Beth O'Leary is magic. Her books tackle hard issues in a way that leaves you rooting for the characters, which is hard to do. Too often I feel like we are given main characters with mental health struggles and they are made to be every negative stereotype. O'Leary walks that line but doesn't cross it. Her characters act in ways that are clearly a result of trauma but it's believably human. O'Leary also has a knack for writing SUCH INTERESTING side characters; most of the time I want MORE of them. This was no different. The idea of being stuck in a car with your ex and his best friend who you had some serious issues with was so believable. I loved this book. It's hard to read at times, it's funny at others. At the end there is such a feeling of hope. I could have stayed in this world for so much longer, happily.

Thank you to Beth O'Leary, Berkley and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved her 2 prior books but this one was a tough read for me. Lots going on when the car trip to her friend’s wedding includes her sister, a random guy, her ex boyfriend and his bestie are traveling to the same wedding thanks to an accident. Thank you for the Advanced Reader Copy!

This book was so delightful! O'Leary writes such wonderfully vibrant characters and the suspense between the alternating timelines kept me hooked. This book was funny, the perfect light read for the summer.

I have been looking forward to this book for a while! I loved both The Flatshare and the Switch. I also really enjoyed reading this one, though it wasn't quite as good as the Flatshare for me. Overall though I still really enjoyed the read. I loved the quirky cast of characters and I loved how humorous the book was. The way the story was told, with THEN and NOW chapters was really well done. This story was a sweet heartwarming read with a lot of laughs and I definitely recommend it!

I was so excited for this new release from Beth O’Leary, and I was glad to see that she kept her style of humor and wit in this new novel that I loved in The Flat Share. I enjoyed learning about Addie and Dylan and the history of their relationship, and the use of multiple timelines helped this book along.

Sadly, I didn’t buy their insta-love, and was even more turned off by the dynamics between Dylan, Marcus and Addie. I really love a forced-proximity romcom, and enjoyed those scenes in the car with Dylan and Addie, but the way Marcus was weaved into the history, and how he behaved for much of the story was just gross. I didn’t believe that he could act that way and still maintain a friendship with Dylan. The reveal of his justification for it didn’t add up to me either.

Overall, a decent read that I felt could have been better ironed out. Lots of good laughs, and cute moments that I enjoyed, but a few too many moments that left me scratching my head with disbelief and a feeling that the story wasn’t truly realistic.

Being a fan of O'Leary's previous works, I was excited to receive an ARC of this book from the publisher. I would say that The Road Trip is the most different of O'Leary's previous works but yet still similar. I felt there was a heavy sense of foreboding for the majority of the book.

The Road Trip is about the longest road trip ever due to a series of misfortunate situations. Addie and Deb, two sisters, embark on a road trip to a wedding of a close friend. The sisters have kindly taken in a stranger, Rodney, who also is headed to the wedding. The first mishap occurs when Addie and Deb are in a wreck with Dylan and Marcus who just happen to be men that Addie and Deb know. Oh, and don't forget that Dylan and Addie dated. From that moment the sparks begin to fly once again.

O'Leary does a nice job of sprinkling in humor while still addressing some heavier topics along the way. The dual timelines with the dual POV written in first person, made it a big confusing to read and this is the main reason I didn't give this book 4 stars. Even though chapters are labeled with "Now" and "Then" and Addie and Dylan, I still had to really focus on who was speaking since the narrator changed with every chapter.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

Addie and Dylan fell madly in love over a Summer in France, but things fell apart spectacularly. Neither has really moved on, and right from the beginning I could tell these two had that special romance that only comes along once in a lifetime.

Now, almost two years since the breakup they’re both on the way to a mutual friend’s wedding when trouble strikes, and they up stuck together in a cramped car ride to Scotland. Addie and Dylan must confront mistakes from the past while on the inside they still long for each other.

The story alternates between Addie and Dylan in the present and then in the past. How they fell in love and what led to the breakup is slowly revealed. I wondered what went horribly wrong and my heart hurt for these two to find a way back to each other.

Certainly, Dylan’s best friend Marcus, a total asshole in the past, was a huge part of their breakup. I couldn’t stand the guy, and I suspected early on one of the reasons he was such a colossal jackass! Did Marcus improve in the present? Well, you’d have to read to find out. More important though was Dylan and Addie’s handling of the situation.

