finished reading

This is a real genre mash-up:  rom-com, alien abduction, conspiracy theories, road trip, screwball comedy, and western.  I think I got them all.  Lots of tropes and cliches, but they are what made this book fun.  I'm glad I listened to it because there is a lot of clever dialogue.  The audio is well done.  Francie, our leading lady is actually bland compared to the others in the ragtag band of misfits that she and the alien, Indy, collect on their adventure.   A con man selling "abduction insurance," a conspiracy theorist, a little old lady with gambling prowess, and a retiree on an RV adventure visiting all the sites of famous Western movies.  I especially enjoyed the pop-culture references: everything from Westerns (movies) to The X Files, to Firefly.  Not reading a lot of sci-fi, I didn't realize they are similar to Westerns.

From the publisher:

When level-headed Francie arrives in Roswell, New Mexico, for her college roommate’s UFO-themed wedding—complete with a true-believer bridegroom—she can’t help but roll her eyes at all the wide-eyed talk of aliens, which obviously don’t exist. Imagine her surprise, then, when she is abducted by one.

Odder still, her abductor is far from what the popular media have led her to expect, with a body like a tumbleweed and a mass of lightning-fast tentacles. Nor is Francie the only victim of the alien’s abduction spree. Before long, he has acquired a charming con man named Wade, a sweet little old lady with a casino addiction, a retiree with a huge RV and a love for old Westerns, and a UFO-chasing nutjob who is thoroughly convinced the alien intends to probe them and/or take over the planet.

But the more Francie gets to know the alien, the more convinced she becomes that he’s not an invader. That he’s in trouble and she has to help him. Only she doesn’t know how—or even what the trouble is.

Part alien-abduction adventure, part road trip saga, part romantic comedy, The Road to Roswell is packed full of Men in Black, Elvis impersonators, tourist traps, rattlesnakes, chemtrails, and Close Encounters of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth kind. Can Francie, stuck in a neon green bridesmaid’s dress, save the world—and still make it back for the wedding?