REVIEW PART I

Note to readers: While spoilers are hidden in this review, there are big ones under the cuts so click on the view option at your own risk. -Janine

Jennie: Be forewarned, readers – Janine and I had *a lot* to say about this book. This was a very long review discussion that has been split into two pretty long review discussions.

Janine and I reviewed this author’s second book, The Switch, together last year, after both reading and loving her debut, The Flatshare (which Janine turned me on to). The Switch was not quite the winner for me that The Flatshare was, and it was, I think it’s fair to say, a genuine disappointment for Janine. Still, I went into The Road Trip with high hopes.

I’m just going to say upfront that I had some conflicts within myself about this book. I’ve said before: I tend to grade by the heart rather than the head. So if a book moves me, involves me, compels me, it’s going to get a better grade. That’s true with The Road Trip, but I don’t think I often have my head yelling quite so loudly, “BUT….!”

The story is told alternately in present day and in flashbacks, and alternately by the protagonists, Addie and Dylan. In the present day, Addie and her sister Deb are driving to Scotland to their friend Cherry’s wedding. They have a passenger, Rodney, a co-worker of Cherry’s who asked for a lift on the wedding’s Facebook page.

The group hasn’t gotten very far when they’re rear-ended by a car that happens to be driven by Addie’s ex, Dylan. Dylan is headed to the wedding with his best friend Marcus, but now his car is too damaged to drive. Somehow, despite the extreme awkwardness of circumstances, Dylan and Marcus end up in the car (a tight fit!) with Addie, Deb and Rodney.

Janine: They are a motley crew. Addie, a schoolteacher who’s twenty-five, has regained equilibrium and attained a measure of self-confidence in the twenty months that followed a devastating breakup with Dylan. Dylan, a twenty-six-year-old English lit graduate student/aspiring poet from a posh background, is still pining for her. Deb, Addie’s biracial half-sister (all the other characters except Cherry’s fiancé, Krishna, who has an Indian background, are white as far as I can tell), is a new, intentionally single mother who gives zero fucks for anyone’s opinion and can’t stand Marcus. Marcus, Dylan’s privileged, sarcastic asshole best friend since childhood, picks on Rodney, who is awkward, clueless, and has no friends.

Their quirks and patterns of behavior–Deb stops to expel breast milk for her baby at home and is open to picking up strangers on the way, Rodney offers everyone flapjacks he brought with him in Tupperware, Marcus balks at Addie’s country music–create friction and hilarious situations. That was probably my favorite aspect of the book.

Jennie: The story then goes back four years to the beginning of Addie and Dylan’s romance. They meet in Provence during a magical summer; Addie (then twenty-one) and Deb are working as caretakers for the summer at Cherry’s family’s villa (Cherry was Addie’s college roommate and is middle-class Addie’s entrée into an unfamiliar, wealthy world).

Deb, adventurous and confident, goes off to meet up with a fling for a few days (with Addie’s blessing), and the expected guests – friends of Cherry’s family – don’t show up. Or, rather, at first, only one family member shows up – Dylan.

The attraction between the two is immediate and intense. Dylan forgets about the girl he’s been chasing around Europe, Grace, and Addie leans into the “summer Addie” persona she’s cultivating – someone more poised and seductive than she imagines herself to be. The two would consummate their attraction immediately but for the untimely arrival of Dylan’s boorish Uncle Terry; his presence restrains them for a couple of days. But eventually they do fall into bed, and quickly into young love.

Their idyll is interrupted by a gaggle of Dylan’s friends – first Marcus, and later Grace, Cherry, and some other girls from Dylan’s recent university days. Addie, panicked among so many posh strangers, summons Deb back.

By the time Dylan and Addie part a few weeks later – he’s continuing a sort of grand tour with Marcus – the two have said their “I love yous” and made plans to reunite back in England. But the seeds of what are to become bigger problems are already evident.

Most of the issues are Dylan’s. Addie is a little unsure of herself; a little worried that Dylan will lose interest if she doesn’t maintain her “fun Addie” persona. Back at home, she starts her career as a teacher, lives with her family and misses Dylan (who takes a long time to return home; he’s avoiding having to decide what to do with his life).

