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marshaskrypuch's review against another edition
4.0
The premise was original -- a long haul truck driver being saddled with a baby, a dog and a toddler just as he embarks on his daily trip into a lonely stretch of Utah highway with no cell service. His clients are few and far between and they're an exotic cast of characters. A slow simmering thriller and a very enjoyable read.
Thank you, Netgalley, for the e-review edition of this book.
Thank you, Netgalley, for the e-review edition of this book.
kbranfield's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars.
Featuring many of the same people from The Never-Open Desert Diner, Lullaby Road by James Anderson is an intriguing mystery starring independent trucker Ben Jones who once again finds himself caught up in the lives of the eccentric people along his delivery route.
Set against the backdrop of the Utah desert and lonely highway 117, Ben finds himself swept into drama of other people's making. Unable to refuse a virtual stranger's plea, he reluctantly takes young Juan into his care temporarily. His day gets even more complicated when Ginny, the teen mom he has been helping, asks him to take her baby Annabelle for the day since her sitter canceled. With an early winter snowstorm on its way, Ben sets about making the day's deliveries but every time he turns around, he is distracted by the problems that manage to find the people along his route.
Ben remains a complex man who has left his boozing and brawling days behind him. Despite his reluctance to take young Juan with him, the alternative is turning the young boy over to social services which is something Ben will only consider as a last resort. His admiration for how Ginny pretty much singlehandedly turning her life around also makes it impossible to tell her no when she finally asks for help. Ben's interactions with the various people along his route really showcase how kind-hearted and compassionate he is. He is respectful for his customers' desire for privacy but he does not hesitate to push them when he needs answers.
The novel is a little busy due to a number of secondary story arcs but the various storylines all play out rather neatly. Ben is quickly distracted from his quandary over Juan after itinerant preacher John is severely injured in a hit and run accident. Ben also faces the loss of someone dear to him but he also realizes that he must not interfere with their decision. He is also somewhat troubled by new information about diner owner Walt Butterfield but he avoids finding out what is going on with the elderly veteran. Then there is the stunning double homicide that takes the decision about what to do with Juan out of Ben's hands once and for all.
Lullaby Road is another intricately plotted character driven story that also features a perplexing mystery. Ben is a complex protagonist whose troubled past does not disguise the fact that he has a heart of gold. The desolate, beautiful and harsh desert is the perfect setting for the unfolding drama and James Anderson brings the novel to a somewhat hurried but satisfactory conclusion.
Featuring many of the same people from The Never-Open Desert Diner, Lullaby Road by James Anderson is an intriguing mystery starring independent trucker Ben Jones who once again finds himself caught up in the lives of the eccentric people along his delivery route.
Set against the backdrop of the Utah desert and lonely highway 117, Ben finds himself swept into drama of other people's making. Unable to refuse a virtual stranger's plea, he reluctantly takes young Juan into his care temporarily. His day gets even more complicated when Ginny, the teen mom he has been helping, asks him to take her baby Annabelle for the day since her sitter canceled. With an early winter snowstorm on its way, Ben sets about making the day's deliveries but every time he turns around, he is distracted by the problems that manage to find the people along his route.
Ben remains a complex man who has left his boozing and brawling days behind him. Despite his reluctance to take young Juan with him, the alternative is turning the young boy over to social services which is something Ben will only consider as a last resort. His admiration for how Ginny pretty much singlehandedly turning her life around also makes it impossible to tell her no when she finally asks for help. Ben's interactions with the various people along his route really showcase how kind-hearted and compassionate he is. He is respectful for his customers' desire for privacy but he does not hesitate to push them when he needs answers.
The novel is a little busy due to a number of secondary story arcs but the various storylines all play out rather neatly. Ben is quickly distracted from his quandary over Juan after itinerant preacher John is severely injured in a hit and run accident. Ben also faces the loss of someone dear to him but he also realizes that he must not interfere with their decision. He is also somewhat troubled by new information about diner owner Walt Butterfield but he avoids finding out what is going on with the elderly veteran. Then there is the stunning double homicide that takes the decision about what to do with Juan out of Ben's hands once and for all.
