Leah's Reviews > The Roads Left Behind Us

This is another book i had to read twice because I read it in March but didn’t get around to reviewing.

“The Roads Left Behind Us” by Kat Jackson is an age-gap romance set mainly on a college campus. This isn’t a student-teacher relationship but it is between a graduate teaching assistant and a professor, though not a professor she’s assisting.

Callie Lewes is 34 when she decides to go back to her alma mater to get a PhD. In her interview to become a teaching assistant she meets new faculty member, Kate Jory. Kate is 50 and very mysterious as she’s more private than the other English professors, who Callie already knows from her previous time at the school.

I absolutely loved this book! This a character driven book so it was all about the characters for me. I loved Callie and Kate and all the side characters that surround Callie. This is told from her point of view and by the end of the book she felt like a friend. Everyone felt real and imperfect and I just really enjoyed them. (Jackson has also revealed she’s writing Dr. Renee Lawler’s story and I can’t wait.)

However, I think my favorite thing about this was the writing. Jackson is gifted and knows how to bring a story to life, there were several instances where I would go back and reread a sentence just because I loved it so much.

There was one thing that I didn’t love and that was how mysterious Kate was. She’s a very private person and Callie (and the reader) doesn’t get a whole of insight into her. Things are either left unsaid or vague and when we do learn stuff, it’s not a lot. I still very much enjoyed her character but I would’ve liked to know more about her past and what led to her moving to New Hampshire.

I loved this and would highly recommend it to fans of character driven stories that are beautifully told.

I received an arc from Bella Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.