Mallory Cook and the Road Not Taken by Charlotte Nash

Just when I think that the idea of Uplit may be few and far between for me, I am rewarded for persevering in trying to find more of them. I wept through the second half of the book so much that I had to finish and then explain to my husband as to why I was randomly weeping in the evening. He felt a tug (or so he said) after I told him my reasoning and that in itself should be a testament to the storyline.

Mallory Cook is twenty-four and thinking that the day the story begins is when her new, happier life would begin. She was expecting one positive change after another but as luck would have it, neither happened. When I read that part, I sighed and resigned myself to another average narrative of a woman finding herself. I was sorely mistaken in being complacent. The narrative whacked me on the heart once it picked up. The best part of such a story is how Mallory grows with each setback. Every time something goes wrong- she has no money, she is stranded, people are being obnoxious to or at her, she makes sure that the next time the same situation occurs, she has something up her sleeve to push her out of the hole that the situation dug for her. She is determined on reaching her son in NY at any cost but so many things happen to slow her down and the cost is heavy indeed. As fate would have it, the speed at which she gets to her destination supplies her with ammunition to survive her hurdles. On this journey, Mallory spends the most time with (three)pseudo-grandparents who have heart-wrenching troubles of their own. Jock is an enigma and the other couple end up on two opposite ends of the personality spectrum. I also liked the interesting way the ending started a whole different type of story for all the people involved.

I loved the narration and although there are some cliches, it does not mar the emotion packed into the story. The main one being Mallory finding another man. Her husband’s behaviour may seem over the top, and very paranoid but given the fact he is a schemer himself he must have expected some sort of counter moves from his wife. I received an ARC from NetGalley but the review is completely based on my reading experience and directly proportional to the amount I cried for Jock and his life ( even if he was not the central character).

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