Janine: Addie wasn’t wholly consistent and understandable but she was much more so than Dylan and Marcus. And of all the characters in the book, she was the most likeable in the common meaning of the word. She was easy to sympathize with and her insecurities only got more relatable. An “everywoman” figure.

Jennie: Absolutely – Addie felt real to me even though she doesn’t have either the eccentricities or emotional/mental health issues that the rest of the characters manifest.

Dylan is considerably more troubled. He comes from a family with money, though there are hints that they were once aristocracy-rich and lost a lot of it, so now his father is very business oriented and insistent that Dylan – who wants to be a poet – go into business with him. Dylan’s relationship with his father is tense; his father is ultra-critical and dismissive of Dylan.

Janine: Incidentally, I felt that Dylan’s father was a cliché. He was very much the haughty/cold/disapproving rich/upper-class father.

Jennie: He is not a very complex character, I agree. But I felt that the way he’d raised Dylan created some believable insecurities in his son.

Dylan’s mother is more loving but cowed by his father. Circumstances are not helped by the fact that Dylan is dependent on the allowance he still receives, even though he’s 22.

Spoiler: Show

But Dylan’s biggest problem, and in a sense the book’s biggest problem, is Marcus. Dylan’s best friend since early school days, Marcus is allegedly charismatic and allegedly can be a good guy. But what Marcus mostly is: alcoholic, chaotic, self-indulgent, erratic and very nasty, especially to Addie.

Marcus’ friends, chief among them Dylan, cater to his moods in the way you might a terrifyingly powerful baby in a horror story. “Oh, Marcus acts like that when he’s bored.” “You can’t let Marcus get hungry or bad things will happen!” It’s puzzling and frustrating to Addie, and I felt the same as a reader.

Janine: The depiction of this dysfunctional three-way was by far the worst thing about the book, and since it’s what the book is in essence about, that’s a huge problem. Part of the issue is that nobody’s motivation here makes sense, and another is that it made me despise Dylan. I’m about to let forth an epic rant, so just jump in wherever you feel like.

I don’t understand why Addie can’t get over Dylan for twenty months or why she takes him back. Why??? For the bulk of the time they are together, he treats her like crap.

Spoiler: Show

I think the behaviors I mentioned should have been red flags to Addie, which means her motive for not recovering from her heartbreak and moving on in close to two years is almost as weak as Dylan’s for his actions. She should be counting herself lucky to have seen the light and bailed.

Jennie: She seemed to have a lot of guilt over her (in my mind, relatively minor) part in their breakup.

Janine: Guilt and yearning are very different emotions.

Spoiler: Show

Janine: Marcus, though an antagonist for most of the book, is–at least in the flashbacks of the first half–a far more vibrant and engaging character than Dylan. He makes choices and takes actions to change his situation whereas Dylan is passive. He cracks a lot of jokes. Sarcastic, biting ones, but at least he has a sense of humor, something Dylan could have used a hefty dose of.

In fact, Marcus drives the plot more than anybody else. So much attention is paid to him by the novel that it is possible to make a good argument that he’s the book’s central character. This term doesn’t always mean protagonist—I mean that if this were a movie, then I can’t decide which role would be at the top of the credits.

The Marcus of the flashbacks in the book’s first half was interesting enough that I’d have much preferred to read an edgy menage novel with early Marcus, future Dylan, and Addie a couple more years down the road, or a twisty thriller that also included the chic, ironic Grace.

Jennie: I think, honestly, that this weird triangular relationship, as dysfunctional as it was, felt new and different in a way kept me very engaged. Marcus is a villain, but he’s an interesting one.

Janine: Agreed. But isn’t it a problem when the villain is more engaging than the hero?

Jennie: It is.

On the positive side, I really love the structure of alternating flashbacks with present-day events in a romance (I feel like some readers don’t?). I find it allows me to have my cake and eat it too. I’m not just turning the pages getting through drama and conflict for the good part of a relationship – I get to have all of the elements mixed up in a satisfying way. In this story events in both timelines converge as we learn what tore Addie and Dylan apart the first time, and the tension between the characters comes to a head in the present.