Lullaby Road is another intricately plotted character driven story that also features a perplexing mystery. Ben is a complex protagonist whose troubled past does not disguise the fact that he has a heart of gold. The desolate, beautiful and harsh desert is the perfect setting for the unfolding drama and James Anderson brings the novel to a somewhat hurried but satisfactory conclusion.
lovegirl30's review against another edition
3.0
This book was such a let down for me. I went into it hyped from reviews and the synopsis and man was it just so disappointing to me. I don't know if reading so much in the last five years of this blog has changed my reading tastes but I really thought I would love this book.
When I first went into this book I didn't know it was a sequel to a book called The Never-Open Desert Dinner. I think reading the first book would have helped my enjoyment. I like to go into my books not hyped up and completely open, so perhaps it was that.
In this story, we follow the mysterious Ben who is a truck driver who is in search of the truth when he finds an abandoned child, things will never be the same for him after that. He is in danger, and there is so much he is about to find out.
I loved the writing in this book. The character development is well done. The people felt real. The author manages to weave an interesting story out of pretty standard plot points. At points of the book I just sat it down and really never felt the need to pick it back up, I did eventually of course. That is just the issue for me. I should have devoured this book and I was just like okay well maybe one day I will finish. I think I might pick up the first book and re-read this one and see if my thoughts change.
Overall it was just an okay book.
Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
When I first went into this book I didn't know it was a sequel to a book called The Never-Open Desert Dinner. I think reading the first book would have helped my enjoyment. I like to go into my books not hyped up and completely open, so perhaps it was that.
In this story, we follow the mysterious Ben who is a truck driver who is in search of the truth when he finds an abandoned child, things will never be the same for him after that. He is in danger, and there is so much he is about to find out.
I loved the writing in this book. The character development is well done. The people felt real. The author manages to weave an interesting story out of pretty standard plot points. At points of the book I just sat it down and really never felt the need to pick it back up, I did eventually of course. That is just the issue for me. I should have devoured this book and I was just like okay well maybe one day I will finish. I think I might pick up the first book and re-read this one and see if my thoughts change.
Overall it was just an okay book.
Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
katkinney's review against another edition
4.0
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this wonderfully written novel by James Anderson. "Lullaby Road" really captures that feeling of long road trips through middle of nowhere America. The eccentricities of small town life are there n spades. Each character is revealed through their relationship with Ben, our protagonist and truck driver who knows the lonely stretches of desert far too well. He is handed over a few mysteries and other hurdles to deal with, and also Ben seems to be a character who becaude of his background, likes to insert himself into situations out of a need to belong somewhere.
This book was very slow paced, but beautifully rendered. The imagery was absolutely gorgeous.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the author.
Please excuse typos. Entered on screen reader.
This book was very slow paced, but beautifully rendered. The imagery was absolutely gorgeous.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the author.
Please excuse typos. Entered on screen reader.
usbsticky's review against another edition
3.0
I got this from the crime/thriller section but it's more like drama. The story centers around Ben, a long distance truck driver, the route he drives, the derelict towns he serves and the odd and hermit like people he meets and delivers to. In the huge American west, there are definitely dead towns where people have moved away and people who choose to live in the middle of nowhere to avoid other people or just to get away. I actually checked out Utah State Route 117 on Google Maps but it's not as desolate as it says in the book; it's much shorter, doesn't intersect Highway 191, greener, much more lived on and has a lot of houses/farms on it.
The story and setting was quite depressing but all the same was a bit mesmerizing. The book is a continuation of an earlier book. You don't need to have read the first one though. The story starts off with a young child and a baby foisted upon him as he starts his route. Then we get to meet a disparate collection of folks as he delivers merchandise. Later on there is a hit and run and more events unfold.
I would have liked this book more had it been better written. However the author has turned to this method of writing where he tries to keep people in suspense by not being clear about what he writes and not fully describing events so you have to guess what happened. This is not good writing. I ended up skipping swathes of the text where nothing happens and it's just half a page of words trying to evoke suspense. Apart from that, I liked the characters. This is definitely a low key book; if you're looking for a thriller you will be disappointed but if you are looking for books about depressing towns in the American west, this is it.
