Rules of the Road – Blog Tour

Blurb:

A heartfelt and uplifting story of friendship and the joy it brings in life.

When Iris Armstrong goes missing, her best friend Terry, wife, mother and all-round worrier, is convinced something bad has happened.

And when she finds her glamorous, feisty friend, she’s right: Iris is setting out on a journey that she plans to make her last.

The only way for Terry to stop Iris is to join her, on a road trip that will take them and Terry’s confused father Eugene onto a ferry, across the Irish sea and into an adventure that will change all of their lives.

Somehow what should be the worst six days of Terry’s life turn into the best.

Honest and emotional, Ciara Geraghty examines family, ageing parents, marriage, life and loss with warmth in a book that grown-up readers will adore.

Book Details:
Title: Rules of the Road
By: Ciara Geraghty
Published By: Harper Collins
Publication Date: February 20, 2020
Format: Paperback Original, eBOOK, Audio

My Review

Content/Trigger Warnings: This book deals with Alzheimer’s, hints of anxiety, and assisted suicide.

Terry is a worrier, if there’s nothing to worry about, well, that is also worrying.

I can sympathize heavily with Terry, but sometimes worrying can help.

Such as when your best friend goes missing and you just know something is not right.

Terry, while worrying, knows she needs to find her best friend, and while picking up her Dad from his nursing home while they fumigate, she takes him to her best friend’s house.

Unfortunately no one’s home, but that doesn’t stop Terry from finding answers, and when she does, somehow against her nature she pushes forward, showing that love and friendship can sometimes alter our actions.

Terry is swept up until a journey that is not only a legendary road trip but a way of figuring out her life as she desperately tries to save her friend.

This is a Me Before You meets Eat Pray Love, Terry is learning things about herself and pushing at her own boundaries all out of love, but perhaps one of the best and most surprising elements is the bond that grows between her Father and herself along the way.

Terry’s father has Alzheimer’s, but, the tenderness in which they treat each other certainly got me emotional a couple of times. He may not be the man he once was [and that’s not always a bad thing] but he does his best to try and pretend he knows things for his Daughter’s sake.

I really enjoyed that this was about friendship and family and finding yourself, that romantic love was not the forefront because I sometimes think everyone could use a great book about familial love, whether by blood or a found family.

There’s a bit of a race against time for Terry, trying to convince her best friend, Irish, that life is always worth living, but, she learns more about Iris’s choices and reasonings as they travel toward the border to Zurich, learning more about the parts Iris’s MS that she hides from Terry and the world.

Terry’s worrying doesn’t ever disappear entirely, which is good, I think it would have diminished her a bit to have her a completely ‘changed for the better woman’ by not having her worry anymore, and I was really touched by the ending of it though I won’t spoil it for you.

Anyway, a really great and emotional read with adventures both hilarious and tender. From the Cliffs of Dover to a French wine cellar turned Jazz night club, there’s something for most anyone in this book.

Thank you to Anne of Random Things Tours and Harper Collins for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review as part of the tour.

About the Author

Ciara Geraghty was born and raised in Dublin. She started writing in her thirties and hasn’t looked back.

She has three children and one husband and they have recently adopted a dog who, alongside their youngest daughter, is in charge of pretty much everything.

The Rest of the Tour