I'm not quite sure how I feel about this book, honestly. For the most part I enjoyed reading it, the book is well written and the world building with the aliens is unique and creative.

However, there just didn't seem to be much beyond driving and talking about conspiracy theories and movies. When they finally figured out what the alien wanted and how to get there, things moved quickly and with an element of deus ex machina. The romantic subplot came out of nowhere and with no build up or even believability. The penultimate chapter felt like it should have been the end, and the final chapter ended with an unfinished feeling. In fact, for a moment, I really thought I had been sent an incomplete copy.

I've always loved Connie Willis's books and The Road to Roswell is right up there with the rest. I can hardly wait for the next one - and hope that isn't the last!!

What a zany adventure! This was a very entertaining read! Who knew that aliens exist? 👽 This cast of quirky characters captured my heart quickly and I rooted for them through all the twists and turns.
Loved the themes of friendship, acceptance, help and commitment that were woven throughout. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a fun, fantastical and lighthearted reading adventure.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

There is a lot going on in The Road to Roswell. Most of it is lighthearted and fun, bordering on silly. There is a wedding, an alien encounter, a road trip, and much silliness. Things move quickly, and for the most part it is an enjoyable ride.

It’s been a while since I’ve read anything by Connie Willis, and this isn’t how I remember her work. There was always a sense of wonder underlying even the craziest story. Ingenious plot twists, surprising tidbits of history, or intriguing scientific or speculative concepts seemed to be around every narrative corner. The Road to Roswell seems a bit flat. It’s a good story, but without the flair of her earlier work. Readers new to Connie Willis will probably enjoy it more than her longtime fans.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy to read and review.

I admit I struggled with this book - I liked it fine while reading it but when I put it down I didn’t really feel too much like picking it back up. Took me a long time to get through it and all I can say it was mostly just ok. I didn’t really like the mc - or the hero tbh. The whole alien thing probably didn’t really help as it was trying too hard to be quirky with a weird plant alien that just didn’t really jibe for me. Overall, an ok read but def not my fav by this author. Still, for folks looking for a more whimsical romance with a quirky alien meet cute this would be a great one.

Francie is on her way to her best friend’s wedding—or rather, to stop it, since she’s marrying a UFO-obsessed guy in Roswell. However, she is prevented from doing so when she herself is abducted by an alien who looks like a tumbleweed. In a long journey, trying to discover where the alien tumbleweed needs to go, more humans are roped in and they slowly learn to communicate with the alien. Though the plot dragged at times, this was a funny and clever book, well worth my time.

I’m a big fan of Connie Willis and this is my favorite type of book she writes- madcap adventure with light satire. This time the setting is Roswell, NM during the UFO festival. Francie arrives to her friend Serena's wedding hoping to talk her out of marrying the UFO nut she’s engaged to. But almost as soon as she arrives, she finds out that aliens aren’t made up and she has to help one. And so begins a crazy road trip with Frankie and the alien picking up more people along the way.
I loved so much of this book- great characters, well drawn setting, loads of cultural references, and hilarious dialogue. The alien is a wonderful character and I enjoyed all the attempts at communication.

Some parts were reminiscent of other stories Willis has written like the search to communicate with aliens in “All Seated on the Ground” or elements of “Now Showing”, but recognizing these only added to my enjoyment. The romance wasn’t the central focus of the book and it felt a bit tacked on, but it was cute and sweet. I also thought that the ending was a bit abrupt.

Overall, however, this book was tons of fun and by the time I had read half of it, I had already preordered the audiobook so I could reread it. Highly recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC. I am providing an honest and unbiased review.

"roswell or bust. --Bumper sticker"

In the Road to Roswell, Francie travels to (you guessed it) Roswell to be the maid of honor in her bestie Serena's upcoming wedding. Er, at least that's what she told Serena... but in reality she has a side plan to convince Serena to call the whole thing off since Serena's hubby-to-be is one of those crazy "aliens are real and they've landed on US soil" types. So imagine Francie's surprise when she gets kidnapped by an alien that resembles a tumbleweed. From here, adventure and comedy and silliness ensue.

