This was a nice, light, romantic, non-spicy read with tons of cuteness. I totally understand falling in love with a voice so you go girl! Was a predictable read but who doesn’t love that, especially when looking for something that we know is going to end on a happy note. This is a slow burn and given the circumstances of how the FMC and MMC meet for the first time, I think it was needed.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, I have to confess this really was not my cup of tea. I found the main character to be rather annoying, making it difficult to really get engaged with the story.

Unexpected love is one of the best kinds. I'm a sucker for a romance story, like Gigi who owns a romance book store (wouldn't that be amazing?). Gigi's friends buy her the trip of a lifetime to London to meet her crush, but instead, she falls for someone else. This book is full of lots of lovely moments of friendship, heartbreak, romance, and literary references.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and have given an honest review.

Two For The Road (also known as Gigi, Listening) by Chantal Guertin is a cute romantic comedy which takes place on a bus tour in England.

The main character, Gigi, took over her family’s small town bookstore after the sudden tragic death of her parents. Without giving too much of the story away, she ends up on a bus tour of England after seemingly falling in love with the voice narrating an audiobook, in an attempt to meet the man behind the voice.

Although I thought Gigi was a bit too obsessed with the voice in her audiobook, and got frustrated with her behaviour a few times, I really enjoyed this book. As we got to know Gigi, it became clear that there was more to her obsession than first appeared and it made her behaviour more understandable.

The cast of characters on the bus tour was fabulous. From tour guide Angus, to wannabe YouTube star Jenny, the array of characters was diverse, and they really made the story come alive for me.

I loved how the author blended a mix of humourous and emotional moments into this book. I always appreciate when an author can make me laugh out loud, and bring me to tears in the same book.

This was the first book by Chantal Guertin that I have read, but I will be checking out more of her titles.

Two for the Road was a cute, light romantic story! It was a bit predictable but isn’t that what we love most about these types of stories? The idea of falling in love with a voice was a bit odd for me at first but it ended up making sense. I loved GiGi growth throughout her travels and the depth of why she held on to the importance of meeting Zane. The will-they, won’t-they, had me hooked and kept me reading. I loved learning the stories of the other bus travelers and how they all played an important role in GiGi’s growth. I never had an interest in going on a bus tour until now! Overall, I enjoyed this novel and would recommend it if you are looking for a very bookish, lighthearted story.

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada and Negalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. All opinions are my own.

Two for the Road is what I call a dessert book I really enjoyed going along with Gigi's adventure, especially since I too have a crush on a audio book voice. It's a fun book with multiple characters that are all rather entertaining and loveable. Gigi has a young voice that Is not common for romance characters yet, but that made her relatable.

If you like to go on fun adventures with friends without leaving the house this is the book for you.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the advanced copy in return for my honest review.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book! It was my first time reading anything by Chantel Guertin and I requested it from Netgalley because the description said "for readers of Emily Henry, Gail Honeyman and Josie Silver..." and I figured - I like them, I should like this.

Gigi Rutherford owns a romance bookstore (only sells books that have an aspect of romance in them: be it romantic love, love between friends, etc) and is fully invested in her parents "meet cute".

Over the past few months, Gigi has become obsessed with listening to a specific audiobook - mostly because of the smooth-voiced narrator, Zane Wilkenson - who Gigi believes is her soulmate (there is a little internet stalking that provides her with further details to convince her of this fact - it's not based solely on his voice).

The thing with Zane is that he runs a bus tour company in the UK - and Gigi's friends decide to surprise her with a 10-day trip through England - with Zane as the guide. She crosses the pond in anticipation of meeting her soulmate.

Only it doesn't go as planned.

We have a bus full of secondary characters - a bus driver (Taj) that catches Gigi's attention, and then we finally meet Zane - is he really everything Gigi has built him up to be?

What I will say is that I thought the first 60% of the book was entertaining, and the last 10% was solid. But there was 30% of the book that felt... forced. If you know what I mean? I liked the way this book was tied up - however, I didn't really buy into the flirty banter between Gigi and Taj. It also got a little tiresome to always go back to the Zane storyline.

That said - it was cute. I think if you are looking to read something that has a little travel, some fun characters and self-growth - this could be a book for you.

If you have ever done a bus tour - especially in the UK - this will likely make you feel warm and fuzzy (it certainly reminded me of my Scottish highlands tour).

If I had to compare this book with others I have previously read: Maeve Binchy's "Evening Class", "The Lilac Bus", "Tara Road" - only with only the one protagonist speaking (rather than the multiple pov in those books) come to mind.

I also kept thinking of Sophie Cousens "Just Haven't Met You Yet" while I was reading it (quite similar plots).

