Reviewed by Cheryl

TITLE: On the Kalalau Trail

SERIES: Trailblazers #2

AUTHOR: Robin Reardon

PUBLISHER: IAM Books

LENGTH: 222 Pages

RELEASE DATE: December 6, 2019

BLURB:

Self-discovery. Sounds simple, right? After all, you’re already there. You’re already you. So it can surprise us that it takes so much time, and so much effort. It surprises Nathan Bartlett.

Nathan has lost two family members in a few years. It surprises him to realize he hadn’t known them nearly as well as he’d thought, and this makes him question his own worth. And it makes him feel like he belongs nowhere. So he goes on a spiritual quest.

Professional hike leader Conroy Finnegan—sexy, very masculine, and charismatic—leads Nathan to the Kalalau Trail on the island of Kaua’i, “… a place where magic happens, where the very names are magical: Na Pali. Ho’olulu. Waiahuakua. Hanakoa. Hanakapi’ai.”

Conroy seduces Nathan in more ways than one. He leads Nathan to paradise and lets him find his own way back. Nathan begins his journey as a searcher. On the way he becomes a seeker. These states of mind are different. And they lead Nathan on different journeys.

Walk with him.

REVIEW:

We’re back with Nathan from Book One, On Chocorua, as he heads off on another adventure. More than one adventure in fact. In the first half of the book Nathan struggles with changes in his outer life. His best friend is getting married, his sister is far away and he is torn in two about going to grad school and leaving his grandmother alone. The only constant is his love of climbing. He’s working on joining the Four Thousand Feet Club, an elite group of climbers who have climbed all 48 peaks over 4000 feet in New Hampshire.

During one of these climbs he meets Conroy. I can’t get to grips with Conroy. There are times when I think he’s a complete arse, and others where I think I “get” him. I don’t think he ever pretends to be something he’s not and everything Nathan goes through comes from his own head. Is Conroy selfish? Yes, I think he is, oblivious maybe, but so is Nathan. Nathan knows the score from the start but digs himself a hole before he digs himself out. Whatever might be said of Conroy though, he was the one to lead Nathan to the Kalalau trail and that eclipses everything else.

There are two elements to this book – the story and the setting. The story is one of discovery. I don’t know whether Nathan was really searching for himself, but he was certainly searching for something intangible and he moved, inch by inch, toward it as slowly as the hiking party crawled over Crawler’s Ledge. By the way, I would strongly recommend you look up a video clip online of Crawler’s Ledge before you read that part of the story. The author did a great job of describing it, but I think human minds tend to err toward the conservative when imagining dangerous things. The words, as good as they are, do not do justice to this amazing place.

On the whole, the story, as well as the characters, has grown up and become even more nuanced and adult in the emotional not physical sense. Again, I have to say that although the book is, I suppose, technically a romance, and there are elements of it, there’s very little romance in it – unless you count the love affair with the land itself. There’s a fair amount of introspection and a good pinch of zen. That’s not to say it was preachy or heavy going in any way. As I’ve said before, the author has a wonderful way with words that flow so naturally they carry you along wherever she wants you to go, hardly realising where you’re going until you get there.

I have to briefly mention, that, particularly in the first half, there is a degree of time-hopping, with Nathan reminiscing. Some readers might not like this as I have come across plenty of incidences of complaints in reviews and conversations. I would advise you to let this go. Don’t allow it put you off, don’t focus on technicalities. Relax, let the story carry you, and see the bigger picture.

The bigger picture in this book is, quite simply, spectacular. The author is writing about a place she’s actually been, and it shows. The loving detail in what she writes shines like morning light off a lagoon, and incredible vistas open in my mind as I read. I have never been to Kaua’i and the places talked about are entirely alien to me. Yet they have been presented with such intimacy I feel I know them, even though it is second-hand.

There are flaws. There are always flaws and different readers will find different ones. My personal opinion is that it’s in the flaws that true beauty can be found. In breaking the rules the true spirit flies free. My only real complaint would be that I would have liked a few small loose ends tied up. I’d like to know how things turned out for the other members of the hike. It may be that Eric, Owen and Hugh pop up in a future book, and I hope so. I feel slightly cheated that the author developed the characters then dropped them. It’s only a slight irk though.

I adore everything about this series. The characters, the story, the grown-up, intelligent feel of the internal dialogue and development, and of course the amazing backdrop. I’m ready for the next one.

RATING: 

BUY LINK:

Amazon