Excerpt and 2 Giveaways The Road to You by Marilyn Brant

Description:

Sometimes the only road to the truth...is one you’ve never taken.

Until I found Gideon’s journal in the tool shed — locked in the cedar box where I’d once hidden my old diary — I’d been led to believe my brother was dead. But the contents of his journal changed all that.

The Road to Discovery...

Two years ago, Aurora Gray’s world turned upside down when her big brother Gideon and his best friend Jeremy disappeared. Now, during the summer of her 18th birthday, she unexpectedly finds her brother’s journal and sees that it’s been written in again. Recently. By him. 

The Road to Danger...

There are secret messages coded within the journal’s pages. Aurora, who’s unusually perceptive and a natural puzzle solver, is hell bent on following where they lead, no matter what the cost. She confides in the only person she feels can help her interpret the clues: Donovan McCafferty, Jeremy’s older brother and a guy she’s always been drawn to — even against her better judgment. 

The Road to You...

Reluctantly, Donovan agrees to go with her and, together, they set out on a road trip of discovery and danger, hoping to find their lost brothers and the answers to questions they’ve never dared to ask aloud.

In that expectant space between silence and melody, our trip began...

EXCERPT:

We emerged into the dazzling sunlight of a hot summer Sunday and got settled in Donovan’s car. He pulled out his road atlas and plopped it into my lap. “You get to

navigate on this one.”

            I flipped it open in surprise. Considering his ingrained aversion to asking anyone for directions, this was a sign of great progress.

            He started the engine. “If we get lost, it’s on your head, Nancy Drew.”

            I glared at him. “Stop calling me that.”

            “Nancy, Nancy, Nancy,” he mocked.

            Oh, you’re real mature,” I said, but he continued with his mockery. I knew he needed an outlet, a little levity, something—especially after all the grave, life-changing information we’d just gotten. I was beginning to learn his patterns. He would need to munch on something, and he

wouldn’t be able to discuss anything seriously for a couple of hours at least. Good thing we had snacks in the car and a five-hour drive ahead of us.

            “Fine. Be that way.” I told him the first few turns, taking us past the big Sears on Irving Park Road and following the signs so we could merge onto Interstate 90/94. Eventually, since I wasn’t afraid to read a map—unlike some people—I knew we’d meet up with 55 South, which would take us all the way to Missouri.

            But, as soon as Donovan looked comfortable with the roads, I dug through my purse for the cassette I’d been saving for just such an occasion, and I popped it in. As the opening strains of the Bee Gees’s hit “Stayin’ Alive” came on, I had the satisfaction of seeing Donovan make a disgusted face and reach to turn it off.

            I batted his hand away from the cassette deck. “Do you really think disco is a fad?” I said, mimicking Vicky from St. Cloud. Then I started singing along with the song’s chorus. I’d heard the lyrics about, oh, sixty thousand times since the movie came out. I knew every word.

            “Uh! God, stop that!” he said, half laughing.

            “What’s my name?” I asked him sweetly during an instrumental moment.

            He shot me a dirty look. “Just cut it out.”

            I sang along with the entire second verse. Loudly.

            “Hell, Aurora. Stop.”

            “What did you just say my name was?” I asked. Then, more threateningly, “You do realize that ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ is coming up next, right?”

            He made a gagging sound that I took as a precursor to his inevitable surrender. I was right.

            “Your name is Aurora, but I will strangle you with the long threads of tape that I’m going to yank out of my deck in about ten seconds if you don’t do it first.”

            I snapped the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack out of the player.

            “If you call me Nancy Drew again, you can expect a full hour of disco hits,” I threatened. “I can sing ‘If I Can’t Have You’ and ‘You Should Be Dancing’ and more. All of them a cappella. And, yeah, that’s a warning. Be scared.”

            The look he gave me was nothing short of scathing but, a few minutes later, when I was studying the Illinois map in the middle of the atlas, I caught him glancing at me and smothering a laugh.

            “What?” I said

            He grinned. “Who knew you’d grow up to be such a weirdo…Aurora.”

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About the author:

Marilyn Brant is a national bestselling and award-winning author of contemporary fiction, and she was recently named the 2013 Illinois Author of the Year by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English. 

She wrote ACCORDING TO JANE, the story of a modern woman who receives dating advice from the spirit of Jane Austen (October 2009); FRIDAY MORNINGS AT NINE, a tale about three suburban moms, their marriages and what happens a decade or two after the "Happily Ever After" (a Doubleday Book Club and Book-of-the-Month Club pick in 2010); and A SUMMER IN EUROPE, a novel about a woman's journey of self discovery as she travels through Europe with her adventurous aunt's Sudoku & Mahjongg Club (a Literary Guild and BOMC2 featured alternate in 2011, and a Rhapsody Book Club Top 20 Bestseller in "Fiction & Literature" in 2012), all women's fiction releases from Kensington Books.

She's also a #1 Kindle Bestseller and has written a series of fun and flirty contemporary romantic comedies, available as original ebooks. Both ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAE and PRIDE, PREJUDICE AND THE PERFECT MATCH were Top 100 Bestsellers on Barnes & Noble and Amazon. DOUBLE DIPPING was a 2012 International Digital Awards Finalist for Best Contemporary Novel and HOLIDAY MAN was a RONE Award Contestant. Her next novel, THE ROAD TO YOU, is a coming-of-age romantic mystery and will be out in October 2013.

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