The Road to Roswell

The Road to Roswell / Connie Willis
NY: Del Rey,c2023
399 p.

Another mad romp from Connie Willis! For a light-hearted, humorous tale with some kind of paranormal phenomenon and a very g-rated romance, you can't go wrong with Willis. I was pleased to finally get my hands on this new book, this time centred around aliens (obviously!) 

Francie is heading to Roswell for her college roommate's wedding; she's a bit of a flake and is marrying a UFO fanatic. But Francie will support her, even while being extremely sceptical of all this alien fixation. Getting to Roswell during a UFO Festival is a bit chaotic, and even before they can get the wedding rehearsal started the groom runs off with friends to investigate a reported UFO crash. Francie heads off to get some wedding supplies from the car, while the entire town empties out in search of the UFO...and she is abducted by an alien. 

This alien is like nothing she might have expected, if she had believed in aliens. It looks like a tumbleweed, with strong and fast tentacles, and it grips her tight to the car seat and makes her drive out into the country, clearly in search of something. As they go, they pick up a few more abductees -- a con man hitchhiker named Wade, a sweet little old lady named Eula Mae, an RV owner with a passion for Western films, and a true believer who is constantly coming up with new conspiracies to explain all this. 

It's a combo of romantic comedy, alien encounter, road trip and FBI drama. It's funny, sweet and original. I really enjoyed it, even though the driving around in the middle sags a wee bit -- the characters were entertaining and kept it rolling. I'm not sure I like the ending, though. Leave off the last couple pages and this book was perfect. So much fun!