, bumping into danger, hoping to discover more than what the police did in the past, and finally answer some questions they’d been dying to ask…

What started out to be a road trip and a simple quest to know the truth 

– turned out to be something dangerous… it was more than what they bargained for.

I have never known a more perceptive and insightful person as Aurora. Her talent in observation is commendable, and she’d made a good detective once she’s out of the uni. She didn’t need super powers to know your thoughts or which team do you belong. I love her determination to find out the truth.  On the other hand, I admire Donovan’s determination to wait until she was eighteen . He promised her father he would take care of her, and he did. His judgment might have failed a couple of times, but he didn’t fail to protect her. I like the fact that he waited patiently, before he acted on his attraction. He’s a total gentleman.

I fell in love with the plot, the clues, the suspense, the thrill, the car chase, and not to mention – the twist. It may have started out slow, but when it the story finally picked up, I was HOOKED. It wasn’t just a love story, it was an adventure that had me on the edge of my bed, with my pulse way beyond normal, and my brain working overtime – what will happen? Are Gideon and Jeremy alive? Will the bad guys catch up on them?

It may have been set on somewhere in the past but Marilyn Brant will take you on the ride of your lives.

RATING:

★ARC Copy was given in exchange for an honest review.★

 AUTHOR BIO -

Marilyn Brant is a USA Today bestselling author of contemporary fiction, and she was recently named the 2013 Illinois Author of the Year by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English. 

She wrote ACCORDING TO JANE, the story of a modern woman who receives dating advice from the spirit of Jane Austen (October 2009); FRIDAY MORNINGS AT NINE, a tale about three suburban moms, their marriages and what happens a decade or two after the "Happily Ever After" (a Doubleday Book Club and Book-of-the-Month Club pick in 2010); and A SUMMER IN EUROPE, a novel about a woman's journey of self discovery as she travels through Europe with her adventurous aunt's Sudoku & Mahjongg Club (a Literary Guild and BOMC2 featured alternate in 2011, and a Rhapsody Book Club Top 20 Bestseller in "Fiction & Literature" in 2012), all women's fiction releases from Kensington Books.

She's also a #1 Kindle & #1 Nook Bestseller and has written a series of fun and flirty contemporary romantic comedies, available as original ebooks. Both ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAE and PRIDE, PREJUDICE AND THE PERFECT MATCH were Top 100 Bestsellers on Barnes & Noble and Amazon. DOUBLE DIPPING was a 2012 International Digital Awards Finalist for Best Contemporary Novel and HOLIDAY MAN was a RONE Award Contestant. Her next novel, THE ROAD TO YOU, is a coming-of-age romantic mystery and will be out in October 2013.

As a former teacher, library staff member, freelance magazine writer and national book reviewer for Romantic Times, Marilyn has spent much of her life lost in literature. She received her M.A. in educational psychology from Loyola University Chicago, dabbled in both fiction and art at Northwestern University, studied the works of Austen at Oxford University and is a Lifetime Member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. Her debut novel won RWA's prestigious Golden Heart Award® in 2007 and a number of awards since -- including the Single Titles Reviewers' Choice, the Booksellers' Best and the Aspen Gold.

Marilyn lives in the northern Chicago suburbs with her family, but she also hangs out online at her blog "Brant Flakes." When she isn't rereading Jane's books or enjoying the latest releases by her writer friends, she's working on her next novel, eating chocolate indiscriminately and hiding from the laundry.