The Road Trip was a bit angsty and really pulled at my heart strings, but it was also pretty laugh-out-loud funny in parts! I alternately read and listened to the audio version, and I couldn’t stop reading once I picked up the story! I had to know what happened to break these two up when they were so in love in the past and obviously still in love in the present.

The audio version was fantastic with Josh Dylan and Eleanor Tomlinson performing Dylan and Addie’s POVs. Loved their English accents!

Cute book, even if it is a road trip from hell. If something can go wrong it does, but I am glad they pressed on to the wedding they were trying to get to. Everything about that was fun and lovely!

<em>The Road Trip</em> was one of the first books that I read by Beth O'Leary and while I did enjoy it, there were things about it that I didn't really care for. The biggest thing was the back and forth between the past and the present. I almost DNF'd this book because I hated the jumping between the past and the present. If I wasn't so invested in what happened to break Dylan and Addie up, I probably wouldn't have finished this one. Also, the lightness of the illustrated cover made me think this was going to be a lighter romance than it actually was, and normally, it's not a big deal to me but for some reason, it just didn't completely work for me in this one. It might have been a mood thing because while I didn't LOVE the book, it was still a pretty solid story.

This is a second chance love story between Dylan and Addie. They met while Dylan was vacationing in the house that Addie was working at over the summer. Dylan comes from money and Addie works for every penny she has but they found love in that French villa and things were going swimmingly...until it wasn't and they break up. It's been two years since they've broken up and they haven't spoken to each other since. When their mutual friend, Cherry, gets married they know that they'll probably see each other at the wedding but they didn't expect circumstances to make it to where they had to squeeze into the smallest car on the planet and road trip it to the wedding together.

Like I mentioned earlier, this story is told between the past and the present, and in the beginning, it gave me whiplash. I was so anxious to find out what happened in the past to make their present so weird and awkward that it made me a little grumpy when the story didn't move fast enough to suit me. I preferred the past until the shit hit the fan and the road trip to the wedding was full of Dylan longing for Addie that I rolled my eyes a lot. I also wanted to punch Markus in the junk at every turn too. Past and present, though present Markus less so. Sure, I wanted to knee him in the balls in the present a time or two but he's a different Markus from the past and I eventually came to not hate him.

This was a heavier book than I anticipated but I am glad that I finished it. I was satisfied with the way that the book came together in the end. I did end up enjoying Dylan and Addie's characters and seeing them come together again after years and years of pain made for a satisfying end so I would recommend that you read this book if you're in the mood for a love story that is heavy on the angst, but solid all around.

<strong>3.5 out of 5</strong>

Beth O'Leary gets better and better with every book. I thoroughly enjoyed THE ROAD TRIP and have secured it a spot on my keeper shelf next to FLATSHARE. This book was a fun read.

THE ROAD TRIP by Beth O'Leary (The Switch) is a light summer read, chosen for the June 2021 Hall of Fame LibraryReads list. Dylan and Addie spent a dreamy summer together in Provence a few years ago, moved in together and then broke up, and now meet by chance on the way to a friend's wedding. Forced to cram together into a Mini with Dylan's manipulative best friend (Marcus), and Addie's supportive sister (Deb) and a socially awkward wedding guest (Rodney), the adventures begin. Told from multiple perspectives, partly as a road adventure and partly through flashbacks, this romance-y novel looks at (often negative, if well-intentioned) influences and the resulting (often poor) decisions. As Addie notes, "that's the thing about almost: you can be ninety-nine percent there, you can be an inch away from doing it, but if you stop yourself from stepping over that line, nobody will ever know how close you were." If you are a fan of O'Leary's writing, the characters did not seem as appealing as those in her earlier work and THE ROAD TRIP, while entertaining, was not as much of a "feel good" story.

Beth O'Leary's third novel finds a group of misfits...and exes...trying to make their way to Scotland for a wedding. After Dylan crashes his car into his ex-girlfriend's car on the way to the same wedding, they decide to suck ot up and make the trek north together. But things didn't end well for Addie and Dylan. Throw in Addie's over-protective sister, Dylan's opinated and privileged friend, and a random wedding guest, while clearly it's not going to be an easy road trip. Told in alternate viewpoints from past and present, O'Leary weaves an engrossing tale that touches on heavier subjects.