Giving this 2.75 stars. I really loved the travel aspect and the bus-mates. Gigi got on my nerves somewhat, but she did show some growth.

The premise for this story is a bit strange and it took a while for me to reconcile the oddity of it. Travelling to find love is one thing, but crossing the ocean to meet the person you think you have fallen in love with - because of the sound of their voice and what you think you know about them through online content - is a bit much. Gigi believes she has found her soulmate and her friends get her a trip to England to meet the narrator of the audiobook for the book that brought her parents together… is it fate?
If the reader can get over this, then the book actually has a lot to offer. Gigi’s character growth for one is quite substantial over the course of the trip. She goes into the situation with such set (unrealistic) expectations and not happy that things aren’t what they were supposed to be, but by the end she’s almost a completely different person, I have so many highlighted segments of the book to represent this and they are actually so relevant to life in general. The self-discovery occurs naturally as do the relationships between the characters in the story. Gigi is not the only character that evolves and the reader can enjoy all of them. The slow-burn romance was satisfying.
My enjoyment of the book increased as I thought more about the story and as I reread the passages that I highlighted.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a digital arc. The opinions expressed are given voluntarily and are my own honest opinions.

This is a really sweet, fun romance book that was exactly what I needed to help pull me out of a reading slump! Our main character Gigi is the owner of a romance bookstore who is gifted a bus tour of the UK by her best friends (who also happen to be in a romance book club together) for her 30th birthday... a tour that just happens to have as a tour guide Zane, the audiobook narrator whose voice she has recently become obsessed with. Gigi has had a string of bad dates and is still struggling with coming to terms with the death of her parents, who had a meet-cute and relationship that she idealized. This bus tour is her chance to have her own soulmate connection with the man whose voice she loves, until she arrives in London and finds out Zane has been called away on by a family emergency and she is stuck on a tour with an motley group of strangers and the replacement tour guides, Angus and Taj. And the story unfolds from there! I appreciated that it is a closed door romance which seems to be rare among mainstream cotemporary romance novels.

One of my favourite parts of this book is the depth of characterization for all of the people Gigi is traveling with. In romance books often only the main romantic leads are fleshed out, but in this story we really got to connect with each of the other guests on the tour. Each person has their own reasons for going on the trip, and we learn more about their motivations, relationships (familial and romantic), and health challenges. By the end of the books I was really rooting for all of them, not such Gigi, to have a satisfying ending.

I would definitely recommend this book to romance readers who are bookworms and Anglophiles. This would be a perfect quick and light summer read if you want to travel vicariously through Gigi... the descriptions of the various cities and landmarks that she visits on the "Spires, Shires, and Shores" tour are very evocative and brought back memories of my own trip through the UK and made me want to go back to see even more! And since Gigi is a big bookworm she is always wanting to stop into little bookstores and at bookish locations like the Royal Crescent in Bath, the sea wall at Lyme Regis, a house that inspired Charles Dickens etc. It was an added bonus to have a list of all the titles mentioned at the back of the book, I wish more authors would do that!

*DISCLAIMER: I received an eARC of this book from Penguin Random House Canada through NetGalley for the purposes of providing an unbiased review.*

This is a cute book that will take you on a road trip through the English landscape. It highlights the importance of relationships in healing grief and loss. New friends and unlikely strangers spend 10 days together on a tour bus with the wrong tour guide. Neither Angus nor Taj was wanted or expected by Gigi but they grew on her and by the end of the trip she couldn’t stop thinking about one of them. I liked the predictable nature of this meet cute but did find some of it had been done so many times already. For example, the whispering wall was reminiscent of Sleepless in Seattle at the Empire State. I was also disappointed to read the authors note at the end whereby she travelled from Canada to England during COV!d in order to research for this trip. I really enjoyed the chapters bonding with each other which highlighted the nature of relationships as healing what ails. 3.5 stars for this read.

Gigi perhaps has some unrealistic expectations about love. Which makes sense, given she loves romance novels and runs a romance-only bookshop. After her parents meet-cute and subsequent love story all thanks to a specific book, Gigi happens to come across an audiobook of said book, read by the dreamiest voice, which she promptly falls head-over-heels in love with. After finding out that voice belongs to a tour guide named Zane who runs an English bus trip, her friends buy a ticket for her as a birthday gift, hoping she'll finally be able to meet "the one." But when Zane doesn't show up for the bus trip, will Gigi be able to fulfill her romantic fantasy? Maybe with the broody and sarcastic bus driver, Taj, who rubs her in all the wrong ways...?

