Nicole Baart’s THE LONG WAY BACK is, in part, about the simple pleasures of life --- enjoying nature, taking time to appreciate beautiful sights, seeing the wide variety of terrains and environments that our country encompasses. The adage that the main characters espouse, "Always take the long way back," is a good one to live by. It's actually my philosophy when traveling. Instead of rushing to your destination, enjoy the trip and your surroundings.

"The writing, the characters, the plot and wanting to know how it all turns out will have you reading THE LONG WAY BACK late into the night. I was entertained and touched, and it made me think about motherhood."

Mother and daughter Charlie and Eva Sutton have seen most of what America, and part of Canada, has to offer. They've taken their trailer, named Sebastian, all over. The "Sutton Girls," as they called themselves on Instagram for a while, spent years being more connected than most mothers and daughters. When, through a fluke, an Instagram post went viral, Charlie decided that they could use their celebrity by continuing to travel while she homeschooled Eva. Thus they became Instagram influencers, getting free accommodations and earning money for posts, enabling their carefree lifestyle.

THE LONG WAY BACK is divided into sections devoted to Charlie, Eva and the Sutton Girls, told from their points of view and alternating with other material. In Charlie’s section, she reacts to Eva's disappearance and the police response, and we learn about the past through various Instagram posts. Baart creates these posts by sharing the text and describing in detail what the accompanying photograph shows. She then has Charlie explain how that post factored into their lives. Eva's section offers insight into what is happening to her while she is away from Charlie, along with college essays that are quite revealing as to her state of mind and her relationship with her mother. The result is an action-packed story that starts with a bang and doesn't let up.

At the start of the novel, Charlie wakes up from a nap while sailing with Eva in Lake Superior and realizes that her daughter has disappeared. She is frantic and calls the Coast Guard; the police and FBI are involved as well. A child, even though she's 17 (almost 18), is missing. Of course, Charlie becomes the first suspect as it turns out that they had been arguing about how to spend the summer before Eva goes off to college.

While the search for Eva is in progress, we see where she is and the danger she’s in. Eva is smart and determined. What happens to her is not something we could’ve expected, and it's fascinating. Baart cleverly creates characters whose motivations may not have been pure, but who make it right in the end. They are all flawed, some more so than others.

One question that book club members reading this book will want to discuss is the role of social media in the lives of our children. Charlie's pictures of Eva are what made them Instagram influencers. Is it okay to show photos of kids on public forums and use them to make money? Are children able to give consent? There are many ethical issues involved in this discussion that will lead to some very interesting conversations.

The writing, the characters, the plot and wanting to know how it all turns out will have you reading THE LONG WAY BACK late into the night. I was entertained and touched, and it made me think about motherhood. We all have different styles of mothering, but in the end, the most important thing is the love we have for our children, which transcends time and place.