Retracing the Route

What if the road to rediscovery was the same one you traveled to fall in love?

Twenty years ago, Harry and Lauren Mason drove Route 66 as newlyweds - wide-eyed, broke, and wild with hope. They believed the road from Chicago to Santa Monica would be the first step in a lifelong adventure. Now, two decades, two kids, countless silent dinners, and one quietly unraveling marriage later, Harry surprises Lauren with a restored 1957 Chevy Bel Air - and a daring proposal: to retrace their original trip, mile by mile.

What follows is a deeply human and often hilarious cross-country odyssey through nostalgia, resentment, laughter, and unexpected tenderness. As the couple journeys west along America's most iconic highway, each town forces them to confront not just who they were, but who they've become - and whether they still belong to each other.

From neon diners in Illinois to haunted motels in New Mexico, from desert detours to jukebox memories, Retracing the Route explores the quiet spaces between people who've spent years together - and the winding roads it takes to close those spaces again. It's a love story hidden inside a road trip, or perhaps a road trip wrapped around the fragile rediscovery of love.

Witty, moving, and filled with heart, Valentina Kulieva's novel invites readers to ride shotgun on a journey that asks: Can we ever really go back? Or is the road forward the only way home?

Perfect for fans of contemporary relationship fiction, second-chance love stories, and emotionally rich journeys through both land and life.