Overall, I liked the story and romance of the two lovers, Addie and Dylan. These two had an intense romantic relationship that crash landed hard. While I felt their chemistry, attraction, and history to be believable, I do feel like the story was missing a lot of the sweet happy moments between the two. A lot of the comedic relief comes from the Addie’s older sister and Rodney who’s carpooling with the group to the wedding.

My biggest issue with the story was the side character Marcus. He was horrible and toxic best friend to Dylan. The author tried to give an explanation or redemption arc at the end of the story, and it did not work. The explanation does not negate all the manipulation and gaslighting he did in the past.

I had felt really good about the book until it dissolved into this weird, unnecessarily emotional melodrama. I enjoyed the beginning and middle quite a lot but it quickly lost my attention after.

I really enjoyed previous O'Leary books, but this one didn't hit the mark for me. I'm starting to sour on books where the whole time you are thinking one thing happened only to learn that wasn't it at all. The characters in this book were hold grudges about things that happened a few years ago when they find themselves riding together to a friend's wedding. We learn about their past in flashback, but listening to the book as an audio can make the story come across choppy or confusing as each chapter doesn't say now or then. This is a perfect beach read or road trip listen.

Loved it! Getting to know each and every character, and how their stories come together. Beth O'Leary never disappoints.

Addie and Dylan haven’t seen each other since their explosive breakup two years prior, so when on their way to a wedding the cars they are driving collide they are unexpectedly thrown together and begin to reevaluate what happened in their relationship.

I absolutely loved The Flat Share and The Switch by O’Leary, unfortunately this one did not live up to the hype for me. I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t give me the same feeling as her other two. I enjoyed the first bit when everyone had to squeeze together in one car. Also I liked how the timelines moved from past to present, slowly unfolding how Addie and Dylan’s relationship started and how it ended. I didn’t like Marcus, I don’t think we are supposed to, but that part of the story featured too much for me.

Beth O'Leary has done it again! The fun blend of women's fiction with romance produces a highly satisfying read. I though the dynamic between Dylan and Addie was a lot of fun, getting to read about their romance when it first flourished and the will they won't they tension along the road trip was perfection. The only aspect of this book was that I would have loved a bit more of a twist to the triangle that was revealed, but beyond that I encourage everyone to read this latest work from O'Leary!

Enjoyable story but a little confusing because of change in character perspectives as well as changes in time. Disliked some of the side characters.

After two weeks, I gave up on "The Road Trip" a third of the way in. As always, Beth O'Leary's writing feels so readable, but I just wasn't able to connect to the characters in this one, Dylan especially was out of reach for me: rich young poet enjoying a summer fling at a French villa?

"The Road Trip" is a second chance, dual POV, new adult romance with written with an alternating timeline.

I would absolutely recommend picking up Beth O'Leary's "The Flatshare," instead.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for provided an eARC for review.

Beth O’Leary has written two of my favorite romances — The Flatshare and The Switch! Both delightful stories that are written exceptionally well. Unfortunately, The Road Trip missed the mark for me 😭⁣
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The premise of the story is that five people go on a road trip to a mutual friend’s wedding — Addie and Dylan happen to be exes that are finally reunited after they haven’t talked since their breakup.⁣
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The story flip flops back and forth between past and present so we’re given insight into Addie and Dylan’s relationship, but I found Dylan to be rather whiny and uncommunicative & couldn’t forgive him for that for the rest of the book LOL.⁣
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It wasn’t all bad though! I thought their relationship was quite toxic from the start, but as the story progresses, it shows how two people can mature, get help, and own up to their mistakes.

Another great book from Beth O'Leary! I think this one might actually be my favorite novel of hers so far. The road trip scenario was so fun (and it made for a fantastic romance). I can't wait for her next book!

I started this book in April. I’m normally a very quick reader, but this book was way too strange for me! I may have DNF’d many times, but I finished it up for a buddy read discussion. Very few people in my group liked the book either. The past timeline told of the insta-love story of Dylan and Addie four years ago. The current timeline told of a road trip full of random disasters. A few of them were funny. Some were just random. The one thing I wanted to find out was what happened in the past to break up Dylan and Addie and this was eventually revealed. Dylan’s friend Marcus plays a part in both story lines and he is a strange character indeed. There are many content warnings for this book including alcoholism and assault.

If you loved The Switch you have to no look further for your next cozy yet complex read.

This book was so sweet and comforting and gave me an escape while providing complex characters.

I wanted to like it, but it was a miss for me.

Without giving away any plot points I just didn’t believe the connection between the two main characters. There were many storylines that felt unfinished as well.

Bummer, but I hope you like it!

TYSM to NetGalley for my copy of this book.

This was my first Beth O'Leary book, but it certainly will not be my last. In a lot of ways, this felt like two separate stories as we dove back and forth between the "then" and "now." It was clear the characters had grown, the relationships had changed, and the adventures were different. In the end, everything ties together quite nicely and there's a lot of shifts and revelations that I personally hadn't been expecting. This isn't just a story about second-chance-romance, it's a story that dives so much deeper.

Once again, Beth O'Leary has crafted a book that I would love to see become a movie. She is quickly becoming my favorite author of romcoms and a sure thing to get me out of a reading slump. O'Leary writes her characters so vividly that I feel like I know them and her settings are beautiful. I loved this book!

I adored the first two by this author but this was SUCH A DISAPPOINTMENT. I DNF-ed 55% in and could not care less about either main character, their background, or current story line.

Beth O'Leary is one of my favorite rom-com authors. To me, she has the perfect mix of cozy, fun characters, and not too sweet love stories. I loved The Road Trip for its sweet cast of characters and the alternating timelines.

However, this wasn't my absolute favorite O'Leary novel. Because the main characters were young (just out of college), I found their love story to be tedious. Of course, it seems like first love, but as someone who's a bit older now, I found myself getting bored with the drama of their relationship. This one bordered on young adult for me. It was a good story but I wanted more depth from the relationship to feel invested.

I listened to The Switch by this author and absolutely loved it. This author has such a witty, clever way of writing. I love the dialogue in her stories, and this was another good story from her. My only complaint was this road trip got a little long for me.
I enjoyed the now and then, reading about how they met, unfolding the layers of what brought them to the emotions inside the crowded vehicle for the (looong!) road trip.
I own The Flatshare and look forward to reading it as I've read many great reviews for that book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book.

This was my first time reading anything by O’Leary and it was such a joy! I was hooked right from the beginning and couldn’t put this one down!

Having back and forth moments between the characters and figuring out what happened in their past to bring them to the present was so rich!

I thought the author did a wonderful job at tackling some very heavy issues and topics in this story and applaud their sensitivity around the topics. I’ll absolutely be auto-buying this author and cannot wait to read her other two books!

I have recommended Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare to many patrons as a charming, different, quirky, and funny romance and was hoping for something like that with The Road Trip. Unfortunately this was not the case. I feel like there were too many interesting characters and not enough time could be devoted to each one resulting in less than developed arcs. Seriously, say what you will about tragic, toxic Marcus but he needs the depth of character development from his own book. Add in two timeframes and you've got too much happening in one story.

Book is fun and entertaining, but just not what this author is capable of and it left me disappointed.

The Road Trip was a very brilliant idea to write a novel on: two broken lovers, forced to ride in the car together and eventually fall back in love when they've reached their destination. I am not sure this book was for me however. I found the likelihood of all events, the random car wreck on the way to the same wedding, the stalker, Marcus, the bit at the end where she tells his dad off, all a bit too much of a stretch to completely fall into. I did love the characters personalities though! Thank you very much for the opportunity to read this novel!