This book was so darn cute! I loved every minute of it! The plot was super adorable and very much reminiscent of all the romance books Gigi loves and mentions throughout the book. The premise that Gigi falls in love with a voice is a little bit strange...but really it's the idea in her head of this amazing man the voice belongs to that she falls in love with. And that's what Gigi is best at: falling in love with ideas. And holding onto them for dear life.

The development of Gigi's character was really spectacular in this. She really comes to learn a lot about herself during the bus trip. She's surrounded by a group of extremely eclectic people, all of whom have amazingly detailed and well-thought-out backstories that seriously made me tear up a few times. For a book with so many characters, I didn't think this much detail would go into each one, but I'm so glad it did! Hearing about the struggles of each other person on the bus and befriending these people allowed Gigi to come to terms with her own grief and struggles, and she came out of the whole experience a changed person. I really did fall in love with each one of these characters; not one of them felt flat or lifeless (except perhaps Gigi's friends at home, who didn't really get much page time), and each character had a very satisfying resolution to their story. Her relationship with her brother also felt extremely genuine, and I loved to see that dynamic play out.

The romance was amazing. The chemistry between Gigi and Taj was palpable the moment they met, and I absolutely loved the witty banter that went on between them. The inevitable conflict between them was well-reasoned, and the resolution was very cute.

Overall, this was a super adorable read and one I will definitely be coming back to!

*I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review."

Two for the Road was such a cute and enjoyable romance to read! The main character Gigi had a lot of growth as a character throughout this story and there were a lot of aspects of her life and personality that were relatable.

I loved that we got small glimpses into the other characters on the trip and heard more about what brought them to the bus trip as well! The detailed descriptions of the UK made me feel like I was back there again and I so badly wanted to be on that bus exploring all of the great cities!

I found the middle to be a tad slow to get through but overall it was a lighthearted, classic romance story that pulled on all the right heart strings!

3.5 stars

This was a cute, light, quick read. The main character, Gigi, is a romance bookstore owner and a romance book connoisseur. After falling in love/lust with the voice of an audiobook narrator of her favourite book, her friends book her a coach tour through England led by none other than the audiobook narrator himself, Zane. Once she arrives in London, things don’t go as planned - Zane doesn’t make it on the tour and another tour guide replaces him. Gigi is a little dramatic at first and wants to leave but decides to stick it out and make the most out of the trip. With the help of the other passengers and Taj, the moody but charming bus driver, Gigi ends up enjoying her trip (for the most part). It may have not been the exact trip she thought it would be but sometimes it’s the unexpected journeys that are the most memorable.

Although I could not relate to WHY GiGi ended up on the trip, I enjoyed the story after she arrives in England. The author did a great job immersing the reader into the road trip across England. The descriptions of the scenery were engrossing. It made me miss travelling and want to book a trip myself! I also really liked the stories of the side characters and their developments throughout the story.

Thank you NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada and Chantel Guertin for the ARC.

Two for the Road by Chantel Guertin

Publication Date: March 28, 2023

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Two for the Road is a quick and easy Hallmark-esque romantic comedy read. I finished this novel in approximately 7 hours. The premise of the book drew me in - the female main character, Gigi, was in love with the audiobook narrator based solely on his voice. The writing style took me a bit of time to get used to, but by the time Gigi was preparing to leave for London, I was thoroughly captivated. Hearing about the other people on the tour alongside Gigi really elevated the story, and I enjoyed learning about their lives and problems. Taj, the bus driver, was definitely the highlight of the book for me. I predicted the ending, but it was nothing less than perfect for them 😊

Overall, Two for the Road is a great read for fans of lighthearted romance novels.

`Thank you Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.`

3.5 rating

I read this book on a day. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what caused me to read this book in such a short period of time (procrastination?). I thoroughly enjoyed this book... Gigi is adorable and clearly very attractive, as are both Taj and Zane. I'm usually not into love triangles but this one seemed less of one than an internal struggle. Yes at the beginning I wanted to really smack Gigi to wake her up but thankfully Taj and the tour of England proved to be a great distraction. I also loved the addition of the other passengers on her tour that she gets to know, becoming something of a right knit community. It was a warm and fuzzy read for me, and I love travel so it was great to have all these different locations throughout the book and the whole of England as its own character. The pacing was great, with the story building and twisting that keeps you engaged. Gigi feels like a kindred spirit, as the responsible older sibling with a great set of girlfriends and so much hope for finding love like her parents. Taj is a semi-grump whose love language is service and maybe that is why I love this story. They are absolutely adorable together. And Zane. Dang. I think my feedback here is that we don't get much into Zane or his motivations or character when he shows up. All in all, it was a fun read of Gigi letting go and understanding herself more, which leads to finding love along the way.

