This book is fantastic which is really no surprise when you consider it's written by Beth O'Leary. I loved Addie and Dylan and the being stuck in a car with your ex dynamic. I also really enjoyed the now and then perspectives as it was such a good way to let this story unfold. Can' wait to read her next book!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

Omg I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!! I read it in one day, I couldn't put it down. Not even kidding, I had to leave to run an errand and was so upset I had to stop but once I sat in my car in my driveway, I said nope I'm not leaving until I finish it and proceeded to sit there until I was done! I loved most of the characters, Deb is hilarious! Dylan needs to grow a backbone but I still oh so love him. I was cracking up and crying all through the book, it will get you in the feelings for sure. Beth O'Leary has officially solidified her spot as an auto buy author for me. I highly recommend everyone picking this up!

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing group for the eARC.

Pub date 01 June 2021

WARNING THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

I really wanted to love this book. As a fan of romance I definitely thought I would. Don’t let the cover fool you, this is not a cute romcom though there are some funny moments.

The Road Trip started with so much promise, I liked the dual ‘then’ and ‘now’ timelines. Unfortunately after our characters met and fell in love almost instantly - once real life began for both of them, I truly couldn’t understand why they stayed together. There was a total lack of communication between the two and they seemed to spend most of their time arguing.

Then there’s Marcus and his toxic behavior. It’s called boundaries, no one should be expected to tolerate their significant other’s best friend’s verbal abuse. Dylan was a complete wet blanket in this regard and Addie was a doormat.

This book also touches on some serious themes. It is clear from early on that Dylan has depression, but Addie, who supposedly loves Dylan so much says and does absolutely nothing and I guess just hopes he will fix it himself. Then Marcus... his friends can see him spiraling into severe alcoholism and their ‘fix’ is to just keep cleaning him up at the end of the night until they can’t take it anymore and cut him out? That’s called enabling, what he needed was an intervention and time in rehab and I’m disappointed that that wasn’t addressed. Even at his lowest, when he saw Dylan in need he got him into therapy.

As for their reason for breaking up in the first place, Dylan’s actions were absolutely 100% reprehensible and unforgivable.

I still plan to read The Switch and The Flatshare, I have heard great things about both.

This book was adorable. I have been a fan of every Beth o'leary book she has written and this one was no different. I love that she tackles difficult topics. I love that she presents both sides to situations. I love that her characters are so completely loveable. I love that you root for them. This book had both humor and angst, hilarious situations and pure heartbreak, forgiveness, depression and redemption. It was beautiful, and I couldn't put it down.

This was such a fun summer wedding read! Addie and Dylan are exes who haven't spoken since their breakup almost 2 years ago. On their way to a mutual friend's wedding Dylan rear-ends Addie's car and as a result they end up carpooling along with some other friends to the wedding. AWKWARD!!! The story is told in alternating timelines, going back and forth between present day and the the start of Addie and Dylan's relationship. The older timeline culminates in the breakup. My one big critique of the book is that I felt like Addie and Dylan (and their friends) would imply things about the breakup then the author would move on to something else to leave the reader hanging. While I know this is a plot device used often I felt like it was kind of obnoxious here. I will say I really loved the exploration of Addie and Dylan's relationship. You get a good look at all the ups and downs and ins and outs of a relationship. I also really appreciated how openly therapy was discussed throughout the book. Some of the decisions the characters made didn't really make sense and for that reason I gave this one 4 stars instead of 5, but overall it was a fun read and I would definitely recommend it!

The Road Trip is my first of any of Beth O’Leary’s books and it was magical. I am a huge fan of nonlinear timelines where they switch from then and now, which after reading reviews is something that people really struggled with. I loved how well-spoken Dylan was and how mysterious he was. Addie and Dylan's relationship was so intriguing and I had to find out what truly happened.

The friendships in this book were so fun and their group of friends was truly whimsical and hilarious.

I also have a thing for a vacation romance so obviously when they spend the summer in the South of France and the rest of the book is based on a road trip I am for sure in.

I have actually heard her first two books are better than this one so I will definitely be going back to read those. There was definitely a lull in the middle of this book which is why I had to deduct a star, it got a little boring at points, and had to get through that in order to love the ending.