I got this book as a free ARC.
The story and setting was quite depressing but all the same was a bit mesmerizing. The book is a continuation of an earlier book. You don't need to have read the first one though. The story starts off with a young child and a baby foisted upon him as he starts his route. Then we get to meet a disparate collection of folks as he delivers merchandise. Later on there is a hit and run and more events unfold.
I would have liked this book more had it been better written. However the author has turned to this method of writing where he tries to keep people in suspense by not being clear about what he writes and not fully describing events so you have to guess what happened. This is not good writing. I ended up skipping swathes of the text where nothing happens and it's just half a page of words trying to evoke suspense. Apart from that, I liked the characters. This is definitely a low key book; if you're looking for a thriller you will be disappointed but if you are looking for books about depressing towns in the American west, this is it.
I got this book as a free ARC.
csdaley's review against another edition
3.0
This might be a case of a book that I read to soon after the first one. I loved the first one but his book felt repetitive and I was not engaged with the story. Closer to a 2 1/2 stars for me. I was really disappointed. The first one was one of my favorite books of the last few years.
mommasaystoread's review
2.0
From the synopsis, Lullaby Road sounded like a suspenseful thriller that I could sink my teeth into. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to that expectation. While I appreciate a good description for setting a scene, I found this book to be so overly wordy that it became tedious and so focused on those details that it left little room for the actual story. The only suspense for me lay in when the thriller part of this novel would start. As Ben travels up and down Highway 117 in Utah, we meet a rather odd mix of characters, but other than Ben’s interactions with them, they don’t seem to have much in common or any link to a mystery. On top of that, Ben is traveling with not one, but two children that belong to other people. That, in itself, had me scratching my head from the beginning. Who leaves their child to ride up and down treacherous roads with an acquaintance? There was also a number of rather ambiguous references to what turned out to be a first book that I assume leads into this sequel. Sadly, there is no reference to this in Lullaby Road’s information. I did muddle through out of sheer determination to finish this one and a hope that the story would improve. Had I read the first book in Ben’s story, or had there been a bit of explanation about those references to it, I may have been more invested in this one, but in the end, what I had was a tedious, long-winded story and a conclusion that was convoluted at best. There were also some unanswered questions that were possibly left for a future book, and I realize I'm in the minority here, but considering my experience with this one, I think I’ll skip it.
corisb's review
4.0
Full disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. Many thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for making it available!
An intriguing, interesting novel. The first few pages made me feel as if I was in a haunted desert story. That feeling continued throughout, not in a scary way, but adding to the surreal nature of the story. The basic premise is a man named Ben, a truck driver delivering things to people in the Utah desert who have chosen to live off the grid. The characters along his route and their stories are a lot of what keeps this novel moving, and there are enough story lines in these characters to write a whole series of books. Some of these people you'll like, some you won't, but you'll always want to know what happens to them next.
At the heart of the story is a small child. I love this kid and the relationship Ben develops with her. Heartbreaking in a way that's not too graphic; quirky in a way that made me wonder if I'd missed something earlier in the book; but mostly heart grabbing as the story of this child's life unfolds. I'm certainly going to miss reading about Juan/Manita!
"Lullaby Road" is the second book James Anderson has written about the Utah desert and the people who live along his delivery route. Several times this book referred to events that had happened in the first book. It didn't make this book hard to follow, but until I realized that, I kept thinking I'd missed a part of the story. It definitely spurred an interest in reading [b:The Never-Open Desert Diner|25810091|The Never-Open Desert Diner|James Anderson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447363447s/25810091.jpg|42924401].
Mr. Anderson weaves an intriguing, page-turning story. Little bits are revealed all along the journey, but he never just comes out and gives the answers. I don't like having to work to figure out the whodunit in a mystery, but I also don't like it all vomited on my lap in the last few pages. Mr. Anderson did neither.
