Glory Road is the first book I was able to read after my concussion, and it was the perfect novel to reacquaint me with the pleasure of losing yourself in a story well-told. Go ahead and judge this book by its gorgeous cover. Glory Road is just as lovely and enchanting as first glance would lead you to believe.
I first fell in love with Lauren K. Denton’s writing when I read The Hideaway, and her newest novel is full of the same easy, familiar style that invites you to escape into the lovely world she’s created. I started reading Glory Road on a weekend of back-to-back snowstorms, and easing myself into the slow, sultry Alabama summer in which the story is set was the perfect balm against winter weather.
Glory Road is a bittersweet – but mostly sweet – story of three generations of women facing changes in life and love. There’s Evan, the teenager starting high school and crushing on the cute boy down the street; then her mother, Jessie, who reconnects with an old almost-flame, as well as beguiles a new suitor; and Jessie’s widowed mother, Gus, who is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s, and a possible new romance herself.
The story is told through each woman’s point of view, though Jessie and Evan are the main narrators. I found the flip-flopping narrators a little confusing in the beginning, and I admittedly at first was really only interested in Jessie’s story since she’s around my age and, by that default, the character I can relate to the most. However, I soon fell into the rhythm of the alternating POVs, and I discovered that I really enjoyed how the story unfolds from various viewpoints. Denton does a great job of capturing the magic and anxiety of adolescence with Evan, and I just loved how she portrays Jessie – strong but vulnerable, cynical but hopeful, and with a warm personality you immediately feel a connection with.
As a food and recipe blogger, I naturally gravitate toward stories that center around food. While Glory Road doesn’t skimp on mouth-watering descriptions of Southern cuisine, the central motif of the book is actually gardening, which I found to be a welcome deviation from my usual reads. Jessie lives just down the street from the house she grew up in on Glory Road, where she runs a garden center with help from Evan and Gus. Jessie’s love of flowers and plants, as well as her ability to find solace from working the soil is a driving force of the novel.
Denton plays up the gardening motif by starting each chapter with excerpts from gardening books and manuals. The excerpts contain a bit of metaphor, a bit of foreshadowing, and a lot of inspiration. These epigraphs were one of my favorite parts of the book; they give it a unique character and lots of personal charm. They’re also quite helpful: while my intense dislike of all things creepy-crawly hinders my green thumb, I enjoy the occasional gardening at the Cottage and intend to try the tip about tomatoes from Chapter 24, as well as making my own natural weedkiller.
Another aspect of Glory Road I most appreciated was the one I found the hardest to read: Gus’s storyline. Anyone who has experience with Alzheimer’s knows that it’s not a pretty story, and Gus is no exception. Her POV doesn’t emerge nearly as often as Jessie’s or Evan’s, but when it does, it’s powerful, and just a little bit scary. Gus’s narration shows flashes of a once-strong and competent mind slowly slipping into the muddying waters of this awful disease.
I was impressed with Denton’s incredible insight and creativity in describing these episodes, but I personally had a hard time reading these passages. My grandfather suffered from dementia, and several of Gus’ episodes hit a little too close to home. Reading about how Jessie deals with her mother’s decline isn’t easy, either. I had to take quite a few cry breaks, which I wasn’t expecting when I started this novel.
Rest assured, though, that the more upsetting elements are well-balanced with the many other wonderful things taking place in the story. Gus has more good days than bad, and the love between the three women – as well as the love they find among their friends – is the real takeaway from this delightful and endearing novel. I eagerly devoured every sentence of Glory Road, and I now find myself thinking of it often, wishing I could return to Jessie’s world on that red dirt road for just a little while longer.
Have you read any of Denton’s novels? I would love to hear your thoughts below if you’ve read Glory Road or her other two books, The Hideaway and Hurricane Season!
And, as usual, stay tuned for my book-inspired recipe: Peach Cobbler Pound Cake!
Glory Road by Lauren K. Denton will be available for sale on March 19, 2019 from Thomas Nelson/ HarperCollins Christian Publishing. Although I received a complimentary advance copy of this book, all opinions expressed in this review are my own, and I was not compensated in any way for this review or for any other promotion/publicity I’ve done related to this book.
What a beautiful cover! I always have a harder time getting into alternating POV books at first. It just takes time to get invested in all the storylines, but when well done, you can get interesting insights into the characters.
This cover is prob one of my faves, ever. So gorgeous. Glad I’m not the only one who has trouble with alternating POVs! 😊 I find some are easier to get into than others for me–usually when a story is told across two different timelines (historic and present), I’m fine. I guess because the differences between them are so apparent! But same-timeline alt POVs always trip me up until I get their rhythm.
I have devoured The Hideaway, Hurricane Season, & Glory Road. I actually stumbled upon your blog looking for me books in the southern fiction category, and now I’m down the rabbit hole of your awesome blog! Any more recommendations of books like these would be appreciated
Hi, Kelli! Welcome to the Tart. So glad you found a place to learn about new southern fiction books. I don’t know when I fell in love with this “genre,” but I completely have! I hope you check out the Southern Fiction section I have listed in my Book Reviews tab, and stay tuned to the blog for more titles like those in the coming months! I should have a few more SF book reviews posting this summer. And, if you have any recs for me, please feel free to share! 🙂