Bestselling author, Jennifer Klepper, returns to the Spotlight to chat about her latest novel
Author Name: Jennifer Klepper
Book Title: The Last Road Trip
Book Genre: Upmarket Fiction
Release Date: February 10, 2025
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Welcome back, Jennifer! Please tell us about The Last Road Trip.
Think toxic secrets and interrupted friendships. When five estranged friends reunite to complete a cross-country road trip cut short by tragedy twenty years before, secrets and unresolved conflicts threaten any chance of reconciliation.
What inspired the idea for this book?
My husband and his friends did a cross-country road trip in college and have been close friends ever since–they’ve been in each others’ weddings, our kids grew up together, and so on. Several years ago at a dinner party where they were talking about the trip, I started wondering if a group of women who did the same trip would have stayed so close. Of course, for my story to have any sort of tension, there had to be fights and estrangement, but I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say things work out ok in the end.
What advice would you give to writers just starting out?
I’m a true believer in pre-defining success and celebrating all successes, whether micro or massive. To be honest, though, I don’t make much of a distinction between small and large successes. A win is a win. When I started writing this book, I decided I would deem it a success if I loved it and wanted to place a copy in everyone’s hands. I’ve accomplished that, so everything else is gravy.
What’s capturing your imagination these days outside of reading and writing?
I love a great podcast. Some recent favorites are Scamanda, Hysterical, Broomgate… If you know any good ones, please send them my way!
Can you tell us about what you’re working on now?
I’ve been working on something derived from my experience in the world of tech startups. It has surprised me by turning into a thriller, which will be a new thing for me as an author.
What was the last book that stuck with you? Why did it make such a lasting impression?
I’m currently reading Blood in the Machine, by Brian Merchant. It’s about the Luddite uprising against factory automation in England in the 1800s. The parallels to today and AI are uncanny. It’s a fascinating deep dive into the ethics of advanced technology and the effects on established social structures.
Where can readers find you?
https://www.instagram.com/jennifer_klepper/
https://www.facebook.com/JenniferKlepperAuthor/
Thank you, Jennifer! The Last Road Trip is out NOW.
The Last Road Trip
Twenty years after tragedy tore them apart, four sorority sisters still can’t say no to sweet Mary Blake Bulloch. Reeling from a public divorce, Mary Blake rallies the group to complete a long-ago road trip cut short by scandal, betrayal, and the death of a Texas oilman’s son.
Time hasn’t healed all wounds. Helen’s hiding a crumbling marriage. Charlie’s haunted by a deathbed promise. Annesley’s harboring life-changing news. And Lisa knows her decades-long silence about what really happened that fateful night could cost her everything—and everyone.
As the women pick up where they left off, old alliances shift and long-buried memories surface. What started as a reunion becomes a reckoning, forcing each woman to decide what matters more: the comfort of silence or the brutal cost of truth.
The Last Road Trip is a masterfully layered novel about the transformative power of friendship–and the bad decisions that get in the way.
Author Bio:
Jennifer is the USA Today Bestselling author of The Last Road Trip and Unbroken Threads and co-founder of Early Works, a tech startup studio. Born and raised in Iowa and Nebraska, she attended college in Dallas, law school in Charlottesville, and worked in Texas and Massachusetts before settling for good in Maryland. She’s worked for Big Law, small law, start-ups, and Google. She lives in a forest by a river near Annapolis, Maryland.