Review: All the Roads by J Cotter

All the Roads

by J Cotter

Pages: 414

Format: ebook

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  From the onset of the novel, it is clear that Jay and Elle have a past; running into each other haplessly leaves them both feeling winded and uncomfortable. Elle continues on from Alaska to a rented apartment in Maine, where she is set to begin working on a small film. Jay leaves for Anchorage before heading back to California. Their distance is minimized, however, by a constant flow of memories and thoughts, which hauntingly intertwine the two of them. 

Jay and Elle met at a Christmas party almost six years prior to their awkward Alaskan run-in, immediately recognizing in the other a fellow introvert seeking a break from the hum of the party. When they part ways the following morning, each feels an odd tug to stay with the other. Brushing it off, they separate, with plans to see each other in June with a group of friends for a summer road trip. Their relationship, which begins slowly as a powerful and intense friendship, ends abruptly, shocking them both with its finality and loss. 


Kritters Thoughts:  Two people meet and fall in love, but this story goes beyond that.  After you fall in love, then real world begins with work commitments and family things and life doesn't stay in perfect bliss.  The thing about this book is the reader doesn't start at the meeting and end with the after the break up, instead the stories that make up their relationship are all out of order.  

The fact that the story isn't chronological is interesting.  At times it was hard to keep up with where the bits all fit in, but it may have been because I wasn't able to read this in chunks, but instead it in bits and pieces and it was very difficult.  I loved the concept, but I think the time that I could put towards the story was not right for what it needed.  

The one thing that I would change is that each chapter was named two years before or 18 months after and the moment that defined the time came so late in the book.  I wish it had arrived so much earlier, would have helped put the rest of the book in more of a perspective.

If you have read a lot of women's fiction and love stories and need something different, then this one is perfect.  

Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Ebook 2015 Challenge: 21 out of 100
Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from the author.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.