Review - The Road To You By: Marilyn Brant

Title: The Road to You
Author: Marilyn Brant
Publisher: Twelfth Night Books, 300 Pages (October 3rd 2013)
Age Group/Genre: Upper YA/New Adult Coming-of-Age Romantic Mystery
From: the Author
Format: eBook
Add to: Goodreads
Order a copy online: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository, Amazon UK

Synopsis: 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: 3 Stars - The Road to You by Marilyn Brant is an extremely mysterious journey as our two main characters travel on historic route 66 looking for answers and following clues left by one of their brothers who vanished two years prior.

So, as someone who lives almost on top of part of route 66 and has heard about it all of her life, this was part of the story I was most interested in. I haven’t traveled on much of it but I’ve loved hearing about all the different things you could find if you journeyed from one end to the other.

Or main character Aurora finds her lost brother Gideon’s journal. She’s good at reading people and even better at solving puzzles. She knows there’s more to this than just finding it after all this time and she knows she has to follow the clues to find out what happened to her brother and his best friend Jeremy. With the reluctant help of Jeremy’s brother, Donovan the two follow the first clue to look for answers.

This takes place during the summer between High School and college for Aurora. She has somewhat of a history with Donovan and the two aren’t on the best of terms. I thought Donovan was extremely hostel and often cranky. I couldn’t get a good read on him for the better part of the book. Aurora was more open to her surroundings and the people they came into contact with. If not for her being able to read people so well, being able to catch the little things they don’t even realize they are giving off and listening to her gut while Donovan is more than a pain in the butt and stubborn… UGH!

The mystery part of the story was interesting. I loved watching Aurora as she worked the puzzles and then followed the clues. Once we started getting into the heart of the story I was often confused. I think it was because of how detailed Brant was in her creativeness in the plot and what the heck was really going on. There were a lot of details that the reader has to absorbed to follow along with that often I felt very overloaded which then in turn caused me to reread things. While this did happen in the latter part of the book it was such a main part of the story that it took me out of the story enough to be frustrated.

For the most part I liked both of the characters however as mentioned above Donovan was a bit of a pain. I loved the setting, being in the late 70’s was a nice touch. There’s no cell phones, or computers so it took the characters looking in library’s, on microfilm to find the answers they were after which was a nice touch by the author to create something different in today’s times.

While it’s listed as a mysterious romance, it’s a bit slim on the romance side. I was hoping for more romance yet when there wasn’t as much as I was looking forward to, the mystery side took front and center stage as it should have so that turned out pretty fine by me.

All in all I liked this one. I had higher hopes for it that weren’t met yet the outcome was entertaining and unique. Readers who are looking for something different and who like mystery should dive right into this one. Happy reading.

About the Author: 

Marilyn Brant is a national bestselling and award-winning author of contemporary fiction. For Kensington Books, she wrote ACCORDING TO JANE, a new adult contemporary that won RWA’s Golden Heart Award, as well as the Aspen Gold and Booksellers’ Best; FRIDAY MORNINGS AT NINE, a Doubleday Book Club and Book-of-the-Month Club pick in women’s fiction; and A SUMMER IN EUROPE, a romantic women’s fiction story featured by the Literary Guild and BOMC2, as well as by the Rhapsody Book Club, where it was Top 20 Bestseller in “Fiction & Literature.”

She's also a #1 Kindle Bestseller and has written a series of fun and flirty contemporary romantic comedies, including ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAE and PRIDE, PREJUDICE AND THE PERFECT MATCH, both of which were Amazon and B&N Top 100 bestselling novels. She was recently named the 2013 Illinois Author of the Year by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English and lives in the northern Chicago suburbs with her family. She’s a big fan of travel, music and chocolate of all varieties, but she’s not so fond of celery or snakes. Or doing laundry.

Find Marilyn Online:

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads