the ask@AAR: What’s your favorite road trip/travel romance?
My husband doesn’t want to fly until there’s a vaccine for COVID and so the trips we usually take in the summer are cancelled. We love our beautiful little town but oh how I wish we’d gone to Japan (cancelled trip in May), Italy (cancelled wedding trip in July), and Southern California (another cancelled wedding trip.) So, instead, I’m traveling vicariously through books and television (currently watching A Place to Call Home and enjoying rural Australia.) I’m reading The Stand–in it characters travel all over the US.
I’m going places… even if it’s just from my comfy reading chair. How about you? Are you traveling? And, if not, what books let you travel vicariously? And what are you favorite road trip/travel romances?
Mimi Matthews, A Modest Independence! Journey to India in Victorian times, travelling through India to the Darjeeling region and back to England, a very educational story but with a truly wonderful love story too.
The best road romance I’ve read recently is A Modest Independence by Mimi Matthews: England to India, through to Darjeeling and back. Fascinating. And the love story is good too!
Of the older books I too would recommend Putney and Kelly. Mary Balogh’s An Unlikely Duchess is very funny.
This may not really be considered a true “road trip romance but “Gone Too Far” (Suzanne Brockmann) popped into my head. I love the parts where Alyssa and Sam are trying to trick and outmanuever each other while she is tasked to bring him in for questioning. And, while on a Troubleshooters binge, “Out of Control” with Ken and Savannah fighting their way through the Indonesian jungle is kind of a favorite as well.
Yes to Out of Control. I read the whole Troubleshooters series but that is the one I reread.
Kenny Carmody was my absolute favorite Troubleshooter with Stan probably second.
I loved most of the Troubleshooters, but Kenny was very special. I sure hope she continues the series, there are still tons of possibilities if she brings in new characters.
For road trips with sand and camels and Egypt there are Connie Brockway’s “As You Desire” and “The Other Guy’s Bride”. Both well written and a lot of fun along the way.
Road-Tripped by Nicole Archer is a fantastic US road trip romance. The second in 5he series, Head-Tripped is a road trip romance throughout Europe with a band on tour. I highly recommend this series.
So many great ones have already been mentioned, but I love Duke in Shining Armor by Loretta Chase, which has a long opening scene of a road trip. Maybe the first 1/3 or so of the book? And Voyager by Diana Gabaldon which has time travel, emotional travel, and physical travel (along with pirates, witches, hidden treasure, and epidemics) just for starters. It’s my favorite of the Outlander series because it is so action packed and dripping with romance.
A Regency not already mentioned that I enjoyed many years ago is The Road to Gretna by Carola Dunn.
Most of the titles I’ve thought of have already been listed, but one recent series with very dusty/gritty wagon trains & other period details is by Tess LeSue: Bound for Eden, Bound for Sin, Bound for Temptation, and Bound for Glory.
My favorite road romance is Angel Rogue by Mary Jo Putney.
hreader, Can you help me out? This sounds like something I’d like to read but it’s showing as now in two versions. What kind of content change does the “Revised Edition” have? Any ideas? Any preference?
She published it as a regency series book first, then as a full book later. Take the one that is book 4 in Fallen Angels. Series does not matter, IMO, to enjoy this book.
I wasn’t aware of a revised edition. I bought it as a used paperback at least 5 years ago so I have the first version. I enjoy the hidden identity of the hero and the secondary romance between his brother and her aunt.
Thanks!!
Another great road romance in the Fallen Angels series by Putney is One Perfect Rose. It is a road trip around England with a band of traveling players.
I just re-read this series in the past month and wholeheartedly agree with both recs!
Dorothy Garlock has written a number of stories where the characters are on wagon trains crossing to the very Western parts of the U.S. in the mid or later 19th century. Yesteryear is one that does a very good job I think of showing what it was like to travel via covered wagon on those routes in the limited time of the year between the snow falling and the water sources drying up. WARNING: one of the topics she covers in a lot of the books is racism towards Black and Native Americans and she has the villains actually say the worst words. So if this is a trigger or offends you then I would avoid her works. Again- it is used to show how awful the people are using them and how people were mistreated- but the words are used.
Garlock also wrote some books set during the depression (Which is an unusual era for romance novels) involving every day and poor people. Hope’s Highway is part of her Route 66 series set during the depression and it involves people driving out to California on Route 66 during that time as so many did in search of a job or new life. Her sense of period details is excellent and she writes very realistically about what people had, ate and how they lived. Her dialogue can be simplistic and she uses a lot of vernacular so her writing may not be for everyone. I do find a lot of her settings and people to very unique as she does often writes about poor, and unglamorous people.
Mr. Impossible
No one has mentioned Devil’s Cub by Georgette Heyer. A kidnapped h then a pursuing H. Does this count? Absolutely agree on Lord Perfect. And love Carla Kelly.
Changing the subject, but I don’t think that I’ve ever ‘met’ so many other Wendys in my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think this board appeals to the Wendy demographic. :D Seriously, most people named Wendy are now mid 50s, give or take a decade.
Love reading all these suggestions!
In the middle of the night, last night, I woke up and suddenly thought of Larissa Brown’s A Beautiful Wreck which takes one back to Viking era Iceland. It’s a transportive, transcendent story. #timeforareread
A Beautiful Wreck is a such a great book! Thanks for the reminder. I’m going to re-read it.
I really really love Nora Roberts’ Born in Ice. Brianna’s house, the garden, the weather and the beautiful places in Ireland… It’s all so magical. Every single time after reading this book I dream of travelling to Ireland and staying in a bed-and-breakfast.
A very, very much loved oldie but goodie: Jubilee Trail by Gwen Bristow. Wonderful descriptions of leaving “back east” to Missouri then to LA in a wagon train. And great depictions of life in the early days of LA and California.
Two other oldies would be Valentina by Evelyn Anthony for the brilliant description of Napleon’s retreat from Moscow, a route I did get to follow on an unforgettable hoilday with my husband. And Parson Harding’s Daughter by Joanna Trollope, voyaging with the heroine to 18th century India and watching her fall in love with its magic, colour and life.
These three took me on journeys I return to with great pleasure.
I loved Parson Harding’s Daughter! Thanks for reminding me about this book.
I love Valentina and have a very old paperback of it. So many of her books are excellent.
A very, very much loved oldie but goodie: Jubilee Trail by Gwen Bristow. Wonderful descriptions of crossing from “back east” to Missouri then to LA in a wagon train. And great depictions of life in the early days of LA and California. I read it first as a 14 year old and return to it every now and then.
Sorry – had some problems with “the system” in making my post. It picked up my first version before I’d edited and completed it and a red warning came up making version 1 indicating a duplicated post. Is there a little problem or was it me?
I I concur with you with regard to reading as a way of copping with Covid 19. It just seems to be the only safe way to travel now… if you know what I mean.
I can’t believe I haven’t seen Loretta Chase’s “Lord Perfect” mentioned! It is funny and features two delightful characters–Lord Perfect, the perfect son and heir, and Bathsheba–who just can’t resist each other.
My son has a bookmark that says “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page” — a fitting sentiment for today’s blog.
I also loved “A Place to Call Home”. Sarah is a marvel and Marta Dusseldorp (the actress who plays her) is a wonder, even though at times she was too good to be true and at other times I wanted to shake her. I loved all the ups and downs and ins and outs and was completely caught up watching the various characters move through their lives (and I want to live in Ash Park). Occasionally a bit over-the-top, but in the best way.
Not a book, but the scenery in the movie “Enchanted April” made me want to immediately book a ticket to Italy, as did the film of “Under the Tuscan Sun,” which also had such gorgeous shots of Italian meals that I felt as if I gained 5 pounds just looking at all that scrumptious food.
Many Carla Kelly books are road-trip romances, such as Summer Campaign, The Wedding Ring Quest, the Wedding Journey, and Miss Billings Treads the Boards. I love them all.
The Iron Seas series by Meljean Brook are all road trip stories, but perhaps not helpful for anyone desiring real places.:-)
Well, if you wish to travel to Australia, Ainslie Paton has written a few contemporary road trip romances that I enjoyed: Getting Real (rock band tour) and Floored (has romantic suspense elements).
For England, One Plus One by Jojo Moyes might be of interest.
If walking the Camino de Santiago from France to Spain sounds intriguing, Two Steps Forward by Graeme Simsion and his wife might be of interest. I didn’t really care that much for the romance in this one, but the experience of that walk and everything the characters go through was really interesting.