Janine: I like this structure too and it’s the right choice for the book. Goodness knows I could not have put up with the middle of the book had this story been told linearly.

Jennie: Absolutely agree.

In the present timeline, events conspire to cause the road trip to stretch hours and hours beyond its intended length. There’s a breakdown, unexpected traffic, a trip to the emergency room – everything that can go wrong does. Meanwhile, Addie and Dylan are circling each other, still feeling the pull of attraction but also caught up in their feelings about the way and the reasons they parted. And Marcus is there, allegedly “better” and working on himself, but still acting like a total ass to Addie and everyone else.

Janine: The present timeline was stronger than the one set in the past. O’Leary has a stronger command of her material when she’s writing gentle or lighter material than when she’s attempting strum und drang.

Jennie: In my “heart”: I really like the author’s prose style and humor, and I liked Addie and Dylan (the latter with some reservations). I was rooting for them and anxious to get a fuller picture of what devastating event caused Dylan to walk out on Addie.

Janine: When she’s not writing cheesy poetry, O’Leary’s prose style is very good. The descriptions of Provence were gorgeous and she crafted an evocative atmosphere for the villa. I too love her humor (Deb especially cracked me up); it can go from wry to snarky to satirical. Like you, I started out rooting for Addie and Dylan and turning pages fast. But by the end I was so disgusted by their “love” that the last chapter or two dragged more for than four hours at the DMV.

Jennie: In my “head”: there are a lot of issues. The story gets darker and darker towards the end, as both Marcus’ and Dylan’s self-destructive tendencies come to the fore, and Addie endures a traumatic event that came out of left field for me.

Spoiler: Show

The darkness made the book feel unbalanced to me – what was the story of a young, somewhat immature couple who had a big blowup and are now forced to confront their feelings after a year and a half apart, all in the confines of a small car and the stress of the road trip from hell, becomes something else.

Janine: Yeah. The humor and angst are poorly balanced. The present-day trip to the wedding plays out like a movie comedy, while the flashbacks quickly turn angsty and even grim. The two storylines are so markedly different in tone that they don’t mesh. Some amount of contrast is good and necessary in a dual timeline story, but given that these were still the same three people who had spiraled into such a dysfunctional dynamic together it doesn’t work well here. The jumps back and forth from the comedic present to the grim past gave me whiplash once I reached the darker parts.

PART II to come Wednesday…

REVIEW PART II

Note to readers: While spoilers are hidden in this review, there are big ones under the cuts so click on the view option at your own risk. -Janine

Jennie: Part I of the review can be found here.

Back to the discussion! There was also such a lack of balance in terms of each character’s issues. I think I’m more forgiving of that sort of thing in a historical romance – I can view one character “saving” the other with more detachment there. In contemporary romances I tend to have more of a “girl, run” attitude, because it feels more real; you can bet that in real life I would not think that Addie should get involved with Dylan again.

Janine: “Girl, run” sums up this book for me. And I don’t think that their relationship patterns would work even in a historical, at least not if Dylan was as passive and spineless as he is here.

Jennie: Maybe not. I know I’ve read and liked (back in the day, to be fair – not recently) historical romances where the hero behaved much worse than Dylan did.

That said, I guess what it comes down to is that I started to doubt whether I really wanted a HEA for these two. Which isn’t great, in a romance.

Janine: Given the starring role Marcus plays in the story, I’m not sure if this is meant to be a romance or women’s fiction. Either way, though, the book is about Addie and Dylan’s relationship and we are supposed to wholeheartedly root for their romance to work out. This what the book is primarily about. The fact that neither of us did root for that at the end of the book is a huge fail.

Jennie: You’re not wrong. I would say my feeling at the end was more like, well, they still have a lot of work to do. I just never blamed Dylan as much for his failings – maybe because he (and Addie) seemed so young to me. Being young isn’t an excuse for being horrible, but I judge young characters a lot less harshly because I feel like they still have time to get their shit together.

