Grace has been a rule-follower all her life. She takes the safest choice every time. Grace's mom, Loralynn, however, is her direct opposite. Still dressing in go-go books, mini skirts, and bell bottoms, her wigs add several inches to her height. A collector of all things Elvis, Loralynn has planned a mother-daughter trip from Loralynn's home in El Paso, Texas to Graceland for her seventieth birthday.

Grace has no intentions of going on this trip. It is completely against her very nature. Grace left home for Boston at 18 and rarely returned. Her father's alcoholism and abuse and her mother's seeming complacency with it left her with no desire to return to Texas. She lives a safe life n Boston now. She is married to (if not in love with) a "safe" man. Jeff is kind, loving, and always does the right thing. The idea of a trip to Graceland trapped in a car with her mother is absolutely the last thing she would ever consider.

Then, Jeff informs her that he is leaving her for someone else. Just like that, her safe world begins to crumble. In order to avoid the fallout, Grace heads to El Paso to take her mother to Graceland. Thus begins a heart-warming adventure, with plenty of interesting stops to make and characters to meet along the way.

I had no idea when I began reading this book how much it would speak to my heart. Having also grown up in a home where we walked on eggshells around a father's temper, I fully understood Grace's choices. I even saw myself making the same choices and never knowing why. Thanks to this book, I really have a better understanding of myself and my own choices.

I have always loved "road trip" novels. The changes in scenery, local food, and local characters-- are what make a great backdrop for a road trip story. Kristen Mei Chase does not disappoint. You will laugh. You will cry. And you just might find some lovely nuggets of wisdom to keep. I did.

Read this book if...
...you love road trip novels
...you love stories that take place in the south
... you love stories that feature BIPOC characters
...you or someone you love loves Elvis

This was so heart warming and fun. I loved the story line and characters. The Mother daughter dynamic was interesting and the characters have depth

I enjoyed this debut, but it was not what I expected. It was much more serious than the summary and cover led me to believe. The relationship between Grace and Loralynn is fraught, to say the least, and makes this a very heavy read (add in a few triggers: cancer, domestic abuse, cheating) and Elvis has his work cut out for him. Worth the read, but be prepared.
3.5 stars

A Thousand Miles to Graceland was so much fun to read! Grace is told by her husband that he wants a divorce. Grace's Mom Loralynn will soon be 70 and wants to go on a road trip to Graceland. Sounds like the perfect time to take her Elvis-loving Mom on that road trip! A great story about mother-daughter relationships told with a lot of laughs and some tears along the way.

This book brought out a mother/daughter relationship between Loralynn and Grace. It was so touching reading about it. There were some sad parts but I enjoyed reading his their relationship grew.

Being and Elvis fan myself I enjoyed this. But I was pretty disappointed that none of the book took place inside Graceland! But this also really makes me want to plan a trip there!

For some reason, i couldnt get into this book. The main character was unlikeable as was her husband. I had high hopes for this book but i couldnt finish.

These ladies are a straight up riot. I didn't expect to find this as hilarious as it was, but I laughed my way through it. It feels good to smile while reading and everyone is looking at you! It took me less time to read this than it did for the duo to reach Graceland!

Perfect for anyone looking for a light, entertaining rom com!

I loved this book so much. It's full of complicated mother daughter relationships, grief, joy, and love. Being a mixed Asian woman myself, I found myself completely pulled into the complex relationship with your heritage and therefore your own family. It's a painful and confusing space but it's full of love, longing, and a full heart.

This book is a classic delight that is a road trip where the journey is about so much more than the destination. A story where you realize along the way why you're on the road in the first place. It's the long car ride where you start to understand your mother in ways that you never understood her before. The realization that your mother is probably pulled to and from her culture just as much as you are. This book is the moment we realize that we aren't so different after all.

This story is absolutely beautiful and I'm so honored to have been able to read it, and so thankful that it exists. It's so infrequent we get stories by mixed authors where the characters are explicitly mixed. It's diaspora multiplied by two and this journey is one we all take, whether we're on the way to Graceland or just adulthood. Thank you, Kristen Mei Chase for this story.

What starts off as a "fun" road trip with an aging parent turns into a story of relationships, healing and love. A very worthwhile read.

I loved this book! I will definitely recommend it. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

A beautiful road trip story about a woman and her eccentric Elvis loving mama who is celebrating her 70th birthday. They bond and heal their relationship on the road to Graceland. It was emotional, sweet and full of laughs. The book took me a bit to get into but I ended up enjoying it. I ended up picking up the audiobook as well so I could listen to the story while I commuted. It was very well done!