I would expect this book from a new to the scene author, but not from a ten Hugo award winning and six Nebula award winning author. The Road to Roswell is a silly and cute read. I was thoroughly entertained by Francie and "Indy" as the alien was dubbed as they drove around and picked up more passengers/kidnapped more folks along the way. As a reader, I was drawn into the story as the humans tried to figure Indy out - why did he/she kidnap them? Where was he trying to go? Could they figure out how to communicate with him/her? When he/she got scared, what was the cause? And most importantly, how would the whole story end? But I must, say The Road to Roswell had quite a few flaws. The biggest one is characters (Francie in particular) doing things that made zero sense. For example, Why would Francie, a 20-something, call Serena after being kidnapped and give up after getting the message that her voicemail is full instead of just texting her that she was in trouble? Why would Serena, also a 20-something, give Francie information like a flight number and phone number in a conversation rather than just texting it to her? How likely is it, really, that two of the five kidnapped people simply didn't own cellphones? Maybe Willis should fire her editor and get a new one, because a lot of these things seem like stuff a 77-year old lady simply might not know about how 20-somethings today typically behave. But beyond stuff not making sense, there's some glaring plot holes as well, such as when the group agrees not only use cash as to leave no trace via debit/credit cards and pool their money only to realize they barely have enough to get enough food... yet they somehow are able to pay for a wedding? Granted, they did win some money gambling and the wedding was at a quickie Vegas chapel, but it still doesn't add up and paying for the wedding was never even mentioned. Additionally, it's never addressed how Indy can survive in earth's environment of if he needs to eat, drink, or eliminate waste. Granted, we have no idea how aliens (if they exist) survive, but once the group figures out how to communicate with him/her, wouldn't they have been curious enough to ask?

So my TLDR is that this was a cute and fun book... that has a lot of issues.

I’ve never read a book by Connie Willis before. Her books always sounded good, but never really pulled me in enough.
There was something about The Road to Roswell that just intrigued me. I’m glad I picked it up.
It was fun and lighthearted in all the ways I needed it to be.
The only real downside I could think of was near the middle where you were about to start the downward slide into the back half of the book. It seemed to be spinning its wheels for a bit. After that, the end came quickly and with just as much fun as the first half.
I don’t know if I’ll go back and read some of her previous works, but I’m glad I read this one.

2.5 stars. Willis has written a lighthearted sci-fi rom-com that is heavy on action and light on character development. Francie is headed to Roswell, New Mexico, intent on stopping her college roommate's wedding to a flaky UFO enthusiast. In a flash, she's abducted by a tentacled tumbleweed of an alien, who forces her to drive it all over the southwest searching for... what, exactly? Along the way, the alien ("Indy" as it is eventually dubbed) abducts several other co-travelers. As they continue to drive all over the place at Indy's bidding, Francie and Wade (the second of the additional abductees) come around to caring about Indy and wanting to help it with its quest. Zany, preposterous, and frothy, but also really lacking any character development whatsoever, which makes the romance completely unbelievable and unsatisfying, and made it impossible to really care about any of the characters due to their lack of dimension. Connie Willis has long been a favorite author of mine, but this book fell short for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine/Del Rey for a digital review copy.

This is one crazy road trip, including an alien who looks like a tumbleweed, an alien-skeptic would-be bridesmaid named Francie who is abducted by the tumbleweed, soon nicknamed Indy, and then four more abductees picked up along the way: Wade, who says he’s a con man selling alien-abduction insurance; Eula Mae, a senior citizen casino scammer; Lyle, a wild-eyed hysterical UFO conspiracy theorist; and Joseph, a man with a big RV and a huge library of DVDs of western movies. The road trip consists of Indy pointing out where the abductees are supposed to take him, which is all over New Mexico and Nevada, with everyone trying to figure out how to communicate and resolve this.

Despite Lyle’s insistence that Indy is going to beam them up and probe them any minute, it seems to the others that Indy is more of an “ET phone home” kind of alien. The road trip takes four or five days of driving around and having misadventures.

