Leaving Unknown: A Novel

Maeve Connelly is on a road trip of epic proportions with her foul-mouthed cockatiel, Oliver, as navigator. Traveling across the country from her home in North Carolina, with the ultimate goal of reaching Los Angeles, Maeve has planned her journey to include stops in as many towns as possible that have unique names. Toad Suck, Arkansas; Truth or Consequences, New Mexico; and Ding Dong, Texas are all part of the plan until her 1970 Plymouth, affectionately named Elsie, breaks down outside of Unknown, Arizona. All Maeve wants to do is earn the money for Elsie's repairs and get out of Unknown, but the warm-hearted and eccentric residents are pulling her in more every day. With Leaving Unknownas her ultimate goal, Maeve finds a job at the local bookstore, and takes on the daily running of a rooming house in exchange for her own place to live. As Maeve becomes more entrenched in Unknown life, she also starts to find a focus for what appears to have been a day-to-day existence for many years. Kerry Reichs slowly reveals the source of Maeve's wavering lifestyle through flashbacks and revelations Maeve shares with her new friends. Ultimately Maeve does manage to get out of town, only to realize that she has left her heart and soul in Unknown. I absolutely loved Leaving Unknown, and it is now the third book on my Top Ten of 2010. To many it may seem to be a standard "finding your place in the world" story, but to me it struck many personal, resonant tones. Besides having me laugh out loud constantly, I appreciated that romance was not at the heart of this piece of "women's fiction", although there was some that helped Maeve move out of her floating existence and into real relationships.

This is a great read! I really appreciated all of the cultural references-- they made me feel as if I really were in some displaced Stars Hollow, Connecticut, or Cicely, Alaska! The characters are cute and lovable. Although the plot is a bit predictable, Reich's writing style makes the typical formula seem novel.

Glowing satisfaction. That is the feeling that I was left with, as I closed the cover on Leaving Unknown. Just from looking at the cover, I knew this was going to be a fun read, however, I had no idea just how much fun was in store. Mix that laugh-out-loud fun with real emotion, life changing events and the quest to "find" oneself and you have one heck of a story on your hands. That is exactly what author Kerry Reichs manages to put together in this superb novel, that is sure to leave the name "Kerry Reichs" as anything but unknown. In Leaving Unknown, we are immediately introduced to main character Maeve Connelly, however that introduction is just the tip of the iceberg. In the the beginning, Maeve reminded me a lot of Becky from the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. She had the same "toss your cares to the wind" type of attitude, as well as a bit of the financial issues, lol. However, as the story progresses, readers are gifted with getting to know Maeve, on a much deeper level. I, for one, adored Maeve, her sassiness, spunk, bravery and her exceptional intelligence and ingenuity are true characteristics that pull the reader in, as much as they pull in the people that Maeve comes into contact with throughout the story. Leaving her home in Charlotte, to travel to Los Angeles to begin a whole new life, Maeve decides to road trip through the most unique named towns that she can find. Among these are Sweet Lips, Tennessee, Toad Suck, Arkansas and Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. It is when she gets to Unknown, Arizona that Maeve's beloved 1970 Plymouth Road Runner, Elsie, breaks down and needs a massive amount of tweaking. Unfortunately, the only mechanic around is gone on a trip and no ones knows when his return may be. This leaves Maeve and her sidekick, Oliver, her not-so-shy cockatiel, stranded. It doesn't take long for the kind-hearted and slightly eccentric folks of Unknown to take Maeve into their fold, as well as wrapping themselves around Maeve's heart. One particular citizen, bookstore owner and novelist, Noah, places an amazingly strong anchor around Maeve's heart and mind. Only one problem, Noah is taken. After residing, for a few months, in Unknown, making incredible friends and finding an undiscovered voice, through photography, Elsie is mended and it is time for Maeve to leave and finish her journey to California. With a heart, not as light as it was in the beginning of her trip, Mauve continues on, finding herself in sunny California with a friend from long ago. However, all the promised glitz and glamor are anything but and Maeve's heart aches for the friends she made in Unknown. Will she be able to swallow the lump and settle her ache for Noah and be able to return to the warm fold of Unknown, or will she remain strong in her original plan and remain in California? No matter how hard we plan, there is always a detour that pops up in the road of life. I think that many readers can easily find someth

"Leaving Unknown" is the second of Kerry Reichs' books dealing with the Connelly girls.This time the chief protaginist is the younger sister, Maeve, who we briefly met in "The Best Day of Somebody Else's Life". Actually, one of the most engaging characters in this book is Oliver, the talking cockatiel. Oliver also seems to serve as a sort of touchstone for Maeve, no matter how superficially and irresponsibly she presents herself (especially at the beginning of the book), she never neglects Oliver and his welfare is paramount.Besides, there have been so many road trip books with a dog as the companion, it's really refreshing to feature a clever cockatiel! This is essentially a road trip tale, where girl leaves home, learns life lessons on the road, finds herself and a new home, leaves again, and having supplemented the learning process further, returns to the place she now knows is home. It's a funny tale, with the serious stuff (and there is serious stuff) presented in a way that we know will lead to a happy ending. My only complaint about the book was that, at the very end, the happy ending kept being deferred, while clearly in sight. That, however, is a minor quibble about a book that amused and entertained me. It also made me seriously consider getting a cockatiel.

"The good luck girl" by Kerry Reichs is an outstanding and lovely book about a woman who is determined to change her life and get back her good luck. Maeve Conelly (Vi's sister from "The best day of someone else's life") is ready to change her life. Ever since she survived leukemia she has been struggling to create a life that makes her happy and satisfied. She is jumping from job to job after getting her college degree in seven long years and is always in money problems. To get back her good luck and give her life a new direction she decides to go on a road trip from Charlotte to LA. On this journey she also hopes to find some of her old strength and a new perspective for her future. After travelling for some time her car breaks down in a small city called Unknown, Arizona. There she soon finds great friends who are like a second family to her. There she also begins to realize that the leukemia didn't make her weak but stronger. After finding work in a bookshop and her love for photography plus a possible love interest in her sexy boss Maeve could be happy. But she still feels that to really move forward she has to finish her roadtrip and not stop before making it to LA even though her heart belongs to Unknown. Since reading "The best day of someone else's life" I have been a big fan of Kerry Reichs and after reading "The good luck girl" I'm an even bigger one. Maeve is a fascinating heroine with many quirks regarding her health others don't understand but which make her adorable when you know her history. She is fighting to start over her life and finally be able to trust into herself and her body again. I find her journey inspiring because it shows that if you want change in your life you can get it through your own actions. I love every part of Maeve's roadtrip and especially the end of the book is just perfect and so lovely. The places she goes on her trip and the people she meets are all contributing to Maeve getting back her life and strength so I enjoyed reading about all her stations a lot. The scenes in which Maeve remembers her illness and therapy are heartbreaking (I had to cry a few times) but also show how strong she really is. Unknown is a very special place and it's residents Tuesday, Ruby and Noah (plus many more) are just as extraordinary as Maeve. They give Maeve the friendship and love she needs to finally heal and stop believing in her bad luck. So all in all I really enjoyed this wonderful book and can't wait to read more by Kerry Reichs.