Janine: You’re right that many of us make huge mistakes as young people. But I was in a similar dynamic when I was nineteen and the others not much older, and here are my thoughts from personal experience.

Spoiler: Show


Jennie: I definitely get how personal experience can play into how you feel about unhealthy relationship dynamics. In the case of Dylan and Addie, I can’t really relate on a personal experience level, and I can’t relate because that – that youth and all that went with it, including bad decisions and messed up thinking – was a whole other era of my life. It allows me to be a lot more detached and thus, I think, forgiving of things that you’re right, are not necessarily forgivable. (Or at least things that should make the possibility of reconciliation a non-starter.)
There was a relatively short timeline between the two meeting and the present day – about four years, almost half of which they’ve been split up for. I don’t generally like reunited lovers stories with long separations (say, 10+ years) because all that wasted time often feels bittersweet to me. But in The Road Trip, they are both still so young at the end of the story, and Dylan particularly is still not, seemingly, where he really needs to be in order to be in a healthy relationship.

Janine: Yes. Another timeline problem is that the “Then” part of the storyline stretches out for two years while the “Now” sections add up to two days. It’s impossible to give two days of improved behavior the same weight as two years of fucking up.

Jennie: Another good point.

There was an entirely unsurprising twist late in the book that I didn’t care for.

Spoiler: Show


Janine: We haven’t talked about Deb, Rodney, Cherry, and Grace at all. What did you think of them? Deb might have been my favorite character in the book. Such a straight shooter and so funny. She suffers no fools and makes her choices without caring what anyone else thinks. Her self-sufficiency and confidence make her a foil (deliberate contrast) to Addie and Dylan and to some extent even to Marcus (hers is a healthier way of taking charge of situations and wielding force of personality) but I never felt that she was only that.
Jennie: I loved Deb but felt slightly uncomfortable about the only biracial character being depicted as sexually free and unconcerned with what others think. I think it was because she was such a contrast to Addie, and since they were raised together it pointed towards nature rather than nurture. I’m probably being overly sensitive about that, though.

Janine: No, I agree. It was discomfiting to me because she is the only character of color of any significance and because of the slut-shaming stereotypes that women and girls of color are tagged with.

Rodney—I’m not sure what to say about him. He is a lackluster character but he is intended to be. He’s also the punchline for a lot of the jokes. I won’t spoil the late developments but I started out feeling vaguely sorry for him. He was a bit pitiful.

Jennie: I felt sort of protective of Rodney early on – his awkwardness and the way the others treated him were simultaneously funny and a bit disturbing to me. The later developments were…not a great choice by the author, I felt.

Janine: Agreed.

For two-thirds of the book Cherry wasn’t given a personality so I spent a long while thinking she was a convenient device. I was even confused about who she was and how Addie, Dylan, and Marcus knew her. It’s a shame because once I got to know her, I really liked her.

Jennie: I liked Grace and Cherry a lot but felt that both had a whiff of “rich manic pixie dreamgirl” – not that they were identical but they both felt a little unreal (even though I liked them, if that makes sense).

Janine: I adored Grace. She is a minor character, glamorous, ironic, slightly jaded, and O’Leary took some unexpected and gorgeous turns with her. I would read an entire book about her, or someone like her, but not one based on her hinted at her future.

Spoiler: Show


Jennie: There really was (believe it or not!) a lot that I liked about The Road Trip
I liked the way that Addie and Dylan’s class differences were handled.

Spoiler: Show


Janine: The trope of the wealthy/aristocratic man who captures the less well-off heroine, which runs through a kazillion books, was, I thought, part of the subtext for why Dylan might be a find for Addie. I wanted to see qualities that made him genuinely worthwhile instead. By this I also mean more than cute looks and quotes of Edmund Spenser. And bad poetry. Those are all trappings, and I wanted the man himself to have character and integrity so I could view him as worthwhile for her.
Jennie: Honestly, Dylan’s fondness for The Fairie Queene was one of his least attractive qualities, IMO. I HATE The Fairie Queene.