This book was ABSOLUTELY ENTERTAINING, it had me on my feet at all times. A couple broken up, a fallen-out friendship, a single-mother who does not give a crap about what others think, and a heartbroken poet trying to prevent his love-life from getting married. All these people of different stories trying to get to a wedding, most of them wanting to see their good friend tie the knot, while Rodney... well, let's just say he's trying to play the role of villain crashing a wedding hahaha. I loved Deb right from the start; her care-free, right to the point personality, and fierceness, is a personality I absolutely adore. Marcus is definitely someone who I believed had the biggest character development in the novel; the second biggest development would have to be Dylan. And man... Marcus' big confession at the end...I thought I saw it coming, but at the same time, I did not. Addie is a sweet girl, the way she is always there for her sister Deb. Her story about the headteacher made me want to hug her. Definitely a book full of emotions, from sadness, humor, heartbreak, and others I cannot even describe hahaa. A WONDERFUL NOVEL INDEED!

This was my first Beth O'Leary and it was very enjoyable! I chuckled quite a few times throughout the book, found myself trying to unravel the mystery of what went wrong between Dylan and Addie, and by the time I hit that last line, I was surprised to find myself a little teary eyed! I do have to say this one was darker than I expected for a contemporary romance but I appreciated the imperfect characters and the fact they dealt with mental health issues and have dysfunctional families. I also particularly liked the "Now" versus "Then" timeline - it was well done, it provided good background, a ton of heartfelt moments, and I liked seeing the contrast between Dylan and Addie in love and them broken up. It's also nice we have the dual POV of both Addie and Dylan in this one. If any of you are fans of second chance love, I'd suggest giving this one a go!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Content warning: Drug and alcohol use and sexual assault.

A huge thank you to Netgalley , Penguin Random House and Beth O'leary for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Please note I will also add a review to Amazon.ca once this item is available for review. Thanks!

I have to say. I absolutely love Beth O’Leary’s writing style. But my, this book was so much heavier than I thought it would be? Strong content warnings for toxic relationships, both family and found family, addiction, sexual assault.

This one is definitely not just a romance. Like most of Beth O’Leary’s books, the romance plot lines are not the stars of the book. It gives us a more flawed, human perspective which I appreciate so much.

The Road Trip has so much substance and it’s mostly a book about forgiveness and being part of some very difficult journeys. Addie & Dylan’s relationship wasn’t just their own and it was difficult to read about Marcus being a presence in their relationship 24/7. There was just so much toxicity in the various relationships. Yes, the romance aspect is there but that’s is by far not the focus. It’s just a really heavy read but O’Leary just has a very gifted way of writing that allows you to absorb the story for what it is and realize that it all came together for a reason.

Like Cherry says in the book, “Nobody’s irredeemable.”

Two exes (Addie & Dylan) find themselves traveling together to a wedding after they are both in a fender bender. Told in alternating chapters that go from Then and Now, we get to see how they fell in love, why they split up and what it’ll take for them to end up together again.

So first of all, looking at just the cover you’d think you’re in for a cutesy romcom type of book. Well there’s a reason why there’s the age old saying.. don’t judge a book by it’s cover. This book had its comic relief moments but it was a pretty heavy read. It was very well written and the chapters are short which made me stay engaged and I flew through it. I loved Addie but I couldn’t stand how Dylan and Dylan’s best friend (Marcus) treated her. She was never treated with respect and always treated as an after thought. I get that the moral of the story is about growth & forgiveness.. but those two men were just so toxic 😩 This is the first romance I’ve read that I didn’t want them to end up together.

Beth O’Leary’s new novel The Road Trip hilariously combines a second chance romance with what might actually be the worst road trip ever. The story follows Addie and Dylan, who broke up two years ago and haven’t spoken to each other since but find themselves traveling to attend the same wedding. Addie is traveling with her sister, Deb, and some random, socially awkward guy named Rodney who needed a ride to the wedding. As if that isn’t awkward enough for an 8 hour car ride, almost as soon as they start out on their trip, their car is rammed from behind in traffic by none other than Dylan and his best friend, Maurice. It’s an accident of course, but Dylan and Maurice’s car is totaled. Addie and Deb reluctantly agree to give Dylan and Maurice a ride and all five adults pile into Deb’s mini Cooper and off they go!

This was a fun and quick read for me. The road trip itself was a highly entertaining comedy of errors where truly everything that could possibly go wrong did, and I loved the way the author structures the story into Now and Then timelines. The Now timeline is where all of the hilarity takes place, while the Then chapters gradually reveals the backstory between Addie and Dylan, how they met and fell in love and of course what happened to drive them apart as well as the role Maurice plays in their breakup.

