Book Review: The Road to Love


The Road to Love by Linda Ford - Love Inspired Historical #7 - May 08

Linda Ford does an great job of bringing history alive in a memorable tale of love, laughter and leaving.

Until I read this book, the closest I've been to the dirty 30's was playing an extra in the movie ‘Prairie Giant - The Tommy Douglas story'. For the movie, once we had our hair and make-up done, they took this bag filled with some kind of grey chalky stuff and proceeded to ‘dirty us up'. The result was a very authentic looking movie but at the end of our filming day, I was glad to take the clothes off, wash up, and climb into my relatively clean car.

Kate Bradshaw, the heroine in this moving book is an optimist. She's survived the death of her husband and she knows there are good times ahead. Her belief that God put her on that farm to preserve for her children is reflected in everything she does. Even when the crop is failing to grow due to lack of rain, or when the tractor refuses to budge, or friends tell her she's crazy for staying out on the farm, or even when the hay crop is barely worth the trouble to harvest, Kate still believes that she is exactly where God planted her.

One element of this story that I never considered before was the amount of hobos roaming the land during those years. I remember my mother talking of the hobos who stopped by their farmhouse looking for handouts. Because they lived near the railroad and close to town, it was a logical jumping off point for the hobos so they wouldn't get caught riding the rails into town without a ticket. The Red Skeleton Show made the life of a hobo comical. But in reality, it was a lonely, depressing life.

Hatcher Jones, the hero of this book, is a hobo. He's an intelligent, articulated and refined man. We have to delve into the book a bit before we find out why he's living the life of a hobo so I won't spill the beans here, but I will say that for the first time in 10 yrs of roaming, Hatcher wants to stay in the same place more than 2 nights in a row. He's drawn to Kate and her 2 kids. He wants to help and protect her. He even sees a future for them. He just refuses to grasp it.

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Heat Level: Affectionate (kissing and hand holding but nothing more)

My Rating: Great! - 4 1/2 stars (a keeper)

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Harlequin 100,000 book challenge:

Total books Read: 70 Harlequin Imprint: 66 Others: 4


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