The characters are fun, and I liked the premise. A problem I have is one I often have with Connie Willis books: too much time is taken up with frustrating communication problems and other mix-ups that prevent or delay achieving the characters’ goals. If there were less of that and the book lost about 100 pages, this might earn a four-star rating from me.

The Road to Roswell is a road-trip book. It's also an alien abduction book. The alien abducts a handful of people, and forces them to go on a road trip.

Yes, it's as absurd as that sounds. It's also very funny! I was laughing at many of the jokes in here. It's a very cute book, with cozy friendships.

It's very much a road-trip story, with all that entails. Chapters traveling around in the desert. Chapters of getting lost. Chapters of making progressively crazier stops. All inching towards the destination.

What I liked best was that there was that the humans cannot communicate with the alien. It provides some very comical moments, and some more thoughtful ones.
What I disliked most was the romance, which felt very tacked on without much development.

Thanks to Netgalley and Del Ray for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

This was a very fun and enjoyable read. I enjoyed all of the alien and western movies references, the quirky yet likable characters and the road trip through New Mexico and Nevada. The book had me grinning and chuckling to myself almost the whole time.

The story is told through Francie’s point of view, and she was a delightful character to spend time with. She reacts to getting abducted pretty well, and finds some inner strength to help Indy find what he is looking for. I really enjoyed her interactions with Indy and with the other characters and how she keeps everyone calm and on task, as well as figuring out a way to communicate with Indy.

All of the other characters were fun and managed themselves well. I loved reading all of Lyle’s kooky UFO conspiracy theories and Eula Mae’s unending cheerfulness. Joseph was a hoot as well, with all of his knowledge of western movies and their locations. Wade was also very likable, but I never felt like there was a romantic connection between him and Francie. There were a couple of times when Francie thought romantic things about him, but she was so busy with Indy, it never seemed to last long. I just never quite got the romantic vibe from the two of them.

Indy was certainly the star of the book. I just adored him and all of his quirky ways. It was fascinating watching him learn our language and all of the questions he had about our culture, he really just wanted to understand and for Francie to understand him, so that they could help him. He is my favorite alien by far!

The whole plot of the story was well done with the road trip, Indy abducting people and the whole group working to get communication going between them and Indy. Things got a little slow in the middle, but it was well paced otherwise. I loved some of the descriptions of the scenery and of the lonely places they pass through on their trip. Although I think the time they spent in Las Vegas was my favorite. The ending was a bit abrupt, but it was somewhat open ended, which might mean we will be seeing Indy again.

If you are looking for a quirky and fun book to read this summer, this is definitely one you want to consider. Especially if you enjoy alien conspiracy theories, road trips, the Men in Black and Close Encounters of every kind.

I am grateful to the author, Random House/Ballantine and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

I’ve been a fan of Ms. Willis throughout her long and distinguished career. This story has her trademark swift action and rather madcap antics from all, including the aliens.

Mostly though, I found this a story of obsession. Who knew there were so many different varieties of alien obsession. . . but I guess there are! Our heroine is watching this strange mental state from outside. Her wonder/confusion is a marvel to behold.

The story itself is not as successful. Ms. Willis sustains the uncertainty about the characters—who is for real, who is a plant, what are their true motivations? The “first contact” situation is handled in a creative manner but is boxed up quickly at the end, feeling rushed. Ms. Willis often ends her novels in a brisk final scene that leaves lots of different potential plot lines moving forward, and this was no exception. Does true love win over all, will the human race find unity in dealing with the aliens? I did find myself hoping that the colorful secondary characters would have a hopeful future second act, whatever their obsessions.

Giving it 3 stars for the action and background on alien sightings, but missing any deeper understanding of our main characters. I will of course dip into any other stories that Ms. Willis may share.

This was a laugh out loud, scifi romcom that I couldn't get enough of. I went in blind not having read anything by this author but I will be getting her full catalog in the future

"The Road to Roswell" is science fiction, yes, but it is so much more. It's an adventure, it's a romance, it's a comedy, it's Stagecoach plus It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and...well, you'll just have to read it yourself and see.