Two small complaints: There were several times I wanted to get to the next part of the story and instead found myself in more descriptions of the desert, the mesa, the highway, the sand, the fog, etc., that just seemed excessive. These descriptions did help put the reader into the scene, and it's probably just an indication of a well-written story and my impatience for the story to continue; secondly, there were several characters that were introduced, caused intrigue, but then mostly dropped. I suppose that's because they'll be more present in the next book... (fingers crossed).
One of the things that tells me a lot about how much I enjoyed the book is when I have been reading non-stop for hours to find out how the book ends and then get to the last few pages and really slow down, reading and re-reading, not wanting it to end. That's how this one left me. Hopeful is probably the way I would best describe the ending - certainly not an "everyone lives happily ever after," but maybe they can/will??
There was a little language and some (in my opinion) well-handled, mostly concealed violence.
If you like a quirky, different, page-turner, quasi mystery, I think you'll really like this book! A 4.5 star rating.
Author - 1/2⭐️
Story - 1⭐️
Ending - 1⭐️
Offensiveness - 1⭐️
Recommend - 1⭐️
An intriguing, interesting novel. The first few pages made me feel as if I was in a haunted desert story. That feeling continued throughout, not in a scary way, but adding to the surreal nature of the story. The basic premise is a man named Ben, a truck driver delivering things to people in the Utah desert who have chosen to live off the grid. The characters along his route and their stories are a lot of what keeps this novel moving, and there are enough story lines in these characters to write a whole series of books. Some of these people you'll like, some you won't, but you'll always want to know what happens to them next.
At the heart of the story is a small child. I love this kid and the relationship Ben develops with her. Heartbreaking in a way that's not too graphic; quirky in a way that made me wonder if I'd missed something earlier in the book; but mostly heart grabbing as the story of this child's life unfolds. I'm certainly going to miss reading about Juan/Manita!
"Lullaby Road" is the second book James Anderson has written about the Utah desert and the people who live along his delivery route. Several times this book referred to events that had happened in the first book. It didn't make this book hard to follow, but until I realized that, I kept thinking I'd missed a part of the story. It definitely spurred an interest in reading [b:The Never-Open Desert Diner|25810091|The Never-Open Desert Diner|James Anderson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447363447s/25810091.jpg|42924401].
Mr. Anderson weaves an intriguing, page-turning story. Little bits are revealed all along the journey, but he never just comes out and gives the answers. I don't like having to work to figure out the whodunit in a mystery, but I also don't like it all vomited on my lap in the last few pages. Mr. Anderson did neither.
Two small complaints: There were several times I wanted to get to the next part of the story and instead found myself in more descriptions of the desert, the mesa, the highway, the sand, the fog, etc., that just seemed excessive. These descriptions did help put the reader into the scene, and it's probably just an indication of a well-written story and my impatience for the story to continue; secondly, there were several characters that were introduced, caused intrigue, but then mostly dropped. I suppose that's because they'll be more present in the next book... (fingers crossed).
One of the things that tells me a lot about how much I enjoyed the book is when I have been reading non-stop for hours to find out how the book ends and then get to the last few pages and really slow down, reading and re-reading, not wanting it to end. That's how this one left me. Hopeful is probably the way I would best describe the ending - certainly not an "everyone lives happily ever after," but maybe they can/will??
There was a little language and some (in my opinion) well-handled, mostly concealed violence.
If you like a quirky, different, page-turner, quasi mystery, I think you'll really like this book! A 4.5 star rating.
Author - 1/2⭐️
Story - 1⭐️
Ending - 1⭐️
Offensiveness - 1⭐️
Recommend - 1⭐️
jesstele's review
3.0
3.5 stars - enjoyed the writing but was left so bewildered by the ending. Anyone care to explain?
amylee218's review
5.0
I won this book in a giveaway. The writing was lyrical and powerful. The setting was so richly described that the desert acted as another character. Ben's observations and insights into the human condition were spot on. I haven't read the first book and didn't realize that this was a sequel so there were a lot of references to prior events and characters that I didn't quite understand. At first it was frustrating but the writing was so good that I now just need to read the first book to find out what Ben went through. The ending is a little unclear but that means we may be lucky enough to get a sequel and a chance to ride along Route 117 with Ben again.