That said, I felt that Dylan and Addie had chemistry as a couple and could believe they were in love.

Janine: They did, especially when they first met. The dynamic that subsequently developed tainted it for me.

Jennie: Again, I really do love O’Leary’s writing and humor, as when Dylan muses:

I have a feeling that if this journey had been any longer, it would have become progressively more Lord of the Flies, and Marcus probably would have eaten somebody.

So my grade is going to be an unsatisfying mishmash: heart A-, head C-; averaging out to a B-.

Janine: I completely agree on the turns of phrase and the humor. They’re two of O’Leary’s strong suits without a doubt.

But her trajectory as an author has not been great, I feel. She seems to be losing mastery over her considerable skills. I gave The Flatshare an A-, The Switch a C, and frankly, I feel I am being generous in giving The Road Trip a D.

This was a decent little story. I enjoyed the journey and the characters. I’ll be buying for our library and already have some patrons in mind who are going to love it. Thank you!

I just couldn't get into this one - I'm sorry. Adored Ms. O'Leary's other book but this one never worked for me and was a DNF

Good and quick read, about second chances at love, which are my favorite. The first half of the book was great but I did lose focus as I went along reading. Not sure what it was, maybe the back and forth of timelines.

I adored The Flatshare from O'Leary, but I don't think I was in the right headspace to love The Road Trip as much. I may try and read it again at a later point, but for now its a DNF. I'm very glad I read reviews with CW before I spent too much time reading it.

I was so excited to receive this e-ARC from Netgalley and Berkley Publishing so thank you to them and Beth O’Leary!

I am a huge fan of The Flatshare and I enjoyed The Switch, so I was looking forward to reading The Road Trip.

You begin by meeting these characters and you can immediately tell that they are history that is dark, so you think “what the heck is with these two?” And then you find out. This is told in a “then and now” perspective to find out how Dylan and Addie met, what went wrong, and how they’ve managed to end up back together now.

Just imagine, sitting in an 8 hour car ride with your ex to get to the wedding of a mutual friend. Oh yeah, and his toxic af friend is with him. Will the forced proximity help them work through their abrupt end? I guess you’ll have to see!

I love a “then and now” story, so I definitely enjoyed reading this one. I personally was more attracted to the “then” part, but I really enjoyed this one!!!

(But not Marcus, I will never enjoy Marcus)

Beth O’Leary writes the feeling of longing so well and I felt my heart ache and get put back together over and over again. The Road Trip publishes on 06/01/21 so be sure to pick up your copy then!

Romance | 16-Adult
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Gosh I love road trips, and road trip novels (especially when you can’t really travel) are almost as good. Calling a book The Road Trip makes it irresistible, which is why I requested an advance reading copy of this well-known British novelist’s latest work. Two sisters, Deb and Addie, are headed to their best friend’s wedding in Scotland, with Rodney, another guest they don’t really know, in the back seat. But just as they hit the road, a collision. And in that car is Dylan, Addie’s ex-boyfriend, and his ubiquitous and toxic best friend Marcus. Addie’s car survives, and in a generous moment, she agrees to make room in the car for the two men, creating the plot – can these two exes make up, in the confines of a Mini? Awkward doesn’t begin to describe it! Through flashbacks going back just two years, we witness Dylan and Addie’s summer fling in a French vineyard, and learn why they broke up, not to mention Rodney’s own interesting backstory. While the book deals with a lot of serious issues, from sexual assault to addiction, it’s still more light than serious. There are a lot of funny moments and unlikely situations that make this a surefire rom-com for the big screen. And with an almost-kidnapping plot twist, it might be best described as a farce, or at least a screwball comedy. Enjoyable, funny, but definitely aimed at the new adult hardcore romance fan. I grew a bit tired of the romantic back and forth, and found the more serious parts needed a touch more attention. Overall though I did enjoy the story. My thanks to Berkley Books for the digital reading copy provided through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. It’s available as an ebook from the Grand Forks & District Public Library’s online collection.
More discussion and reviews of this novel: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56293873

Thanks to Netgalley for the e-ARC!