I started this book and, unfortunately, had to put it down. It was not my cup of tea. Sorry about that!

Solid adult contemporary romcom!

Loved the road trip aspect (anything that can go wrong will go wrong!). Also loved that we got back and forth between the present and how Addie and Dylan met/fell in love/broke up.

Some annoying/unbelievably transparent side characters (okay just one) and sort of a ridiculous play at the end but overall it was fun and engaging and I liked the chemistry between the two leads.

3.5 stars. I liked the if/then structure and alternating viewpoints, but the ending felt a bit forced. Enjoyable nonetheless.

What happens when your ex is suddenly thrust into your life and into your car? This novel takes a look at the ups and downs of past relationships.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

About 50% of this book happens in the now and the other half at the start of Addie & Dylan's relationship through the end of it (2 years earlier). The book alternates timelines, and both times include at minimum a chapter from both Dylan and Addie's perspective.

Then
Addie & Dylan continue their relationship long-distance, but cracks are showing. Marcus is Dylan's best friend. It's a complicated relationship. Marcus and Dylan enable each other. They are a cocktail of substance abuse and mental illness; each relying on each other a coping mechanism.
Marcus almost instantly dislikes Addie. Dylan struggles with how he wants to proceed in his life, his father in particular has some forceful ideas of how Dylan should be living his life.

When Dylan decides to come back to England, he moves to be close to Addie. Cut off financially from his family, Dylan decides to go back to school. Addie is working as a teacher in a high school, and it's often hard.

You go into the story knowing that Dylan and Addie break up. You know it must be bad because they haven't seen each other or spoken to each other for almost 2 years. And it is bad - certainly. I don't know if I think the 2 years apart was what I think would happen??? I have questions about this timeline. And concerns.

Now: Addie and her sister are traveling up to Scotland to attend Cherry's wedding. Early into the trip their car is rear-ended by Dylan, who is driving with Marcus to Cherry's wedding as well. Since Dylan's car is totaled, and there are no other options for him to get to the wedding in time, him and Marcus join Addie and Deb, and their additional passenger Roddy, a random guy from Facebook looking for a ride to the wedding. In a mini. For a long driving trip up into Scotland. What could possibly go wrong?? As it turns out, many things can go wrong. And most of them do. Through it all Dylan and Addie reconnect. We also find out how Dylan and Marcus's relationship has changed.

I found this book enjoyable. But it was missing the magic and joy that makes me love so many stories.

Beth O'Leary will always have a fan in me. With that being said, I had a bit of a hard time with this book. Sometimes there is a character that is so unlikeable that they taint the entirety of the plot. Marcus was that character for me. Toxic to the point that I wanted to distance myself from this book, just so that I didn't have to read more of what he was spewing at Dylan and Addie.

I was instantly hooked at the beginning of The Road Trip-- it was spicy, and fun, and the quirky characters carried along the plot very well. However, the chapters taking place in the past did end up overwhelming the story pretty quickly. The tone dramatically shifted as soon as Addie left France. And honestly, there were not enough positive flashbacks to really convince me that Addie and Dylan really did need to give their relationship a second try. There was a lot of hurt wrapped up in their breakup (and rightly so), but even if all is forgiven, are they really a good fit for one another? Unfortunately, this read was just okay for me.

Thank you so much @BerkleyPub & @NetGalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 01 June 2021)

SYNOPSIS | Addie met Dylan in a French villa as she was working as an on-site caretaker for the summer. They had a whirlwind of a romance that they decided to try & continue when the summer was over except they ended up breaking each others hearts. Now they get into a car accident on the way to their mutual friends wedding and are forced to road trip together for several hundred miles.

WHAT I LIKED:
- Cherry & Deb. I could have read a whole book just about them.
- I am beginning to enjoy the forced proximity trope more & more

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- I found myself preferring the "then" chapters rather than the "now" chapters
- the romance felt very instalove which isn't my fave trope
- I kept confusing Dylan & Marcus's characters throughout the story
- I sadly didn't find myself rooting for their romance (especially once I understand why they broke up)

Oh, how I loved this one. It was a perfect vacation read where you know the characters belong together but they just can't seem to get there!