A review by stevie_b
Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer

4.0

Jenna Boller loves shoes. Specifically, she loves selling shoes. She lives for her part-time job at Gladstone's. There she knows what to do. She can look at a person and know what they need from her as a salesclerk and what they need from their shoes. When she's on the sales floor, life makes sense. That peaceful haven is about to be threatened on multiple fronts. Her estranged alcoholic father returns back to town causing ripples of discontentment throughout her family. So when the CEO of Gladstone's, a slightly cankerous older lady, asks Jenna to be her driver for a summer road trip to a string of Gladstone's across the midwest and ending at the Gladstone flagship store Jenna and her newly acquired driver's license jump right into the driver seat.

I really responded to this book well. It dealt with a number of difficult issues (alcoholism, death, dementia) in a very emotionally open way, but it wasn't gritty or dirty. The pace is moderate as the chapters aren't short but they don't drag on and the format of the road trip keeps things moving forward. The storyline is fairly linear, with some flashback moments Jenna uses to deal with her father's alcoholism. The book it littered with strong female characters. Jenna's mom who is an ER nurse keeping her family together and safe through her ex-husband's alcoholism, Mrs. Gladstone a strong businesswoman who refuses to let her company falter, and Jenna herself who is just learning what is means to stand up for those she cares about and herself.