The road trip is messy, and Addie and Dylan’s history is equally messy, but I couldn’t help but root for them to somehow find their way back to each other through all of the awkwardness. I won’t say that I was quite as attached to Addie and Dylan as I was to the characters in O’Leary’s last two books, The Flatshare and The Switch, but I still liked them both and thought they belonged together. I also really enjoyed the secondary cast of characters, especially Addie’s sister, Deb. Maurice was the character I loved to hate, although he grew on me over time, while Rodney might have been the biggest surprise of them all. No spoilers but keep your eye on that guy!

If you enjoy road trip stories and second chance romances, you’re going to want to add Beth O’Leary’s The Road Trip to your list of must-reads.

This book so cute and well written. I liked the depth of O’Leary’s newest book! While the Flat Share was adorable, each of her books come with more character growth and I am here for it!

I enjoyed Beth O'Leary's "The Flatshare" and "The Switch" before this, and for the most part I found this new novel to be quirky, charming and heartfelt. It wasn't my favorite of her works, however, and I feel maybe that it was owing to the structure of the narrative delivering something other than what I was expecting.

Dylan and Addie are exes who fell for each other hard four years ago during a summer in Provence and after a valiant attempt at a real relationship and cohabitating, they went down in a blaze of glory with both sides hurt. Now they've come face to face again after Dylan has backended her car as they're both on a road trip from England to rural Scotland for their mutual friend Cherry's wedding. Along for the ride is Addie's sister, Dylan's best friend, and a random guy on Facebook who needed a ride. With five people and a fraught history, that's a tight squeeze for a 300+ mile trip.

Road trip stories can be a dangerous proposition because like the passengers, the readers may feel stuck along for the ride. But I do love it when it's done right, when the character work follows a natural progression of that claustrophobia/captive audience and the idea that they're getting somewhere - both physically and emotionally. The bonus I found here was of course as an American, I loved hearing about some of the roadside elements, and honestly wish there were more of those. (Lorry driver Kevin is a fun bonus).

The dual timelines – beginning with the present and then tossing us back to follow how Dylan and Addie's relationship began and then unraveled – was jarring at first. But I soon got used to it, and there was enough intrigue there to how it all blew up in their faces and to see if they could come back from it. Without giving much away, I frankly felt that we concentrated more on the problems with the relationship and less with how they actually fell for each other (other than intense physical chemistry), and maybe that's the point – that it couldn't live up to that. Unfortunately, that meant that I didn't really have any sort of desire to see them get back together, other than to get some satisfaction in hearing people apologize.

That quibble aside, which is not inconsiderable seeing how this is romantic comedy, I enjoyed the quirky characters and the actual comedy of it immensely. There's a natural drollness and horrible quality to these people that I sort of loved, and in the end, it came together with a messy sweetness – a wedding crasher, some people being told off, reconciliations, and hope.

I loved The Switch, so I jumped at the chance to read The Road Trip when it became available on NetGalley.

This book was just ok for me. I think it was a mixture of having high hopes after her last book and coming off reading another, similar style book that I really enjoyed that this one didn’t live up to my expectations.

The last 20% of the book I did really like, and I’m glad I kept reading.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book, but not as much as I wanted to. This book navigated messy relationships, both romantic and platonic. While I appreciate the candid depiction of relationships, I mostly just felt kind of depressed reading the book.

Watching the characters implode their relationships was difficult to read and I had hoped that the resolution of them growing and figuring things out would be satisfying, but it wasn't. I wanted more out of the book, but I can't quite articulate what more is. Perhaps that the resolution was too quickly achieved after so much hurt had been caused in the breakdown.

Additionally, there was a silly subplot that felt out of place with the rest of the story. I can understand the author's need to interject a bit of humor into an otherwise downer of a book, but it didn’t jive well with the rest of the story. So when it happened, it took me out of the story I was reading.

Not a bad book overall, but just a bit lacking.

I’ve been reading books a long time in this one in particular took me back to the days where I first cracked open my first romance novels and went on a journey watching two characters fall in love I absolutely loved this reading experience.

A dysfunctional group of characters are stuck together on a road trip... what could go wrong? Addie and Dylan haven’t seen each other for two years after their breakup. When Dylan accidentally rear ends Addie’s car while they are both on the way to the same wedding, they are left with no choice but to drive together. To make an already awkward situation even more awkward, Dylan’s friend Marcus will be tagging along on the road trip — the same Marcus who tried to break up Addie and Dylan. Addie’s sister Deb and a stranger named Rodney are also along for the ride.

