Customer Reviews

Hope's Highway (Route 66 2)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Margie Kinnard has always dreamed of going to Hollywood and, when her father announces he's moving to California, she agrees to go with him, even though they have never been close. The trip doesn't make them any closer but, for safety, Margie and her father travel with several other vehicles, including the car driven by handsome Brady Hoyt. Brady is going to California to deliver his niece to his sister-in-law (his brother killed the girl's mother and then himself) and he will then return to his Colorado horse ranch. Margie feels instant attraction to the cowboy, but her father tells Brady that Margie is a slut and a thief and Margie assumes that Brady believes. Brady wants Margie, but doesn't want to deny her dreams of Hollywood. Compared to that, a rural horse-ranch doesn't seem like much.

The depression-era journey across Route 66 is endangered when a pair of thiefs decide that the caravan would make an attractive target. When Brady foils their robbery attempt, one of the thiefs vows revenge--tracking the party across Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. The catty and unfaithful wife of one of the other men in the caravan adds to the problems as does Margie's father's increasing silence and anger.

Author Dorothy Garlock has obviously researched the great depression-era highway and her research shows. The slow and painful drive, frequent mechanical problems, and dangerous fellow-travellers stand in sharp contrast to today's air-conditioned high-speed freeway system and Garlock's description rings true.

After reading a few pages, I turned to the cover to find if this book was targeted at young readers. This seems not to be the case. The sexual and frequently violent content are definitely aimed for adults. But the writing is often simplistic, the characters single-dimensioned, and the plot straightforward. Garlock fans and fans of the Route 66 experience will want to add this one to their to-be-read collection

In 1933 three men linked by their work as ice deliverymen agree to travel together accompanied by their families on Route 66 to California. Elmer Kinnard takes his adult daughter Margie though he detests her. Alvin Putnam, his wife Grace and their blind adult son Rusty are in another vehicle. Rounding out the party is Foley Luker, his new bride Sugar and his two teens from his first wife Jody and Mona. On the road they meet Brady Hoyt taking his five year old orphaned niece Anna Marie to her aunt to live.

The road may be filled with hope, but it is a tedious and dangerous trek. Elmer is nasty to Marge and not much better with anyone else. Alvin is kind to all and his wife "adopts" Anna Marie as hers on the trip. Foley sees only Sugar and not how cruel she is to his children. Brady helps everyone, but struggles with doing the right thing for Anna Marie, the survivor of a family tragedy. As romance blooms between Mona and Rusty and between Brady and Marge, some will die on the trip while others will choose an alternate lifestyle than the Golden State fantasy when a new dream beckons.

The sequel to MOTHER ROAD, HOPE'S HIGHWAY, is an engaging piece of Americana before the Interstate system. The ensemble cast each has a distinct personality though Elmer and Sugar are too negative with no redeeming quality between them; the rest of the road show characters display caring warm personalities with flaws and doubts that make them human. Once again Dorothy Garlock proves no one knows the Depression Era road rules like she does.

Harriet Klausner

If you are a Dorothy Garlock fan, you will love this book. I always enjoy all her books and my only problem is I finish them too fast and then can't wait for the next one to come out. This book has romance, suspense and the way she writes about this time in the Depression era is so real. Keep them coming Dorothy!Her books always touch your heart.

I have a few problems with this book. It is written on an eighth grade level, but with adults themes and words. The author even repeated herself a few times. The characters were not believable. They weren't given any real emotions. The bad people were really, really bad and the good people were wonderful. Except the contrived "misunderstanding" between the two main characters, so the author could delay getting them together, the good characters were never cranky or sick. The bad people didn't have anything but evil in them. One dude turns horribly evil, but there are no realistic reasons given why. This book avoids a '1' rating because there was some interesting information about what it was like traveling along Route 66. Basically, this book wasn't romantic enough to be a good romance novel, and it was too shallow to be good fiction.

Garlock can be as sweet and moving as she can be in her writing and then there's the bad guy. When they're bad, they're bad. They're mean and they have filthy mouths. If you can read around that, you'll enjoy the story.

Another excellent read from this author. A fast and easy read. Enjoyed it very much.

The year is 1933. Margie Kinnard heads from Kansas for California in a car caravan of sorts across the plains in what should be the Dust Bowl, though it is not mentioned in the first half of the book I could stay with as a reader. I grew up in the Great Plains, in Kansas, and what she describes as their campgrounds on roads along the way seem more like what they were many years later. In Kansas and Oklahoma, trees for the most part only grow naturally along creeks and rare rivers. Today's hedgerows of trees bordering tilled fields were planted in reaction to the Dust Bowl, to try to keep the farms' topsoil from blowing away again, along with the introduction of contour plowing. The campgrounds described along highways in the book almost had to come later, at least with trees, especially in a time of a long and terrible drought. The rains stopped in 1931 and the Dust Bowl began, lasting eight years. My parents lived through it, wearing kerchiefs over their faces even inside houses, their food covered on the table and spooning under the kerchiefs in order to eat. The sky was black with blowing dirt, animals had nothing to eat, it was Armageddon for these people. But Margie's companions just traipse along in their simple down home way with everyday concerns that take no note of the existence of a Dust Bowl. Parts of Oklahoma and Kansas did escape the Dust Bowl, but they couldn't have failed to pass through it if they had been real people. Add to that they weren't interesting people at all. No memorable characters or moments here.

I love Mrs. Garlocks books, if you haven't read one you don't know what your missing. If you are into the 20's or 30's era this author is the one for you. Her books are heartwarming as an old friend. I have read almost everyone of her books and haven't been disappointed in any of them. I have written alot of authors that I like telling them how much I enjoy their books, Mrs. Garlock is the only one that has taken the time to e-mail me back. I love an author that takes the time out to reach out to the readers. Thank you Dorothy.

I am a Dorothy Garlock fan or maybe I should say I was. I love her writing style and the era she writes in. But this book was as if a 13 year old wrote the vulgar, filth in Hope's Highway. Yes people do use foul language but it seems as if Dorothy Garlock just discovered these words and sex and had to use it as often and rotten as possible to show she is all grown up. The two bad characters were not well written about at all. They were so in your face and outlandish, it was not at all realistic. Very disappointed, would not recommend this to anyone.