The Road to Roswell

A UFO-themed wedding held in Roswell, New Mexico amid the UFO Festival.

A less-than-reliable roommate as the potential bride.

An alien abduction.

A hitchhiker who doesn't seem concerned about an abduction.

Eula Mae, who is keen on getting to a casino.

Joseph, driving an RV...sorry, no a Western trail wagon, loaded down with old Western movies.

Lyle, who is quite certain the aliens are here to exterminate us all.

Super fun scifi.

Cute “close encounters” novel that is also an homage to the classic Western movies of the 1950s and 1960s. Unfortunately, the plot is rife with sexism; the FMC learns how to communicate with the alien who abducts her, but her primary responsibility is to offer emotional care when it is upset. Meanwhile, one of the male characters does all of the official “take me to your leader” liaison work and provides all of the details about the aliens' civilization. The alien itself is pretty entertaining, especially after it watches numerous Westerns that have a significant, if predictable, impact on its use of the English language. This is the first Connie Willis book that I have finished (after DNFing the widely beloved [b:To Say Nothing of the Dog 77773 To Say Nothing of the Dog (Oxford Time Travel, #2) Connie Willis https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1469410460l/77773.SY75.jpg 696] and 2016's [b:Crosstalk 25430248 Crosstalk Connie Willis https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1458672086l/25430248.SY75.jpg 45191175]). I guess she will be permanently be categorized as “authors everyone loves but I don't get.”

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Thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey for providing an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I've read seven books by Connie Willis and have enjoyed almost all of them. When I saw The Road to Roswell come up on Netgalley, I clicked REQUEST without even reading the synopsis. I didn't need to. I'll read anything she writes. (Though to be honest, I had no idea she was still writing!) When I finally did get around to reading the synopsis I was a tiny bit unsure. I'm not huge on alien books, but I had enough trust in the author to give it a go. See the thing about Connie Willis books is that they have a lot of humor in them, but they're usually about huge big concepts too. My favorite books by her are about time travel. BUT THAT'S NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, WE'RE HERE TO TALK ABOUT THE ROAD TO ROSWELL.

All that I mentioned above is accurate for this book too — Our heroine, Francie, gets abducted by an alien the weekend of her best friend's wedding. She's not taken off planet. She's being forced to drive said alien to a undisclosed location. Undisclosed because neither one of them can understand each other. A lot more happens, but I don't want to spoil you! There's a small romance side-plot. A gambling card-shark granny. An older gentleman obsessed with Westerns. A great deal of it is quite funny, and there's some extremely frustrating parts, too. Basically, The Road to Roswell is about first contact and what can go so, so wrong. But I can promise you this — none of the aliens are evil.

The Road to Roswell is cute, but the ending leaves quite a lot to be desired. It sort of ends in the middle of a scene, and I was left feeling like I missed out on a paragraph or three. Despite that, I really did enjoy this book. Connie Willis's writing reminds me a lot of T. Kingfisher, if that gets any of your gears going, but Willis is much more sci-fi than fantasy. Either way, it's a funny book, and if you're looking for something lighthearted, I fully recommend The Road to Roswell.