Book Review: The Road Before Us by Janine Rosche

 


The Road Before Us by Janine Rosche - 4 Stars 

This is a Christian Contemporary Fiction story surrounding a road trip on Route 66. From the very beginning of the story, you are invested in these characters, their backstories and their journey on this road trip. The story begins with Jade Jessup, in court with her fiancé after realizing he scammed their financial clients out of millions of dollars in a huge Ponzi scheme. One of the clients was a huge Hollywood star back in the 1960s, Berenice "Benny" Alderidge. Benny's adult foster son, Bridger, is filming a documentary retracing Benny's 1956 trip that started the love story between Benny and her recently deceased husband, Paul.

We see Jade, Benny and Bridger's road trip journey in modern day, plus flashbacks of Jade's life in 2003 and Benny's in 1956. Jade is reliving trauma she experience when was kidnapped by her non-custodial father in 2003 traveling through Route 66 when she was 8 years old. Benny is experiencing signs of dementia as she tries to recount her previous life with Paul from 1956. The story continues from here as we see growth, forgiveness and their history as their trip progresses together. 

If you like a good Contemporary Women's Fiction story, road trips, Hollywood stories and in depth characters who have went through so much in their lives - pick this up. Jade, Benny and Bridger went on quite the journey along Route 66 in this book. We saw so much of their past, hardships in life and how they planned to move on in the future. This book also tackled some heavy topics such as parental kidnapping, dementia, treatment of POWs, racism, sexual harassment and much more. The author handled each topic very well with grace. My heart broke for what the characters were going through but seeing their journey was beautiful.

Regarding the faith content, there were some good smaller moments of faith interweaved throughout the story. I wasn't a fan of the way yoga was mentioned a couple times in this book but that is a personal preference of mine for Christian books. It was only a couple of things for that, so it didn't take away from the story too much for me but something I wanted to mention.

Overall, anyone who is looking for a great in depth multi-POV contemporary story with a lot to unpack about the past, forgiveness, redemption and moving forward should pick this up!

Thank you to Revell for a copy to honestly read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Goodreads Review:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6469369869
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3V98c3S
Baker Book House: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/553568





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