Thank you to Net Galley, Forever (Grand Central) Publishing, and Kristen Mei Chase for the Advanced Release Copy.

The story follows Grace, who has been sort of estranged from her mother for a few years due to an abusive father, and she finds herself taking a road trip for her mother’s 70th birthday to Graceland. Why? Because her mother is obsessed with all things Elvis. This trip is sort of cathartic for both of them because they are able to talk about what has come between them for all these years, and we learn as the reader that there’s more than Elvis that brought this trip on.

I was immediately sold by the description alone because I love mother-daughter dynamics in books. As a daughter of a single mom, I felt seen in so many parts of this book. I had to put it down a few times because it just hit so close to home. I don’t want to get into the specifics about how it exactly related to me personally because well… that’ll unleash a therapy worthy pandora box 😋 Chase covers so many topics such as difficulties with family (we all have them in one form or another), finding what really makes you happy, what hope can look like for different people, and the struggles of acclimating to America as an Asian woman. I loved both Grace and her mother, Loralynn so much. I found with Chase’s writing style, that these characters and their strong voices just walked off the pages of the book.

Overall, I was really impressed with Chase’s writing and in short, this book made me feel all the things. It made me want to call my mom and maybe one day plan a trip with her and my aunt somewhere. And since I don’t really listen to Elvis, it did send me into a deep Google dive at 3am last night reading all the things about him, and I know what we’ll be listening to today in the house 😉🎶 this was a solid debut and I can’t wait to see what else Chase will write.

A Thousand Miles to Graceland is one of the years best novels hands down and a beautiful debut novel by Kristen Mei Chase. Ms. Chase took me on a few adventures, that of her characters Loralynn and Grace, one of my self awareness and growth, one of the relationship I have with my mother, one of the relationship I want with my mother and an ideal partner relationship. Ok, and maybe a bit of a journey into the past relationships I've had too. This novel is so incredibly compelling and heart warming and heart breaking and brilliant and beautiful and left me in tears more times than I care to admit, both tears of joy and sadness.

Join Grace while she takes her mom Loralynn on a journey from Texas to Memphis, Tennessee to visit Graceland and all things Elvis for Loralynn's 70th birthday! Along the way Grace and Loralynn explore their tumultuous past and build a beautiful present and future all around 'the King.' Grace learns about her mom's Elvis obsession, connects with old friends and meets new one's along the way. Grace also learns who her mom is good, bad and ugly; She also learns all the beautiful things that is Loralynn.

You will regret NOTHING about reading this novel this year other than not picking it up sooner.

Okay, I had an inkling that I was going to like this book just based on the cover alone, but you guys! This book was so cute. It follows Grace and her mom Loralynn as they take on a road trip to Graceland, Memphis. Along the stops not only do they learn more about Elvis and Loralynn’s love of The King, but they also learn more about each other and what it looks like to repair a mother-daughter relationship.

When I say that this book gave me so much hope and happiness, I mean it. I loved how the author really devoted time to digging through Grace’s life and the reasons why she had such a difficult time being around and with her mom. There are discussions on domestic abuse, emotional abuse, and child abuse so make sure to be careful heading into this one. The cute cartoon cover really hides some deeper discussions in this book. There are also discussions about cancer so maybe head to the trigger warnings on this one just in case.

I loved the quirky side characters that all came to play in this book but Loralynn and Grace really were the stars of this book. I thought each pit stop (if you will) was so fun and seemingly random, I couldn’t help but feel like I was there on the adventure with them!

Overall, this was a sweet book about a mother and daughter who are working to repair their relationship before it's too late, with some fun Elvis-themed things along the way. I highly recommend you check this one out!

⚠️TW: medical content, alcoholism, cancer, domestic abuse, child death, death of parent, panic attacks/disorders, emotional abuse, child abuse

Thank you @readforeverpub and @netgalley for this advance copy in exchange for my honest review! All of the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me an ARC of this adorable read. This is a love story between a mother and daughter who both suffered from an abusive home and with that, their trauma shaped in different ways. Loralynn is a die-hard Elvis fan and as an Asian-Texan she turns all the heads with her bouffant hair and sequin bell-bottoms. Her daughter Grace, couldn't be more opposite. Grace is an accountant who is has just been separated from her husband and on the downward slope to divorce with her life falling apart. With mother's intuition, Loralynn calls her to come back home to Texas and join her for her SEVENTY birthday and road trip to the mecca....Graceland.
This book was sweet and I love the mother/daughter story and when you finish you have an overwhelming urge to hug my mom. The writing seemed a bit stilted at times, but as a debut novel I think this author has started off on a good foot. I'm rating this a 2.5 and would def try this author again.