The Road Trip is told in dual timelines and dual perspectives. We alternate between Addie’s and Dylan’s point of view, while also alternating between then and now. Some of the character’s decisions — specifically Marcus’s — got on my nerves, but once I learned more about the characters I was able to emphasize with where they were coming from. Usually with dual timelines I tend to prefer one time period over the other, but I equally loved reading about Addie and Dylan’s past and their present. The flashbacks were super helpful in seeing their growth as characters and why they acted the way they did. Learning about how they had changed made me root for them as a couple. The Road Trip is a cute and funny second-chance romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

CW: anxiety, depression, substance abuse, toxic friendship, homophobia, gaslighting, stalking, sexual assault (on page)

I would recommend if you're looking for (SPOILERS)

-m/f second chance romance
-vacation romance
-road trip
-close proximity
-an interesting band of secondary characters
-a wonderful sister relationship

I honestly feel like I read two books at one point. This one started off as a fun second chance, with flashbacks watching our two MCs fall in love. Independent and strong Addie, head in the clouds and dealing with family tensions Dylan. The road trip was fun. I couldn't put it down wanting to know how they fell in love, what drove them apart, how they would get back together.

My favorite part of this book was Deb. Deb was just a bad ass, there for her sister, knew herself, and just hilarious. But Marcus. Honestly, I knew where the book was going but the way it was written on the page I felt he was in love with Dylan at times. The second half of the book took such a dark turn, the sexual assault coming almost out of nowhere.

I loved Addie and Dylan in the beginning but I never felt them actually delve into their relationship once they left the vacation. So many of their issues were built off of a lack of communication, that never seemed to resolve itself even at the end. This book was a great beginning that unfortunately did not pay off for me. I enjoyed her last two reads and will definitely keep reading but didn't enjoy this one as much.

Rating: 3
Steam: 2 (completely closed door)

Oh man.

The Flat Share is one of my favourite books of the past few years, so I had high hopes for The Road Trip.

And unfortunately, for me, it did not reach the lofty heights of The Flat Share.

I found myself quite bored with it to be honest. It meandered along slowly, with a few times when I laughed out loud, but for the most part, it was just meh.

I didn't really like Dyan or Addie. I thought with the back and forward to the now and then of the storytelling, I would find myself liking at least one of them better than the other. But no, sorry I didn't.

In fact, it was only the last 20% of the story that got me up to a 3 star - and it was lucky that I didn't give up on it so I could get to that part.

Addie's sister Deb was the only character I really liked. If the road trip ended with them driving off a cliff, she would have been the only one I would have mourned.

I am sorry Ms O'Leary, but that one really didn't do it for me at all. I do look forward to what you bring us next though.

Beth O'Leary's latest drive into romance is The Road Trip. It follows Dylan and Addie, two exes who find themselves stuck carpooling to a friend's wedding along with Addie's sister and Dylan's best friend. All passengers (including the seemingly random Rodney) have history to air out (and cracking the Mini Cooper's windows won't cover it). Flashbacks from 'Now' to 'Then' unfold Dylan and Addie's history, from meeting in Provence to navigating post-Grad life back in England. This journey will keep you on the edge of your driver's seat throughout!

Dylan and Addie's love story is a tough one - the odds are stacked against them, even if they fell in love so quickly and so definitively. What makes this book truly compelling is the relationships that Dylan and Addie had with their respective go-to persons. Addie and her sister Deb love their parents and each other more than anything, and have a certain role reversal between past and present that make you want to read on to the defining event of Addie and Dylan's break up. Dylan and Marcus have had less than ideal upbringings, and have assumed the role of each other's brother and chosen family. This makes it even more difficult as Marcus starts to spiral into a mental health crisis that puts him on an obsessive path against Addie.

The pacing of this novel kept me engaged the entire time, and I found every miscommunication and misunderstanding between the main characters utterly heartbreaking. The supporting cast of characters (with the exception of one) kept a level of levity and young adult frivolity mixed with growing pains that did not make this a full-on emotional/contemporary fiction book for me.

If you enjoyed - Normal People by Sally Rooney, Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne, This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens, Much Ado About You by Samantha Young, The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen, I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella or The Hating Game by Sally Thorne - you should take a drive with The Road Trip.

Content/Trigger Warnings for those interested in reading: alcoholism, sexual assault, stalking, toxic relationship, attempted rape, drug abuse, emotional abuse, toxic masculinity.