Second chance romance, forced proximity, discussions about mental health/addiction/boundaries. This has heavier topics than her previous books, but I found it well done. Beth O'Leary is excellent at dual narrators and a dual timeline and I loved both Addie and Dylan and enjoyed finding out how they fell in love and what went wrong, and if they could make it work again. I now have a strong desire to spend time in a villa in France! The side characters added interest, even if Marcus was the worst, and figuring out Rodney's connection to the group added a little zany side-quest that brightened things up.

I thoroughly enjoyed the two other novels I have read by this author, so I was excited to read this. Unfortunately, this novel paled in comparison to her other works.

The story was boring. It did not hold my attention. It took too long to get to a story. The switch backs in the time was choppy. The characters were flat.

I wanted to like this one, but it didn’t work out.

TW: alcoholism and drug abuse; sexual assault; emotional abuse from parents; stalking

As you can likely tell from the TW list, this book had way more heavy content than I was expecting from a second chance romance. The book is told from both POVs in both the present and past that leads us through the relationship, how it fell apart, and how they got to present day. The problem I ran into was there weren’t enough good times in the past to get me to believe that these two would continue to be so drawn to each other. They have a fun fling turned relationship in the summer when they first meet, but there are glaring red flags even back then and throughout their relationship we mostly see what is keeping them apart rather than what is keeping them together. I still pulled for them ultimately, but less so than if we had more of an established healthier dynamic at some point in the beginning.

This book will definitely still be good for readers who enjoy harder hitting topics in their romance but less so for romance readers looking for pure fluffy escapism. As a lover of both varieties, this still ultimately worked for me overall.

This is one of those books that when finished the reader thinks "That would make a great movie". The "then and now" format works well--going back and forth through time and introducing us to the many characters and their relationships so everything makes sense in the now sections. I did find myself chuckling and (sometimes laughing out loud to my husband's amusement) and the story never slowed--whether in the past or the present. The characters are likeable--even the "bad" ones and the situations are hilarious and who wouldn't love a story that ends with a wedding in a castle? Enjoy!

The Road trip is an adult contemporary romance by Beth O'Leary. Unfortunately, the Road trip was not for me. I hate to start out reviews like that, but every once in a while I read a book that didn't work out for me for one reason or another. That is not to say that you will not enjoy the book. If this sounds like a story that is right up your alley, then by all means, read it! All readers have different tastes.

In The Road Trip we meet our main characters, Addie and Dylan. Addie and Dylan are exes and they run into each other on the road to their mutual friends wedding. The book is told in dual timelines, alternating back and forth between the present, where Addie and Dylan very obviously do not get along, and the past where we get to learn about how they met and started dating. I really like the premise of this story telling method, and I would love to read more books from this author because the writing was great. My issue was the characters. I didn't care about any of them, to the point of annoyance. I was annoyed by Addie and Dylan and I just couldn't connect with or get into their love story. I didn't care at all if they got back together, which is a problem if you are trying to enjoy a romance.

But if you are into hate to love, second chances romances that might be on the more realistic side (rather than the happy go lucky side) you might enjoy The Road Trip.

QOTD: what’s a book you have TBR that you KNOW you’re going to love?

Idk why it took me so long to read @betholearyauthor’s The Road Trip, because I knew as soon as I heard about it that I’d love it. Beth had a real knack for writing characters (main and especially supporting) that you really invest in.

The Road Trip takes you on a literal (though accidental) journey with Addie and Dylan (once dated and since estranged), a best friend, a sister and another questionable character 👀 on their way to a wedding.

I mentioned before that there was definitely more steam to this one than her others so far, but the characters were also much less likeable. This worked for me, though, as I love a morally grey character. It was like a coming of age story for a handful of people wrapped up in one story, and there was closure for each of them by the end IMO.

