- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
Want a NOOK? Explore Now
The truck's interior light spread across the darkness and for the first time she got a clear look at her Good Samaritan. Under the cowboy hat he was clean-shaven, except for a mustache, and had intelligent eyes that reminded her in the weak light of a wolf's eyes. She'd met men with those same eyes before and they'd been dangerous in one way or another. His hair was shaggy and unkempt and curled at the collar of his shirt.
But he was smiling now, his smile as wolfish as his eyes, and he'd done her a favor and had been nothing but a gentleman with her. "Anything I can do to help?" he asked.
"What I need," she said, waving a hand at the raised hood and the engine after she'd picked up the flashlight she'd dropped from the ground, "is a doctor for my truck. It's sick."
The man took the flashlight from her, walked over and peered into the engine. His fingers traced along the metal parts, jiggling something here, something there. He seemed to know what he was doing. "Yep, looks like you need a fuel filter."
"You're pretty knowledgeable for a hitchhiker." She forced herself to stop looking at him and his long legs and shifted her gaze to the buildings at the end of the lot. She'd been having strange thoughts about the man. When he'd come back from dragging off her drunken admirer she'd had the urge to throw her arms around him and kiss him. Which was crazy.
Even now she kept sneaking peeks at him because she wanted to see his smile again. The feelings were so unexpected they took her off guard. She never reacted to a man this way.
"Winter's Journey" by Kathryn Meyer Griffith was a very good thriller that will keep you turning the pages. After Loretta Brennan's husband (Jed)had died she desperate needed money for her last payment, the balloon payment that was due on her "Baby Blue" rig, her home and the well being of her daughter, Tessa. Getting a call from the trucking company, Loretta excepted a job (since she was a truck driver) with a bonus to deliver oranges to Cheyenne, WY. This was a very risky job due to the bad weather on the mountain roads but again Loretta need the money. Loretta being a female independent trucker was off on the job and soon she started to have problems ...first with her big rig Baby Blue ...then accosted by a truck driver...then she got help from a hitchhiker...Sam Emerson.... Was Loretta falling for Sam? ....then a series of murders start happening.. maybe this was Sam...so she leave a note on the cops car .... and this story gets even more exciting with every page turned. There are a lot of questions to be asked and answered. Will Sergeant Wilder believe this hitchhiker... Sam Emerson is not the killer? Will they find Loretta before something horrible happens to her? Was Sam in love with Loretta and did she have feeling for him? The Sergeant Wilder and Sam later went to look for Loretta and the weather was now a blizzard. Now Loretta is thinking about Sam and what had happened to him after she left on at the truck stop. Had Sam be arrested? Now she was still having problems again with her 'Baby Blue truck... someone had cut 2 of her tires...Who had a grudge against Loretta? Had Sam come and did this to Loretta? There are a lot of questions that needed to be answered but Loretta still left the truck stop and only had a few hour left to get to Cheyenne. Now a 'white freight liner truck' was trailing Loretta too close. What was she to do? Loretta now realized she should not have left the last truck stop.... There is No escape...She was being trailed very closely...deeply into the mountains. I don't want to give away any more so..... Now you are going to have to read the novel to find out what is happening with Loretta and Sam. Will Loretta get out of this nightmare and back to her daughter and sister safely? Will she see Sam again? Will she make it to Cheyenne? Did any this mess have anything to do with Loretta's husband Jed? Ms. Griffith characters were off the chart....all were so good and really made this story! This is a great suspenseful story and you will soon know just who the hero is in this wonderful read. "Winter's Journey" was well written, suspenseful with mystery and even some romance. I would definitely recommend this novel as a good read.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted October 18, 2009
I Also Recommend:
Reviewer Theresa at NOVELSPOT says:
Rating:8
Review:
When I started reading Winter's Journey I was interested the female view of long distance driving. Especially since I once knew a long haul driver and know how hard it is to maintain a relationship with people left behind. Being a long haul driver is not an easy job: long hours, loneliness, the temptation of drugs, and, if you are in a relationship, the temptation to cheat. Knowing what I know of Kathryn Meyer Griffith's writing, I knew I was going to get a story that gave me a female perspective of a very male-dominated job.
