The Travels of Annie T. Hastings is literary fiction at it’s best. The story is of Annie T. Hastings, a woman in her 70’s desperate to find the past she left behind some 40 years ago. The story is based on the travels of the author’s mother and the journals she left behind upon her death.

Annie decides she is going to mend her broken family by going to visit them before going to visit the daughter she was forced to give up for adoption. She wants to give her daughter a stable family to come home to. She packs up her car, her dog, her gun, and a little bit of cash a takes off to visit her nieces. Annie knows she is going to need more money after a short stay in her first stop. Her nieces have antiques that Annie can sell. When she arrives, she is not welcome the way one would welcome a relative that you haven’t seen in years. Reading this part of the book made my blood boil and I wished I could reach through the pages and smack the nieces around a little bit for Annie.

This story is one great adventure after another! Annie is very outspoken and gets herself in to trouble from time to time with her mouth. You can feel her sense of empowerment with each road block overcome. She is the sweet old lady next door who you love yet hate at the same time.

There are many heart wrenching scenes throughout the book but the one that made me tear up the most and really cheer for Annie is when she finally encounters her daughter for the first time. Her first visit she doesn’t reveal who she is but when she finally does, the scenes are full of more twists and turns.

This is a really great read especially for one of the those rainy spring days or snowed in winter days.

For more information: Visit the website for the book.