Beth writes so incredibly well that I feel transported with each book that I read. An auto-buy author!

This book was not what I was expecting based on the two previous books I have read by this author. Nearly a DNF.

After a car collision on the way to a friend's wedding with her sister, Addie finds herself face to face with her ex Dylan. They are all on the way to the same wedding in Scotland, so of course with one car out of action they offer Dylan and his best mate Marcus a lift. Not to forget they also have a passenger called Roger that cadged a lift to wedding but none of them knows.

Whilst on the course of the journey there are flashbacks to when Addie and Dylan met and became an item. They are told from the perspective of both Addie and Dylan, and to be honest I was glad when they were over and the book concentrated on the present day. I just couldn't get interested in this story.

At about 40% I began to wonder if I really wanted to invest anymore time in this book. I didn't care for any of the characters and was beginning to skim read. Some comedic moments from the journey and a lorry driver called Kevin did cheer me up a little. Then we find out what actually happened when Addie and Dylan split up, and the whole book changed for me.

I needed to read on and find out what would happen with Dylan and Addie and why exactly Roger was going to the wedding. I actually warmed to Dylan and Addie by this time and begun to understand the other characters a little more.

I am giving this book 3 out of 5 stars, mainly due to the drawn out first half of the book.

After loving Beth O'Leary first two books, I couldn't resist picking The Road Trip. I was expecting a funny lighthearted romance in the setting of a road trip with a tiny car and 5 adults and their luggage squeezed into them, and what I found was somehow so much more.

The story is told in double narrative and it has several time-lines so little by little you get to discover the main two characters background and how they have evolved and changed over the years. Plus, you get a pretty good insight in the two secondary characters too, which also play a key role in the story.

As mentioned, the story line is not as lighthearted as I expected, and it delved in several serious topics, especially about mental health, which I found were very well written and added complexity to the story and the characters.

As I see this author has already another book out, I cannot wait now to discover yet another story by her. I am sure she will keep surprising me.

I really enjoyed the flatshare by this author, but for some reason didn't get on with this one first time. Have recently revisited, I found it to be an entertaining, easy read with some great characters!

The second-chance romance worked to the story's advantage here. The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary is told in alternating timelines; the past: where Addie and Dylan meet and fall in love for the first time, and the present: where they’re broken up and forced back together on a comedy of errors road trip. Knowing that they would eventually break up made the timeline where they first got together all the more meaningful. (And added some interest to scenes I wouldn’t have cared for otherwise.) It also upped the stakes in the present timeline by showing all that lost potential.

What I liked best about this story was seeing how much each character had grown during their time apart to become the people they needed to be for their relationship to work the second time around. It made their reconciliation feel more rewarding.

Add in a cast of characters with such distinct personalities, all the mayhem of their journey, and Beth O’Leary’s signature sarcasm and wit; despite some bumps along the way, The Road Trip was an overall enjoyable ride.

One of my most anticipated books for 2021 and did not disappoint, The Road Trip isn't going down of my favourite Beth O'Leary book but it was still one of my favourite books of 2021.

I really enjoyed this and I have enjoyed all of her books so far. This was the least favourite of her books so far, but I still enjoyed it

I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

Before today I had read every single Beth O’Leary book except The Road Trip and I honestly can’t tell you why. This one has just been sitting on my kindle but I’ve never reached for it and I was so wrong not to. The characters were messy but loveable and the idea of them all stuck in one car together was brilliant. The comic humour of Rodney throughout was a lovely touch too!

The only slight issue I had is that I feel like Marcus got off very lightly. He literally stalked Addie and made her feel like she was going crazy. When she saws that she thought she saw him on her bins but she thinks she is going made, it really broke my heart. I’d have like to have seen a bit more consequence to those actions other than him having to apologise (which he does very half heartedly in my opinion).

Thank you for the review copy!

This is a blast from start to finish. The dynamics between the 5 characters are brilliantly written. I loved the now sections - seeing the tension from the very start and as we uncovered more of the history between them, each character developed in front of us. Deb was definitely a favourite of mine and we all need to be more Deb as she certainly tells you as as it is with no bells and whistles. A clever idea and one I’ll be recommending. Thanks to Bex and Lucy for the great buddy read.

If you have read Flatshare you will love this. Beth O’Leary has done it again! I wizzed through this book as I could not put it down. Well written and just a lovely story. Great read.

I started the audiobook of this with slight trepidation for a couple of reasons. Would I love this as much as The Flatshare and why the heck did I look at the reviews 🙈

I am always going to love The Flatshare but this does come second to that. I had no idea how this would pan out. Even my mini-me was invested in the audiobook, although she told me off for all the swearing coming out of the speakers 😂

I had to know what happened with Addie and Dylan! We had to know how it would all pan out, as we had no clue. I was that impatient much to the mini-me’s disappointment I spent the last 45 minutes reading the book so I knew how it would end, sorry! <3

This book is slightly darker with the themes tackled here. Depression and self-loathing and lack of confidence hangs really heavy here. But it made the book that much more realistic, throw in unrequited love to destroy people and you have a sad tale. It was sad to see how they got from the past to the present day, and I was hoping for some kind of reconciliation.

