For centuries, pilgrims have walked the hallowed route called Camino de Santiago that ends in northwestern Spain. Here, they're joined by California artist Zoe, trying to recover from her husband's sudden death, and English engineer Martin, stunned by his divorce and road-testing a cart he has designed. Starting in the same French town, they head, however bumpily, toward togetherness. Rosiemaestro Simsion joins forces with Buist, who writes mystery and romantic suspense under the pseudonym Simone Sinna. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

After her husband's sudden death, California artist Zoe finds herself lost and left in massive debt. With her last dollars, she sets out to visit her college roommate Camille in France. However, upon arrival at Camille's hometown, Zoe's attention is caught by a scallop shell necklace in an antiques store. The shell, she discovers, is the symbol of a centuries-old pilgrimage known as the Chemin, or Camino de Santiago, which ends in northern Spain. On a whim, Zoe decides to walk the route, aiming to make it to the Spanish border. Her path initially crosses Martin's at their departure point when she mistakenly believes she has caught him trying to steal from the camping store. In reality, Martin, an engineering professor who is road-testing a cart he designed for long-distance walkers, is newly divorced. Although the two have been brought to the Chemin for different reasons, Martin and Zoe begin to connect over their difficult pasts. VERDICT Simsion (The Rosie Project) and Australian psychiatrist Buist have written an insightful study of loss, grief, and the possibility of romance after. Though the story sags at times, it's easy to imagine walking the Chemin along with Zoe and Martin as they encounter other pilgrims along the way. [See Prepub Alert, 11/6/17.]—Brooke Bolton, Boonville-Warrick Cty. P.L., IN

Buist (Medea's Curse) and Simsion (The Rosie Project) collaborate on this uneven dual-protagonist story about a California widow and a divorced Brit who find one another on the Chemin, a spiritual walking route that winds through France and Spain. After losing her second husband, Keith, to what she suspects was a suicide, 45-year-old mom Zoe Witt takes up her old pal Camille's invitation to visit her in France. Zoe learns about the Chemin and participates on a whim, despite her aversions to the walk's religious origins (she was raised Roman Catholic, but has been at odds with her faith since her mother disowned her for taking her friend to get an abortion in college). Martin Eden, 52, is an engineering professor who thinks the Chemin will be a good way to test a new cart design from which he hopes to profit. He is also still smarting from the fact that his ex-wife cheated on him with his boss. Zoe and Martin get the wrong impression of one another at first, and then over and over again. The will-they-or-won't-they tension grows old fast as miscommunications keeps them from consummating their affections—a shame since their love story is the least interesting part of the novel. Their interactions with fellow travelers from around the world, as well as their own fraught histories—Zoe's with the Church, Martin with his teen daughter, Sarah—are the true highlights. Though readers may not fall in love with the central romance, they'll appreciate everything else. (May)