TLC Blog Tour: The Desert Sky Before Us

As I said yesterday, this May be the month I've read the least in a long time.  Luckily everything I am reading is good.  I also have several blog tours that I'm scheduled for, which means my reading has been a bit different because I haven't had to really think about what I need to pick up and read next. 

Synopsis:

From award-winning author Anne Valente comes this poignant and unforgettable literary novel of two estranged sisters—one, a former racecar driver and the other a recently-released prisoner—who embark on a road trip together to complete the scavenger hunt their mother designed for them before her death.

When Billie is released from a correctional facility in Decatur, her sister Rhiannon is there to meet her, even though the two haven’t seen each other in months. Painful secrets and numerous unspoken betrayals linger between them—but most agonizing is the sudden passing of their mother, a renowned paleontologist.

Rhiannon and Billie must overcome their differences as they set off on a road trip west, following the breadcrumb-trail of their late mother’s scavenger hunt, a sort of second funeral she planned in her final days. The sisters know the trail will end in Utah at the famous Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry, where their mother spent her career researching dinosaur fossils. But the seemingly endless days on the road soon take their toll, forcing Rhiannon and Billie to confront their hostilities and revisit old memories—both good and bad.

As they travel across the heart of America, and as a series of plane crashes in the news make their journey all the more urgent, the two sisters begin to rediscover each other and to uncover their late mother’s veiled second life, taking them on an unexpected emotional journey inward—and forcing them to come to terms with their own choices in life.

This book was one I found easy to get into.  I instantly liked both Billie and Rhiannon and their relationship as sisters.  Sometimes I shy away from road trip stories because I feel like they've been done so many times. However, this is one I enjoyed a lot. I liked the various locations the sisters drove through and the descriptions of these places.  Although most of them were locales I have never visited, I can see many readers who are familiar with these places especially enjoying it.

This forced time together allow the sisters to revisit their childhoods - reliving some good and some bad times.  They finally started to really get to know each other, discovering a lot about their mother as well. 

I also loved learning about dinosaurs, as Billie and Rhiannon's mother researched fossils as a profession.  

This novel was so much more than I expected, as Valente had several subplots expertly woven together, characters that felt real and fantastic descriptions of beautiful places.

Thanks to TLC Book Tours for providing a copy of this book for my review.  All opinions are, as always, my own.

For more information about The Desert Sky Before Us, visit HarperCollins