Francie is in New Mexico for the wedding of her best friend. Naturally, there's a huge UFO convention at the same time. Francie is abducted by an alien, no really, she is, and they go on an adventure. Along the way, they pick up a handsome insurance salesman, a gambling granny, a Western aficionado, and the guy who just has to be a problem. The "stagecoach" is in fact an RV, and they go to Las Vegas, Roswell, and points in between to help Indy, the alien who looks like, what else, a big tumbleweed.

I love Connie Willis's books not only for the humor, but also because her characters are just so much fun. She's so skilled at her craft and makes it look so effortless. Granted, I was less than thrilled at first about the Francie and Wade relationship in places (avoiding spoilers), but then I realized the plot was being true to its roots. It's a great homage with a fresh new spin.

4.25 out of 5 stars - highly recommended.

Huge Connie Willis fan - Doomsday Book is one of my top ten favs.

The Road to Roswell introduces us to Francie who travels to Roswell, New Mexico for her best friend’s wedding only to be abducted by an alien and taken on a madcap adventure through the desert. I really really wanted to like this one but it just wasn’t for me. Others may enjoy it, just not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read and reviews this book.

Connie Willis writes sci fi in two flavors: serious and silly. I am a fan of both. The Road to Roswell is one of the delightfully silly ones, with real aliens really landing near Roswell and really abducting people. But you can tell it's one of THOSE Connie Willis stories because there's a three-day UFO festival gathering in Roswell (and Francie's about the only person not delighted with a possible sighting), the alien collects Francie from the UFO Museum where she's about to be a bridesmaid in a dress that actually glows in the dark, the alien is shaped like an actual tumbleweed with delightfully adaptable tentacles, characters communicate but misunderstandings abound, there's a fascination with Westerns and they do most of their traveling in an RV (excuse me, Western trail wagon), and one of the characters is a card sharp. It is all so much fun.

Thanks to the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for my free earc in exchange for an honest review.

This piece truly helped me out of a reading slump. The characters were quite delightful and one in particular was annoying but all the while laughable. I genuinely laughed while reading this story and it helped that it was such an easy read. I've never been one to read about aliens but I had to get my hands on this book due to being a native New Mexican. I gave this book two stars primarily for the ending and some parts were a little drawn out. All in all I find myself wanting to find more novels by Connie Willis and am grateful she helped me out of a reading rut!

Thank you NetGalley and for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis starts as a mad dash through the desert and ends with a slightly confusing romance.
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Francie is headed to Roswell, New Mexico for her friend's UFO themed wedding. She has plans to talk her friend out of the impending nuptials, but life has other plans for her. Like, getting abdŭcťėd by a tumbleweed-like tentacled alien in need of help. She thinks. It's kind of hard to understand him. Along the way, the alien abɗúcts conman Wade, and soon, the two realize their abďůctor may be in trouble. A few more snatch and grabs, a wagon full of Westerns, and a fake wedding later, and the group works together to help the little alien get where he needs to go.
👾
I had high hopes for this story. A crazed road trip through the deserts I grew up in, quirky characters, and a forced proximity romance! Sounds great, right? Well, it was kinda just ok. Francie was pretty flat. She almost felt like a placeholder character. The beginning is slow and a little frustrating. No one ever listens to Francie, and the conspiracy theory nuts are ANNOYING. I get it. That's a part of UFO stories, but dang. 🙄 Also, there was no romance in this book. At all. Nothing. Then suddenly, a fake wedding with a very real kiss and professions of love later made me question if I was still reading the same book. And at 400 something pages (with TONS of repeating dialogue and scenarios) the author could have fit some romance somewhere.
🤠
The highlight of this whole circus was Indy, the alien. He was a manic ball of nerves that absolutely cracked me up. His aversion to clothing changes, his LED sign scrolling language, and the fact that they used old Westerns to teach him about humans. Omg that had me cackling. At one point he wakes up Francie with a tentacle in her face that just says, "SHOW YOU LAZY BASTARD," and I ☠️. He really stole the show.
🌠
Lots of people will find this book enjoyable, and parts of it really were wonderful. The other bits though left me wanting more and wondering what happened. I thank NetGalley and the author for the ARC.