This book takes place in the in the past, and a bit in the present too. But we know from the start that something went wrong. Patricia's daughter wants answer. So what happened?

The heroine Patricia is the perfect good girl, trying to to the best she can to make her father proud. Oh her dad, he was an ass, he mourned that his son never would follow in his footsteps. I could not have put up with it like Patricia did, but I understood why. And it is rooted deep within her since childhood.

Then we come to the love story that takes place in the early 60s when Patricia and her father go to Ladakh. To watch the scenery, take in the sights, and just explore.

While watching Patricia we also watched a young man grow up, Kalden, destined to be a monk. And when these two meet sparks fly. First love, so bittersweet. But it was such a different time, and with that prologue in mind I wondered what would happen to these too. For that reason I wish the prologue had not been there.

It's a love story about a young man and a woman from different cultures. A different time, but then love will overcome anything and everything. It was a sweet story and I liked that the setting was so different. But it also made me cry. ( )

The Road Back by Liz Harris

When Patricia accompanies her father, Major George Carstairs on a trip to Ladakh, north of the Himalayas, in the early 1960s, she sees it as a chance to finally win his love. What she could never have foreseen is meeting Kalden – a local man destined by circumstances beyond his control to be a monk, but fated to be the love of her life. Despite her fathers fury, the lovers are determined to be together, but can forbidden love survive?

The story is classic, girl meets boy, controlling father forbids it, adversity needs to be overcome, and the rest as they say is history. However, this story takes the reader on so many twist’s and turns it becomes the ultimate emotional roller coaster. This book has all of the special ingredients we have come to expect from the Choc Lit library and does not disappoint. Im not going to give any spoilers but you will need the hankies along the way and a box of Malteesers, a cosy beanbag and the phone switched off would mean you really do get the full benefit of this wonderful novel.

Liz Harris has a degree in English and therefore the quality of the writing is excellent and it a real treat to enjoy. As well as following the story of Patricia, Kalden and others, the trip to Ladakh is insightfully picturesque and a fraction of the cost of going for real but no less vivid.
The Commuting Bookworm 27/09/12 ( )