The only real issue that I had was buying into the emotional chemistry between Dylan and Addie in the “before” timeline (dual timelines btw 😅). I totally got the physical attraction, but I think it was tough for me as the reader, to understand why else they loved each other 🤔 but it didn’t bother me enough to keep me from loving the read

Thank you @berkleypub and @netgalley for an advanced look at this one, out now!! (Pub date: June 1, 2021)

⚠️ Trigger Warnings: Sexual assault, substance and alcohol abuse and depression

#betholeary #theroadtrip #berkleypublishing #netgalley #netgalleyreads #summerread #summerreading #poolside #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagramming #booksgram #bookgram #bookish #booknerd #booknerds #booknerdigan #booknerdigans #instabooks #bookreview #bookreviews #bookreviewer #bookblog #bookcorner #readingcorner #bookthoughts #bookblurb #currentread #currentlyreading #bookrecommendations

Having loved The Flatshare I was excited to read this one. Gone was the typically romcom vibes. This one had a lot of darker themes. It starts with Dylan in the car with his friend Marcus, however when he recognizes the person in the car in front of him he is distracted. He ends up hitting the car, and gets confirmation that the driver is his ex Addie.

Since they are heading to the same wedding for a mutual friend Addie grudgingly agrees to let them ride with her, her sister, and a stranger Rodney......in a Mini Cooper. If you have ever ridden in a Mini you know that is a tight fit for 5 adults.

While the beginning of their story was sweet having met while he was on vacation and she was working as the caretaker it quickly gets creepy. With Dylan's creepy Uncle Terry showing up unannounced and then Marcus. The friendship between Dylan and Marcus is toxic. Marcus gets into Dylan's head, and is always causing doubt.

All the relationships were toxic, and didn't communicate. The numerous issues on the road trip started to become a little much and not believable. Also Addie forgave Dylan a little too quickly in my opinion, even though he didn't change much since the break-up. Marcus was the biggest a-hole of them all and while therapy was discussed he hadn't changed much. There was also a twist at the end that I didn't feel was handled well.

Overall this one had way too many issues for me. While I appreciated that therapy was discussed I saw little change or remorse from Dylan and Marcus.

DNF @ 40%

This book has such a great premise, but it is very slow paced. I wanted to love this book and kept reading a bit longer just to see if it would pick up. I have enjoyed the author's previous books, but this one is not for me.

Right from the beginning this book is filled with SO MUCH TENSION, I loved it - I mean, I felt the windows were fogged up in it constantly. The plot itself, a road trip of unlikely characters stuck together trying to make it to a mutual friend's wedding, was amazing. Then throw in ex-lovers, so much unspoken anger, a sister who has to pump breastmilk, an annoyingly rich friend who mostly everyone dislikes and then a weirdo that somehow ended up in the car - I loved this book. O'Leary flashed backs perfectly and keeps the car moving, despite all the tension and a breakdown and more. She isn't just giving you a romance, but a book that shows characters trying to change for the better and really struggling with what their heart is telling them to do, along with their head. Couldn't put this down.

I loved this book. The story is told through alternating time periods “now” and “then” as a group of friends, including two exes, heads off in a packed car to attend a wedding in Scotland. The "now" is the current road trip and the "then" is about how they met years before. I enjoyed the characters and relationships. This story really gets into the complexities of friendship, along with the main storyline, which is essentially: what if you meet "the one" at a moment in your life when you’re a bit of a mess and you screw it all up. Have you missed your chance forever? Are you doomed to be haunted by what might have been? This is the third book I've read by Beth O'Leary, and I've enjoyed them all.

DNF @ 22 %. Unfortunately, this book isn't working for me. I don't care for the characters, and the plot just isn't drawing me in.

What a great summer read! I love how The Road Trip is the perfect blend of fun and romance alongside the depth of the hard parts of life. I enjoyed how all the characters (not just Dylan and Addie, but also Deb and Marcus) grew throughout the novel, both in the present and in the past. The theme of reconciliation is just icing on the cake too! There is a funny subplot regarding Rodney (the random Facebook guy) that added the right amount of humor. Loved this book!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ebook review copy. All opinions are my own.

Once again, O'Leary hits it out of the park with a fun, biting, and witty sojourn into the lives of some hilarious folks. I highly recommend this for a relaxed and enjoyable read!