Loretta Brennan is one of the few female independent truckers, but like most she is in desperate need of money. The last payment, the "balloon" payment is due on her big rig "Baby Blue". Everything hinges on that last payment: her livelihood, her home, and the well-being of her child. So when she gets a call from a trucking contractor offering her a bonus to deliver oranges to Cheyenne, WY, she takes it. Due to the time constraints, the weather, and the road conditions on the mountain passes, this job could make or break her. But with the chance of getting on with a big trucking company, which would mean steady work, she takes on what she knows is a risky job.
From the start the job is plagued with problems: the truck has mechanical problems, there are tools missing, and then she is almost accosted by another driver. When he grabs her in the parking lot as she leaves the diner where they had an argument earlier, a drifter steps up and rescues her. Knowing all the risks of offering a hitchhiker a ride, Loretta does just that and soon learns he is a more than capable driver.
Now their route is haunted by a series of trucker murders, and a sinister truck that seems to be following them. This is the same route that two years earlier she and husband were traveling when he was rundown by a passing truck. Can Loretta trust an unknown drifter with her livelihood and her life? What is it about Sam that attracts her so, is it just her hormones? Can she trust her instincts when they tell her that he is just a good man down on his luck? Or could it be she is falling in love with a murderer?
Winter's Journey is a tale of a single mother who is fighting to save the life that she has made for herself and her daughter after her husband's tragic death several years earlier. Ms. Griffith does an excellent job expressing the feelings of her main character -- feelings that we all feel at some time or another. The dreams she has for her daughter and the doubts she feels as a single mother trying to make a living. Sam is a man with a tragic past of his own which he is struggling to overcome. Loretta and Sam risk everything that they are to learn to trust and love again. This is the kind of tale Kathryn Meyer Griffith does best people, relationships and a touch of mystery. Winter's Journey is another keeper.
Reviewed by Theresa
Dec. 2008
Anonymous
Posted October 18, 2009
I Also Recommend:
SIMPLY ROMANCE REVIEWS Said: GRADE: B+
In Winter's Journey Kathryn Meyer Griffith tells the tale of a single mother who is fighting to save the life that she has made for her daughter after her husband's death a couple of years before.
Ms. Griffith does an excellent job expressing the feelings of her main character with all the hopes for her daughter and the doubts she feels in keeping them afloat.
The last thing Loretta wants to do is to take this job to deliver oranges to Wyoming, especially with a big snow storm coming. Worse yet is this is the same route her husband took two years before when he was killed in a hit and run. But she does take the job to make sure she can keep a roof over her daughter's head and her truck on her driveway.
From the very first Truck Stop strange things start happening disappearing tools not the least of them. But also at the first truck stop she meets hitchhiker Sam Emerson. Sam had been hitching with a trucker who was drinking and needed a new ride to Cheyenne and that's where Loretta was headed. After agonizing over her decision she decides to take Sam with her, sharing the driving and hoping to get her load in on time. Only thing is truckers start turning up dead every place they've been and to top it all off this rogue truck keeps trying to run them off the road.
Winter's Journey is filled with suspense, keeping you on your toes until the very end. We are never quite sure if Sam is guilty or not, there are so many "ifs" you could trip over them. The relationship which grows between Sam and Loretta even with all the doubts and troubles is sweet and you really hope they'll be able to make it. Life on the road has to be hard and Winter's Journey goes a long way to showing us just how hard and how rewarding it can be. Give this one a shot I don't think you'll be disappointed.
~ Reviewed by Lynda at Simply Romance Reviews
Overview
To keep the bank from repossessing her eighteen-wheeler, Baby Blue, and putting her and her daughter, Tessa, on the street, Loretta Brennan takes a dangerous job driving it into Wyoming with a winter storm approaching. All alone she worries if she can make the deadline and navigate the roads since her driving ...