Traveling Light by Lynne Branard

Alissa (Al to her friends) decides on the spur of the moment to bid on a storage unit.  She saw a TV show where the lucky folks found antiques and the like in theirs.  She knows she won't be that lucky but she also thinks there might be something of interest in there.  There was...

Berkley and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published on January 10th so you can grab a copy then.

What Al finds is someone's ashes.  She has his name, his previous location, and now a desire to take him home.  She doesn't know anything about him and really doesn't care.  She just thinks that a man from New Mexico would rather be set free there instead of where he ended up.  After all, her life is boring and it's the same thing day in and day out.  Why not go on an adventure?

Al ends up making friends along the way.  A waitress in one small town hitches a ride with her.  Then they run into her old boyfriend.  As Al's life gets more complicated, she finally feels like she's really living.  She helps as she can.  Blossom causes her a few problems by creating a Facebook page for her.  Al's crush from her younger years is divorced and would like to see her again.  She says OK, when she gets back.

The real theme here is to just live.  Follow your passion, do things because you want to and never give up.  Al's dad is marrying a woman younger than she is.  Her crush is still not a good boyfriend but she finds out soon enough to give him up.  She sells her inheritance, the newspaper, because she doesn't want to do that anymore than her father does.  And when someone comes to visit her where she's restoring a boat she bought, her life starts to look a lot brighter.  Al finally knows what she wants to do...