Loved Two Steps Forward! But, yes, not much of a romance.
Fair warning, I’m cheating a bit with this week’s ASK. Although I haven’t read any road trip romances yet, I am looking forward to reading Hairpin Curves by Ella Winters, a frenemies to lovers f/f romance from the new Carina Adores line. It’s coming out July 28th. Hopefully my library will buy an e-book copy. I already put in a request. :)
Isn’t it frustrating when your library doesn’t have what you want yet? It happened with me and a new series I was trying. How can you have books 1, 3, 4 and 5 but not book 2?
Fingers crossed they order it for you!
“How can you have books 1, 3, 4 and 5 but not book 2?”
I know, right? At least my hold on Two Rogues Make a Right finally came through today, so I have been reading it like mad. The library has only one digital copy with seven people behind me, so I’m trying to be considerate by finishing it quickly while I have time. Of course, I’m enjoying it so much that breezing through it is no sacrifice.
As for Hairpin Curves, it hasn’t been officially released yet anyway. At least it showed up in the catalog though for things people can request. Whether or not they’ll actually buy it is another story. E-books are unfortunately terribly expensive for libraries, and a lot of the budget understandably goes to the big name authors/best sellers. Hopefully the dearth of contemporary f/f romance will give my request a bit of an edge with the acquisitions department.
Hmmm. . . so, I know what Dabney is asking for here. But to get there (a literal title with characters who travel) I need to free up a little brain space from this instantaneous, knee-jerk reaction: all reading for me is like travelling: new town, new time period, new people. Sorry! Just had to get that ear-worm out of the way. ;-) Looking forward to everyone’s suggestions!
^same^
In no particular order:
Overexposed – Megan Erickson – m/m on the Appalachian Trail. Contemporary.
I Do, I Do, I Do – Maggie Osborn – three women figure out they’ve married the same con man; and in the process of chasing him through Alaska during the Klondike gold rush find better mates. HR
Lord Perfect – Loretta Chase – Olivia (head-strong child) takes off on a madcap scheme, Peregrine attempts to protect her (honorable young man in training), throwing Bathsheba (of the disreputable DeLucy’s) and Benedict (Lord Perfect) into way too close of quarters, on the road, while in pursuit. HR
Mr. Impossible – Loretta Chase – Daphne needs Rupert to save her brother Miles from kidnapers in Egypt. HR
The Charm School – Susan Wiggs – very repressed young miss finds herself, and love, while aboard ship from Boston to Rio HR
Only In My Arms – Jo Goodman – Dennehy sister is grabbed in an attempt to exonerate man falsely accused, and they end up on the run, in the American west. HR
Red Dirt Heart – NR Walker – honorable mention. Only one of our m/m characters travels (from US to Australia) on an internship, only to determine he might never want to return home. Contemporary.
Carla Kelly has written some of my favorite travel romances both by land and sea. With This Ring happens by land and Miss Whittier Makes a List happens mainly onboard a ship during the Napoleonic Wars.
Joanna Bourne’s The Forbidden Rose is one of my favorite novels and takes the reader by foot across France and into Paris in the midst of the French Revolution. Who wouldn’t want to travel with Doyle, Adrian, Maggie and two ornery mules named from a quote by Horace?
You haven’t mentioned Kelly’s Miss Chartley’s Guided Tour, my all-time favorite romance novel.
I also liked Kate Noble’s Follow My Lead.
I recently watched It Happened One Night for the first time, and I think that must be the ur-road-romance.
I haven’t read Miss Chartley since I first got my copy probably back in the late 90’s early 2000s? I will have to find it and see what I am forgetting!
Oh I love It Happened One Night! There’s something so much fun about a couple in a romance movie with a limited budget having an adventure. I used to love a movie called The Sure Thing when I was a teenager with John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga. It was about two college students who “hated” each other being forced to travel cross country in a similar manner after they both get kicked out of a car pool for bickering with each other. They used to call it a “modern” It Happened One Night and it was a few years before I saw the original and knew what they meant.
Carla Kelly‘s Wedding Journey is my favorite roadtrip
Other books you mention above are beautiful, too.
Heaven Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips has a great road trip at the start.
Road Trips are not my favorite romance genre, mostly, the adventures and places overwhelm the romance for me.
