Highway Blue by Ailsa McFarlane

Highway Blue is a short novel of under 200 pages. Alisa McFarlane offers readers a moment in time in the life of her characters, two lost and lonely young adults whose lives intersect in a moment in time. 

Twenty-year-old Anne Marie is going through the motions of life, living with strangers, work at a bar and dog walking giving her just enough money to survive, still hurt by the disappearance of her husband after a year of marriage. Now he suddenly has returned, hoping Anne Marie can save him, but she has nothing to give him.

But when a man attacks them and ends up dead, Cal convinces Anne Marie to run and over the next days she remembers her past and contemplates Cal's place in her future.

They are helped by strangers along the way, a happy couple and a lonely trucker. Cal tells Anne Marie that he had hoped their marriage would give him a place to belong in this world. She had loved him. He loved the idea of them.

Heavy on dialogue and Anne Marie's inner thoughts, the story is about romantic ideals and disillusion, the limits of love, and the strength to recreate oneself.

I received a free galley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Highway Blue: A Novel
by Ailsa McFarlane
Random House Publishing Group - Hogarth
Pub Date May 18, 2021 
ISBN: 9780593229118
Hardcover $25.00 (USD)

A hypnotic debut of broken love on the run, from a blazingly original young writer

“A road novel, a love story, a coming-of-age tale, but with sentences so sharply wrought, characters so achingly precise, that it feels new and fresh and utterly alive.”—Lynn Steger Strong, author of Want

“In front of me the long length of the road wound out, wound out and wound on under hot sky. And I drove . . .”

In the lonely town of San Padua, Anne Marie can never get the sound of the ocean out of her head. And it’s here—dog-walking by day, working bars by night—where she tries to forget about her ex-husband, Cal: both their brief marriage and their long estrangement.

When Cal shows up on Anne Marie’s doorstep one day, clearly in trouble, she reluctantly agrees to a drink. But later that night a gun goes off in a violent accident and the young couple are forced to hit the open road together in escape.

Crammed in a beat-up car with their broken past, so begins a journey across a vast, mythical American landscape, through the dark seams of the country, toward a city that may or may not represent salvation. 

Highway Blue is a story of being lost and found—and of love, in all its forms. Written in spare, shimmering prose, it introduces the arrival of an electrifyingly singular new voice.

Jo & Laurie by Margaret Stohl and Melissa De La Cruz

Jo & Laurie by Margaret Stohl & Melissa De La Cruz
with my Little Women Storybook Quilt
showing Jo March and Laurie

Jo & Laurie: A Romantic Retelling was a fun, escapist read that I looked forward to picking up every evening.

I don't read many YA books--this is rated for 7-9 grades--but I had a chance to read the beginning of the novel on BookishFirst and liked it enough to trade in my 'points' and claim a copy.

A good knowledge of Little Women and Louisa May Alcott was a must for this reader, and the authors passed the test. Nothing felt improbable, the characters were not twisted into someone unrecognizable.

The authors take up Alcott's characters, loosely based on her real family, and melds Alcott's family story onto the March family. It can get slightly confusing if you try to keep fact and fiction separate. You just have to trust the story, which is not fictionalized biography or wholly the fictional March characters of Alcott's books.

The novel begins after Jo's Little Women has been published to great success and her publisher has contracted her for a second book. She is to conclude the March sisters' stories with marriages. Unable to reconcile herself to such an end, Jo can't give her fictionalized self and sisters romance and a ring.

Jo & Laurie have been best friends but Laurie's feelings are deepening, driving Jo away. Meg finds John Brooke is interested in her, but she feels the need to marry money or to at least allow John to marry well. Beth has died, but not in Jo's story, and Amy is the pig-tailed child dreamer.

The foursome friends of Jo, Laurie, Meg, and John have a week in New York City, with Jo smashing all Laurie's dreams. He moves on to college while Jo struggles to write her sequel. And struggles. And struggles.