Also: yay another Canadian author!

Steam: 🔥
Heart Flutters ❤️❤️

Two for the Road is a charming, entertaining, feel good book. It follows Gigi, a romance book store owner dealing with her grief of losing her parents. She has a special attachment to the book that started her parents love story and has listened to the audiobook too many times to count. And it’s safe to say has fallen for the voice behind the book. She learns that the narrator, Zane, is a tour guide in England and her friends surprise her with a 10 day trip on his tour! Now all she needs is to have her very own meet cute with Zane and live happily ever after.

Of course it’s not that easy, especially when Zane isn’t there at the start of the tour and there’s a grumpy bus driver (Taj) that turns Gigi’s head. They have good banter and always seem to end up hanging out. Even though you can guess what’s going to happen, it’s still enjoyable to see it play out. Gigi is a bit of a mess but you want her to get out of her rut.

A highlight for us is the other tour guests, especially Charlotte, that brought their own drama and added to the overall story. It was fun to get snippets of their stories while on the trip and we got invested in them. It was also fun reading about the places they visited since we’ve been to a few of them and it’s always fun to travel vicariously.

**3.5 stars rounded up**

What we liked:
▪️All the tour group members
▪️Vacation romance
▪️The book setting
▪️The romance book references
▪️The ending

What we didn’t like:
▪️It drags a bit in the beginning
▪️Gigi doesn’t take part in a lot of the tour

I have to admit it took me some time to get into this book. The writing wasn’t my favourite in the beginning. It felt like I was reading from Gigi’s diary where she wrote about every detail about her day/life that was unnecessary. But, I stuck through and once I got used to the writing and Gigi was on her way to her 10 day bus tour in Britain, I started to enjoy the book.

I loved the variety of characters in this story. They all added something special and fun to the story and I thought you got to learn about each of them in depth. Gigi at times was a bit annoying, but seeing her grow and learn more about herself was sweet. Taj was one of my favourite characters (of course!).

Although the ending was predictable it was still so sweet and heart warming. If you can get past the beginning and the writing, I think most romance readers would enjoy this! (No spice romance btw!) 4 stars

Thank you NetGalley for the arc!

THE GOOD:
- I LOVE the travel aspect. I really enjoyed learning about all the places they visit -- the scenery was very well written.
- Taj >>>
- I also really loved the side characters. Violet and Nelle were super sweet. So were Angus and Charlotte.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD:
- GIGI. I'm so sorry. But I do not like her. As much as some of the other characters were whiny, she was irrational, oblivious, and stubborn. And I did not see any positive features to round that out. Plus, she's a Colleen Hoover fan. That speaks for itself.
- Gigi also asked if churros were British food and couldn't remember the word shawarma. Girl -- where is your common sense?
- The premise of her travelling to another country because she stalked this guy and is obsessed with his voice is kind of creepy to me. If anything I'm glad she didn't get with Zane.
- Why did this author make the ONLY young character an insensitive influencer girlie? While she did get some redemption at the end, it just feels like the author has something against young people and social media.

OVERALL: I'm giving this one a 2.5. Similar to other recent reviews, I would round up, but again, I don't feel comfortable putting this on the same level as some of my other 3-star reads. While I did enjoy the ending, and certain aspects of the story (like Taj...), the FMC was just not likeable to me, and this really influenced my rating. I feel like I would have enjoyed the book a lot more if it was from Taj's perspective (or if Gigi just... didn't exist and was replaced with a rational person).

What a fun ride this romance book is. Gigi’s life is in a stall pattern after the death or her parents! She lives in the past and anything to hold onto her parents memories. A sudden birthday gift from her book club friends sends her overseas on a bus tour where she hopes to meet the voice she thinks is her soul mate but a twist turns everything around and has her learning to leave the past behind and look to a new future. I loved the characters we meet on the bus …..they all have issues they are dealing with and the author does a really great job incorporating them into the story. …..my favourite was Francis’s story having been down that road with my mom. , I love how we do t find out until near the end why he does what he does and it all makes sense . I would love to see these characters in anouther story down the road.

I voluntarily received a free advanced copy from NetGalley and all opinions are my own.

I would recommend this book to my family, friends and book clubs

Thank you too Penguin Random House Canada and Doubleday Canada for the ARC on Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

A fun and light hearted novel about Gigi an American Romance book store owner who travels to the UK for a guided tour. Convinced that the guide is her soul mate based on his narration of her all time favourite audiobook. What unfolds is a trip that does not turn out the way Gigi planned.

I enjoyed the details the author uses to describe attractions around the UK and references to other lighthearted novels.