If there’s one thing I’ve learned from chatting with readers about the premise for my new novel, Catch You Later, it’s this: A fictional road trip is the next best thing to the real deal.
The instant I say the novel is about two best friends who work at a highway travel stop, literally watching life pass them by — until the moment one of them impulsively agrees to be a customer’s plus-one on his all-night drive to a destination beach wedding, taking off her apron and getting in his car right then — I see eyes light up at the possibilities.
Yes, we sense danger. We’ve been warned never to accept rides from strangers. But who can resist the hint of adventure? We’re drawn to follow the character who’d find herself in a position to say yes … a character, perhaps, who doesn’t have much to lose.
A character whose closest friend might rightly wonder, when she doesn’t come back, whether she’s really gone missing at all, or simply found the better life she always dreamed was out there — leaving her old one in the rearview mirror.
In crafting Catch You Later, I came to appreciate the highway as a powerful metaphor. Sometimes it really is more about the journey than the destination. Sometimes it’s the difference between happily tagging along and being ready to take our turn in the driver’s seat. Sometimes it’s the blind faith of seeing only as far as our headlights in the fog.
And it might be the unexpected detour that makes the whole trip worth taking.
As I send Catch You Later down the road to bookshelves everywhere this fall, consider adding it to your list for a vicarious trip of your own — along with these other transportive novels about bonding on the open road. Buckling in at home is a wonderful way to feel the wind in your hair with none of the frustration of traffic.
The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley
I was equally intrigued and charmed by Colleen Oakley’s titular characters. Louise is a strong-willed octogenarian who has taken a fall, prompting her children to insist on hiring what she disdainfully calls a “live-in nanny.” Enter college dropout Tanner, who’s desperate for a place to hide from her own disappointments and mistakes. How the pair ends up making their getaway together in Louise’s old car is quite the enjoyable ride, told with wit and grace.
Allie and Bea by Catherine Ryan Hyde
This is another novel about an unlikely pair of characters making a big impact on each other’s lives when they need it most. In this case, a spoiled teenager and a grieving widow both find themselves homeless under hopeless circumstances beyond their control. But one of them has a van. And the other has a plan for making their way up the Pacific Coast.
I Thought You Said This Would Work by Ann Garvin
Two best friends have had a falling out that’s left them estranged for so long they figure maybe it’s for the best — until a very important person to them both is dying. And needs them to team up for a teensy favor that happens to involve a cross-country road trip. The result is by (literal) turns laugh-out-loud funny and grab-the-tissues moving.
Hadley & Grace by Suzanne Redfearn
When a woman fleeing an abusive marriage crosses paths with another woman who’s on the run from her dangerous husband—for very different reasons—they become instant accomplices by necessity rather than by choice. With the FBI on their heels, this isn’t so much a meandering road-trip as a long-distance chase that will leave you racing through the pages across the miles.
She’s Up to No Good by Sara Goodman Confino
As much as we may be intrigued by the idea of traveling with a stranger or even an old friend, in reality we probably take most of our trips with family. In She’s Up to No Good, a woman blindsided by her divorce agrees to hit the road with her eccentric grandmother to the coastal Massachusetts town that holds much of their family’s history. Their sweet intergenerational journey holds stories of love lost and found.
