Week 6 Annotation: Romance Category

Author: Dorothy Garlock

Title: Mother Road
Genre: Romance

Publication Date: 2003

Number of Pages: 385

Geographical Setting: United States, Highway Route 66 in Oklahoma

Time Period: 1932

Series: Yes, part of three. This is the first book in the series

Plot Summary: Most of the story takes place in Sayre, Oklahoma on Route 66 in 1932. The plot centers around a gas station owner Andy Connors, his family of two girls, and a woman who lives with them named Leona. A tall dark and handsome stranger by the name of Yates enters the plot while traveling. The love story that develops is between Yates and Leona. There are several plots twists surrounding this story that take the reader across several hundred pages before Yates and Leona actually end up together. Because of the setting in the Depression era, the reader gains a lot of insight into this time period, as the author is able to weave, several subplots, US history, and commentary on the morality of the time, throughout this love story between Yates and Leona.

Subject Headings: Romance, Route 66,Depression-Era

Appeal: Transports you back in time to the 1930's. You get the feel of what it would be like to actually drive and live along Route 66 during this time, but most importantly to fall in love!

3 terms that best describe this book: Easy, romance, history.

My Summary: One of the genres I selected for my assignments is Romance. I actually THOUGHT I liked romances until I started searching for one that was intelligent, yet sensitive and romantic. My discovery was more about myself: I realized I don't like romantic fiction in the classic Romance genre. It is sort of "dumbed down" for the reader, and many times it is a very predictable story line.

However, with all of that said, even it its simplicity and almost elementary school level reading level, Mother Road really does take the reader back to a more simple, and important time in history. Route 66 was the first transcontinental modern highway developed in the United State. For that reason, it IS referred to as the Mother Road as it served as a lifeline for development and movement of people and resources from the East to the West.

There are any number of stories, true and imagined that could have taken place as the people moving across the road, and settling along it, could tell. Although this story is fictional- it tells the story of a man, his family, a woman, and the people who enter their lives as they manage a gas station along Route 66 in 1932 Oklahoma--it could very well be the story of any number of people who traveled this road. Through the story, that develops into a romance, a lot of the history of the US during that time can be discovered, and so for that reason, I did like it.

However, the ending was very disappointing to me, because initially when I selected it, it did not appear to be part of a series. When I got to the last page of the book, and was left hanging as to the outcome of the characters, I learned that I would have to read book #2 in order to find that out. I don't like series books. However, for people who want a long drawn out romantic story, who like series books that go on forever, I would highly recommend it!

If you liked this book you would also like: