Want to come away from a book all smiley-faced and misty-eyed? Want a story to leave you with a feel-good tingle and a sad-sweet grin? If you do, then Curtiss Ann Matlock’s Lost Highways is just what you’re lookin’ fer.

Oklahoma gal Rainey Valentine is a barrel-racer, as was her mama. Coweta Valentine died about six months ago, bequeathing her youngest daughter a horse named Lulu, and a truck and trailer. Grief-stricken over the loss of her mother, and confused over Coweta’s dying words, Rainey quits her job at the small-town pharmacy where she works delivering prescriptions and takes to the rodeo circuit. Between barrel-racing and working some things out in her head on those long drives from rodeo to rodeo, Rainey hopes her mind will clear up a little and that she can find some direction once again. Twice-divorced, at thirty-four, she holds no hope any longer that the man of her dreams will walk into her life or that, if he does, he’ll want anything to do with a two-time loser – even if she was willing to risk her heart again, which she is not.

Driving a lonely stretch of Texas highway in the middle of the night, as Rainey is deep in thought, her headlights touch briefly on a man stumbling along the road, then he disappears. Rainey’s first thought is that she hit him as she passed, so she circles back around to make sure he’s okay.

Harry Furneaux has a bump on his head from when his car went off the road, and he’s still a little dazed, but Rainey is not to blame. She’s worried about him, though, so offers to drive him to the next town. He hops in, then promptly drifts off to sleep. Rainey swears he has a concussion, he swears he doesn’t … they go around and around from there.

Right from the start, Rainey and Harry are attracted to each other, but they are two lost souls looking for something they aren’t certain they deserve, but are convinced they won’t find with anybody, let alone each other. As Harry joins Rainey on her travels, the two grow closer and become friends. When Harry kisses Rainey, she’s convinced he only wants a hot weekend, but he’s quick to reassure her he doesn’t. He doesn’t know what he wants, but he’s attracted to Rainey and wants to see where it will take them.

Throw in an abandoned puppy with a revolving name, a glove-compartment full of paper napkins, a Twinkie-munching mare, and a cast of thoroughly decent, completely human small-town relatives and friends, and you have a little love story that you can take to heart. Curtiss Ann Matlock has defined her characters with just a few simple words and actions. I closed the book thinking that I had really come to know these people; they’re not so different from me and the people I know and care about.

This book is about halfway a romance and halfway an appraisal of families and how each member interacts with the others; how important family loyalty is so that, even if you don’t particularly like or understand those you are related to, you must still be there for them simply because they are your family. Both Rainey and Harry have family issues and both work them out to a large degree because they draw strength from the other. Romance the way it should be, as the saying goes. Lost Highways is told strictly from Rainey’s point-of-view; we never get inside Harry at all. There were times when I wished we could have. Harry is an engaging hero – very appealing and crazy about Rainey. This book contains many relationship insights, some sweet and gentle humor, and a thrilling kiss or two. If you’re looking for a real nice read, this is it.