For her 70th birthday, Grace’s mother has decided to take a roadtrip from Texas to Graceland to see Elvis’s home in person. Grace has no desire to go on this trip with her somewhat estranged mother, but after her husband leaves her, she says yes. Their journey is filled with wild outfits, hilarious mishaps, a few spontaneous stops, and plenty of time to dive into some painful memories. Along the way, they might just be able to begin to repair their fragile relationship.
Oh my goodness, I adored this book and flew through it in one evening. What a beautiful, emotional, and hilarious journey this story was. I went through the whole spectrum of emotions when reading this incredible story about a complicated mother-daughter relationship. The characters were complex and we kept peeling back the layers to learn more about them as they learned about each other. This is a book that will sit with me for a while.
Thanks to Forever Publishing for the advance copy.

A Thousand Miles to Graceland captures Grace leaving her failing marriage as she is consumed by her work as an accountant in Boston as well as consumed by her guilt for avoiding her mom and hometown in Texas. She reluctantly decides she needs a change of pace and agrees to chauffeur her Chinese American mother, Loralynn for her 70th birthday on the road trip of a lifetime to Graceland. Her mother is an over-the-top fan of all things ELVIS and has planned their trip down to every stop and detour to experience where Elvis grew up, ate and lived and as both women learn about Elvis, they learn and grow emotionally, better understanding themselves and strengthening their relationship to each other. Along the way, there is hilarity, heartache and hope. Old friendships are rekindled and remembered, with possible romance blossoming too. I loved this book! Grace took a while to warm up to the trip, but once she did, she was ALL in! Loralynn was quite the character! The road trip brought Grace back to her roots, revealing why she was still dealing with anxiety and panic attacks as an adult and how her traumatic childhood formed her choices as an adult and now that she was aware, what changes would she make after the trip for her future? The writing often had over-the-top similes and metaphors, however since the trip and Loralynn were also over-the-top, it worked in this book, however if the author uses that same style in another book, it may not add to the story but be distracting. The book has a wonderfully satisfactory ending with some hints toward their positive futures. The only part of the story that I wish the author had been more authentic about is when discussing fertility, the story should acknowledge reality--that women older than 43 generally have an extremely low chance of success with IVF (7% which goes down steeply closer to 45) unless they use donor eggs or they had previously frozen their eggs when they were younger. Being factual helps all women make informed choices, instead of movies, books and media reinforcing inaccurate information.

A Thousand Miles to Graceland is Kristen Mei Chase's first work of fiction, and it is a strong debut.
After her husband announces he is leaving her for someone else, Grace decides she will escape her vacant marriage and fulfill her Elvis obsessed mother's 70th birthday wish: a cross country trip from El Paso, TX to Graceland in Memphis, TN {stopping at other Elvis-centric locations along the way}.

This journey is not only a physical one; it is also a journey of a mother and daughter finding their way back to each other. Grace's childhood was filled with so much trauma -- and she could not escape it all fast enough when she came of age. She needed this trip to not only understand and re-connect with her mother, but also to take control of her own life and her own happiness.

Grace and Loralynn have a madcap and highly entertaining journey (they meet some really interesting and fun characters along the way that truly help with their personal growth and understanding of each other).

This is a heartwarming and charming read - I definitely recommend it. Thank you to NetGalley, Kristen Mei Chase, and Grand Central Publishing/Forever for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. A Thousand Miles to Graceland is currently available for purchase (publication date 1/24/23).

I've been on a kick lately with roadtrip novels. It's become a small trend in novels recently. Usually it's two females who are related, mother-daughter, grandmother-granddaughter, etc. There is usually some deep-seated issue that is going to be resolved on the trip, or some family secret is revealed that changes the dynamic of the family forever. Inevitably, one of the characters throws out "Thelma and Louise" and you know that nobody is going to drive off a cliff during the course of the book, but there will be a few situations when they wish they did. Combined with another mini-trend in novels, involving a celebrity (often dead) who has had a great impact on someone's life. In this case, Elvis.

This was a funny, sweet book. You'll laugh, you'll cry. I don't want to give any spoilers away. It has an ending I was happy with. I look forward to reading more books by this new author.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the chance to read and review this book. All opinions expressed are mine and freely given.