But Jo can't finish her ficitonalized story until she comes to grips with her real story. Can she be a writer and a wife? Can she trust to love someone who might leave her, as her beloved sister Beth did?

I found the book charming, easy to read, and a great escape.

I received a free book through BookishFirst in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

from the publisher:

1869, Concord, Massachusetts: After the publication of her first novel, Jo March is shocked to discover her book of scribbles has become a bestseller, and her publisher and fans demand a sequel. While pressured into coming up with a story, she goes to New York with her dear friend Laurie for a week of inspiration--museums, operas, and even a once-in-a-lifetime reading by Charles Dickens himself!

But Laurie has romance on his mind, and despite her growing feelings, Jo's desire to remain independent leads her to turn down his heartfelt marriage proposal and sends the poor boy off to college heartbroken. When Laurie returns to Concord with a sophisticated new girlfriend, will Jo finally communicate her true heart's desire or lose the love of her life forever?

Jo & Laurie: A Romantic Retelling
by Margaret Stohl & Melissa De La Cruz
G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Publication June 2, 2020
ISBN-10: 1984812017
ISBN-13: 978-1984812018

In Search of Safety: Voices of Refugees by Susan Kuklin

"It's just a choir," Dieudonne replied to the parents of the youth choir he created. And I was in tears.

You see, Dieudonne had spent twelve years of his childhood in a refugee camp. His parents were a mixed marriage of Hutus and Tutsis. When soldiers told his father that he had to kill his wife, they ran, making their way to Tanzania. They ended up in a UN refugee camp.

When Dieudonne was fifteen, he and his siblings were able to immigrate to the United States. Dieudonne joined a storefront church that became the church home for the refugee community. He knew the children needed direction and connection to their new home while embracing their heritage. He started a choir that combined Bible and cultural teachings. The children showed improvement in their behavior and their parents were amazed.

It's just a choir.

I was surprised to be so moved by the five stories shared by Susan Kuklin's In Search of Safety. When I won the book on LibraryThing I had no idea how this book would impact me. The stories of why these people left their homeland was troubling and horrifying, But telling of their new life in safety, I was uplifted and joyful.

The stories are in the words of the people featured, revealing their personality and showing the depth of their emotional and physical experiences. Although they come from different countries each settled in Nebraska.

From Afghanistan, Fraidoon was a translator for the US army. He was under threat of death by the Taliban and sought to immigrate to America. US soldiers confirmed his unwavering loyalty and bravery.

From Myanmar, Nathan was raised in a refugee camp in Thailand and came to America at age twelve. His father worked factory jobs and as a meatpacker, moving to cities that provided his son with the best educational opportunities. Nathan earned a scholarship to college and became an American citizen.

Shireen from Northern Iraq was part of an ethnic minority group that has survived seventy-three genocides before ISIS attacked them. To avoid rape and sexual slavery, Shireen poised as her cousin's wife and later pretended to be paralyzed. She was rescued and taken to a refugee camp before coming to America.

And last there is Dieudonne from Burundi who came from a comfortable home, his father able to raise everything they needed.

This is a marvelous resource for age 14 and up.

The book is filled with color photographs and includes maps.

I won a free book from the publisher through LibraryThing. My review is fair and unbiased.

In Search of Safety: Voices of Refugees
by Susan Kuklin
Publication March 27, 2020
Published by Candlewick
Hardcover $24.99
ISBN 9780763679606

from the publisher: 

The five, originally from Afghanistan, Myanmar, South Sudan, Iraq, and Burundi, give gripping first-person testimonies about what it is like to flee war, face violent threats, grow up in a refugee camp, be sold into slavery, and resettle in America. Illustrated with full-color photographs of the refugees’ new lives in Nebraska, this work is essential reading for understanding the devastating impact of war and persecution — and the power of resilience, optimism, and the will to survive. Included in the end matter are chapter notes, information on resettlement and U.S. citizenship, historical time lines of war and political strife in the refugees’ countries of origin, resources for further reading, and an index.