Great topic, maybe I will collect ideas.
Also, we have two tags for this trope – road romance and shipboard romance (which is travel, but, you know, on a boat. Or a spaceship. So it has elements of road and elements of cabin/forced proximity.)
Road romance tag: https://allaboutromance.com/review-tag/road-romance/
Shipboard romance tag: https://allaboutromance.com/review-tag/shipboard-romance/
The Cockermouth Mail by Dinah Dean
The Hidden Blade by Sherry Thomas
I second The Cockermouth Mail!!
Not Quite A Husband has already been mentioned, +1.
A few more:
Ride With Me by Ruthie Knox.
The Sergeant’s Lady by Susanna Fraser.
Off the Rails by Jill Sorenson.
I miss Ruthie Knox. I loved Ride With Me.
Ride With Me and Courtney Milan’s The Suffragette Scandal helped me convert a friend to reading romance.
Can’t believe I forgot this book. It is absolutely one of my favorites and a terrific road romance. Thanks for the reminder (I miss Ruthie Knox, too).
I love The Sergeant’s Lady! I just reread it a month or so ago. I think it’s Fraser’s best work. And what’s with these crazy downvotes?
I think they could be software aberrations. I’ve noticed that downvotes sometimes happen when I’m actually upvoting . . . I get one of each. :-(
The Sergeant’s Lady is why I got my first e-reader. That’s when I realized that a lot of interesting romances were going to be e-only, and it didn’t disappoint.
Add Fraser to the list of authors I miss…
It’s seems lately there are more authors that I miss than are currently publishing.
Wanted, a Gentleman by KJ Charles
Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas
A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare
The Lord I Left by Scarlett Peckham
Managed by Kristen Callihan
I loved the descriptions of the scenery in Laurie McBain’s Tears of Gold, they travel from California to Louisiana via ship, and I second the road trip in The Spymaster’s Lady, also Duran’s Duke of Shadows, and Thomas’ NQAH. also the bit in Ivory’s the Indiscretion where they are out on the moors, the Caribbean islands in Woodiwiss’ Shanna.
I used to live in New Orleans so I love the descriptions of the city in Anne Rice’s Exit to Eden and The Witching Hour.
I really jam on movies when I need scenery, The English Patient is good for this, also The Painted Veil, The Horse Whisperer, Out of Africa, The Piano, Reds, The Black Stallion, and any David Lean film.
DG, If you are still on an Australia kick and have never seen them, I love The Earthling and The Man from Snowy River, gorgeous scenery in those, from the 80s’ but I think they are available on streaming services now.
Laurie McBain was one of the first Romance authors I really loved when I first discovered them way back in the day. Tears of Gold was one of her saddest books so the one I probably reread the least, but I did enjoy the descriptions of travel across California very much.
Definitely Texas Destiny by Lorraine Heath – the slow build up and then all the aching and longing towards the end. It’s one of my all time faves in general too
I’ve been thinking about how much the American entertainment industry is drying up due to the unchecked virus here and what that will mean for consumers. I think it could mean that foreign films and foreign television will potentially move in to fill the void, especially from areas of the world that have either squashed Covid or significantly contained it. Streaming K-drama is something my niece enjoys, and I’ve been talked into watching the romantic drama, _Crash Landing into You_ with her. I love the Turkish romantic comedy series set in Istanbul, _Erkenci Kus_(Early Bird), and highly recommend it.
Favorite travel romance novels include Kate Clayborn’s _Love Lettering_ in which the main couple fall in love as they sightsee their way around Manhattan, seeing it anew through each other’s eyes. Sandra Antonelli’s _In Service_ mystery-spy-romance series is set in Italy, New Mexico, and the Netherlands respectively for each of the first three books, and each book makes nice use of location. Elizabeth Kingston’s Welsh Blades series highlights the tumultuous early years of Wales and its bid for independence. Cecilia Grant’s last book, _A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong_, may be my favorite road trip romance ever, though Joanna Bourne’s _The Spymaster’s Lady_ is right up there too.
A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare
A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong by Cecilia Grant
The Pursuit Of by Courtney Milan (from Hamilton’s Battalion)
Desire Lines by Elizabeth Kingston
The Lord I Left by Scarlett Peckham