BOOK REVIEW: The Pink Steering Wheel Chronicles: A Love Story by Laura Fahrenthold

Title: The Pink Steering Wheel Chronicles: A Love Story
Author: Laura Fahrenthold
Publication: June 26, 2018
Publisher: Hatherleigh Press
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 304

SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)

The Pink Steering Wheel Chronicles presents a moving portrait of life told with unflinching honesty about marriage, motherhood and mourning. Laura Fahrenthold-Pittman knew that to cope with her painful loss, she needed to do it on her own terms. So she bought an RV, took her kids and their dog, and drove across the United States and Canada in search of healing and understanding. A career in journalism fills The Pink Steering Wheel Chronicles with insight and wit as Laura shares her adventures and misadventures, her deeply-layered love story, and her hilarious slice of life dispatches during her 30,152-mile road trip.

REVIEW:

I am going to be upfront about why I wanted to read this book.  I found it in an article in People Magazine.  (Hide my face in shame)  I didn’t actually buy a copy of the magazine, it popped up in my Facebook feed as an article.  I was curious so I read it then, promptly went to Amazon and added it to my wish list, where it sat for a month or two.  I then decided to cash in on my husband’s birthday gift of allowing me to spend x amount of money on some new books.  

Laura has a perfect life.  Two kids, a nice house, a husband that loves her dearly.  They are soulmates.  That comes crashing down when she gets a frantic call from her husband one night.  He can’t stop throwing up.  She races home and he dies in her arms.  She is devastated.  How is she going to go on?  She decides to take her and her daughters plus the ashes of her husband on a trip out to the Pacific Northwest.  She comes up with an idea to sprinkle him everywhere that they go.  This book was absolutely amazing.  I cried almost the entire way through it.  It was touching.  The author showed us that there is no right way to grieve over the death of a loved one.  She attended grief therapy as a group and there were people who were already back into the dating game fairly quickly.  She thought there was something wrong with her.  There isn’t, everyone grieves in their own way and for their own length of time.  

This book really hit home.  I haven’t lost a spouse or a significant other but I have lost a sister.  I know I didn’t grieve like I am sure say my Mom and Dad did but everyone is different.  It did put that seed in my mind of what if my husband died like that.  How would I handle it?  We have three young children ages 8, 7 and 4.  How would they handle it?  What also kind of made it even more personal was the fact that her husband was also named Mark.  What if that was me? The author is also a journalist.  I think that I will be looking up some of her articles.  I really liked her reading style.  If she writes a sequel to this book I will definitely be reading it.  I sure hope that she does. 

STAR RATING: 5/5

Pick up your copy of The Pink Steering Wheel Chronicles: A Love Story by Laura Fahrenthold on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and check your local bookstore. Also make sure to add it to your To Reads list on Goodreads and leave feedback for the author when you are finished. Check out author Laura Fahrenthold on her website HERE.

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