Addie and Dylan start off as a holiday romance, but they know nothing about each other. Will they be able to make it in everyday life? Or is there just too much against them? Why is Marcus so absolutely horrific? And why is Grace not in the book more!!

I had so much time for these characters. I thought the dysfunctional family really worked in the car. I thought Rodney was cute…. until he wasn’t!! Shocking!! Although not much with him was resolved and dealt with.

I did have a lot of emotion with this book and in the bathroom scene of the hotel, I was holding my breath. It was so emotionally charged and it was the start of something. It still moves me thinking about it.

I did enjoy the book and the narrators were awesome too! I love their voices throughout the book. Just a little sad it has all come to, a satisfying, end.

Such a great book by such a great author. I’ve loved the other books and this didn’t disappoint! I’d highly recommend this.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for a free ecopy of The Road Trip in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book and flew through it in a matter of days! I like the unravelling of the story as we jumped between time periods.

I read two of Beth O'Leary's other books, The Flatshare and The No-Show, and enjoyed both despite some issues, so I approached The Road Trip with fairly high expectations. Sadly, this one was a bit of a miss for me.

The premise was really interesting: two sisters, one ex, one best friend and a random person are forced to travel to a wedding in a very, very small car. What could ever go wrong? Knowing Beth O'Leary's style by now I was expecting a poignant story wrapped in some humour but, while her writing is flawless as usual, this book didn't really hit the mark. The main issue I had with this was I just couldn't care less about any of the characters. And the main couple I was supposed to be rooting for? I actually wished they would break up for good, so... not a great result.

The story is told in a dual POV (Addie's and Dylan's) and across two timelines, alternating the present-day road trip and the beginning of Addie and Dylan's love story. If I'm being honest, I wasn't too keen on the past timeline except in that it served to slowly unveil the reasons that brought them to break up. This summer romance honestly felt a bit too much like insta-love, with absolutely no reason for either of the characters to be as possessive as they were that early on in a mostly physical and quite superficial relationship. Nothing wrong with that if that's what you're going for, but their actions and thoughts just didn't seem to match up, with them portraying this as the most amazing love story ever when in truth it just wasn't that deep. When the big reveal of the reason behind their break-up came along after being teased for most of the book, I was frankly disappointed and more than a bit annoyed.

The road trip part of the story was much more engaging and had plenty of funny moments as well as some more insightful ones, where characters were given a chance to develop. These were still few and far between though, with the result that I actually did not care about the characters, not even enough to hate the most unlikeable ones. There was also a particularly problematic situation regarding one of the characters, which wasn't really tackled in the way I would have expected having read the author's other works. That being said, I did like the way the conversation around mental health was handled and the way one character matured by the end of the book, even though his behaviour had been appalling up to that point and it didn't really feel as though that was fully addressed.

Despite these issues, Beth O'Leary's writing is captivating, so much so that I was still entertained and had no problem finishing this book. I also alternated the ebook with the audio version, and the narrators made all the difference. Josh Dylan and Eleanor Tomlinson were absolutely perfect in this and added loads of charm to characters who would otherwise have had very little. Honestly, I may have enjoyed this book even less had I only read it, but the audiobook improved my experience of this.

I'm still curious to read The Switch and whatever Beth O'Leary writes next, but this one was very disappointing.

The Road Trip was a refreshing twist on the Beth O’Leary books I love.

I really enjoy her quirky and sweet writing style and The Road Trip was no exception!

I’m often on the fence with dual perspective narration but felt that it really added to the storytelling.

While not my favourite Beth book, The Road Trip kept me coming backing for more.

Really wanted to love this book, but I just could not continue - I did not care about any of the characters and was really dissapointed. I did not find any of them likeable and they annoyed me quite a bit.

Lovely easy read book which is was excited to read after the Flatshare. This did not disappoint and would recommend for fans or those new to this author

The Road Trip Beth O'Leary
After loving the first two books by this author, I wanted to love this book too, but it just didn't hit the mark for me.
I never got to the point where I felt invested in the characters, and the story just about kept me going until the end, but it was more a case of, I am almost finished so will keep going.
The idea was good, but the then and now chapters didn't really link in, and it felt like random things were added in, that didn't go anywhere.
Perhaps I am in the minority.

Oh Beth O’Leary, let me love you. Whilst not as good as The Flatshare (for me) I still devoured this - honest, funny and with a whole lot of heart it’s just what I look for in my romance novels and I can’t wait to see what Beth does next.