3.5 stars
Addie and her sister Deb, and an odd guy named Rodney, head out on a road top to attend a friend's wedding in Northern Scotland. They have not traveled far when their Mini Cooper is rear-ended by her ex-boyfriend Dylan, who, along with his best mate, Marcus, is on the way to the same wedding. Miraculously, the Mini remains drivable. The other car is totaled and towed to the nearest repair shop leaving Dylan and Marcus stranded. Despite a horrible breakup, Addie agrees to give Dylan and Marcus a ride to the wedding. Five adults plus their luggage cram into the Mini and continue the 300 miles toward Scotland.

Through alternating POVs of Addie and Dylan combined with dual timelines, we learn their back story and what drove them apart. As expected, the car ride is physically uncomfortable, the conversation is awkward, and the air full of tension. They suffer a series of ludicrous mishaps that threatens their on-time arrival at the wedding venue. It seems as if the longer they drive, the farther they are from their destination.

Addie and Dylan still have sparks between them, much to the concern of Deb and Marcus—but for different reasons.

I had high hopes for this book and while it held my interest, a few things missed the mark for me. The shifts between the 'now' and 'then' timelines were sometimes confusing. At times, the 'then' segments seemed to drag for me, possibly because the 'now' situation was more over-the-top and entertaining.

The cover of the book implies this will be a lighthearted read but the second half takes a turn into some heavy and difficult subject matter.

If you enjoy second chance love stories, give this book a try

I loved this romantic comedy! There was a seriousness to the story that kept it relatable and not to happy go lucky. I loved our main characters, and was so happy how the story was set up with not only dual perspectives, but dual time lines as well. Going back and forth between the past and the future really set up their relationship and it's ultimate demise. Highly recommend! Light hearted, but still focused on important relational aspects.

Beth O’Leary takes us on a two day trip to unravel the mystery of what happened between insta-love/on holiday romantic partners Addie and Dylan. There is a strange cast of side characters in the Mini Cooper with them on what is supposed to be an 8 hour trip to Scotland for a mutual friend’s wedding. There is the supportive sister, who is also a new mother, the destructive best friend of Dylan who is clearly a spoiled spawn of Satan, and a random dude who make all the players skirt the edge of confrontation and provides a reason for things to stay civil and buried for as long as possible.
O’Leary does a nice job of keeping the plot interesting considering the setting of the book. She deftly unravels the mystery of their breakup and exposes so much psychological manipulation that these people could keep a therapist in business on their own. She never shies away from hard topics for her characters.
I had a hard time loving Dylan and Addie and in the end I felt like there wasn’t enough trust between them to make me want for them to have a second chance. Oh, and the fact that Dylan is blind to Marcus’s conniving just makes me dislike him even more. I would gladly recommend O’Leary’s Flatshare or The Switch way before I would rec this one in our library.

What a clever and quirky book! Probably Beth's best one yet. I was reading on flight, annoyed when plane landed and I couldn't finish for hours later. The reader will laugh, roll their eyes, and love it all at once!

Addie and her sister are on a long-awaited road trip to a friend’s wedding in Scotland when a car slams into the back of theirs. The driver of the now totaled car is none other than Addie’s ex, Dylan, who is also heading to the wedding with his best friend. Addie has no choice but to offer them a ride, and the car is soon jam-packed full of baggage, both physical and emotional. With 300 hundred miles to go, Addie and Dylan have no choice but to confront their very messy history and devastating break-up. Will they make it to the wedding? Is this the end of the road for Addie and Dylan? And who really is Rodney, the rando that posted on the wedding Facebook group asking for a lift to the wedding?

First off, what a premise! This was my first time reading a book that combined a road trip and a second chances trope, and it was absolutely delightful. I could not put it down. Here are some things that I loved about it:

- It’s a classic British rom com, full of dry humor, completely ridiculous situations, and a charming cast of characters.

- The motley road trip crew, including Addie’s breastfeeding sister, Deb, Dylan’s slightly psychotic friend, Marcus, and Rodney, the tragically lovable rando.

- The dual timeline, which gives us a glimpse into Addie and Dylan’s past when they fell in love and when they broke up.

- Beth O’Leary’s writing style. This one was definitely a bit more serious than her previous two books. She masterfully weaves in humor with some heavy subject matter. It touches on mental health, family acceptance, found family, and workplace sexual violence.

A cute romcom that was perfect for those who enjoy Jasmine Guillory's books. It moved quickly, in that lovely way that romance novels do.

Beth O'Leary does it again. After this book, she's cemented her place as an auto-buy author for me. Her romances are layered, well-executed, and dripping with chemistry between all the respective characters (not just the love interests).

Going on a road trip with an ex sounds like a nightmare, but this tale offers an alternative -- a time for healing, forgiveness, and personal growth. Jumping between Addie and Dylan's perspectives and between when they were together and the present, we understand the ways in which miscommunication and fear can alter a relationship in seemingly irreparable ways. I loved this book and highly recommend it.

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for this e-arc.

I have heard so much about Beth O’Leary (The Flatshare and The Switch) but I hadn’t ready any of her writings yet.

What worked for me: Addie and Dylan. The disasters along the road trip.

What didn’t quite work: the slow start. I really like novels that pull me in right away and then keep me turning the pages.

I am glad I stuck with this one, and I will definitely read other novels by O’Leary in the future!

While en route to Scotland for their friend’s wedding, two exes are forced to take a road trip together in this newest book by Beth O’Leary (which released June 1st). If you loved The Flatshare (which I’ve read) and The Switch (which I haven’t) I’m sure you’re as eager as I was to pick this one up, but be warned that although it’s still lighthearted and fun this features much heavier content.

This is a second chance romance that alternates between past and present timelines and features a cast of fun and quirky characters. Although it was a bit of a slow start, I was instantly drawn into the past timeline where we see Addie and Dylan meet and fall in love at a dreamily romantic French Villa. The writing is wonderful and as the story escalates and truths emerge it becomes clear this book is more than a light fluffy romance.

What I most enjoyed was piecing together the two timelines and figuring out what happened between Dylan and Addie and why they separated. This felt a bit like sorting a puzzle and kept me intrigued until the last piece clicked into place. I also personally loved the heavier content (but could have done with more witty banter!).

While I didn’t find myself particularly attached to any of the characters, the dynamics between them were very entertaining. And as frustrated as I was with Dylan’s emotionally manipulative friend Marcus, I found him to be one of the more interesting and complex characters. I’d actually love to read a redemption arc with him next.

Star rating: 4 ⭐️

Trigger Warnings: Sexual Assault, Alcohol/Drug Abuse, Homophobia, Mental Illness, Manipulative Behaviour, Eating Disorders

Thank you to @berkleypub and @netgalley for providing an advance copy of this book for review purposes (I meant to finish sooner but wedding planning got in the way!)

I liked Beth O’Leary’s previous novels, but I LOVED this one. I went into it expecting it to be similar to her last two and was pleasantly surprised to find it was a bit deeper emotionally and in content. I enjoyed the dual POV and dual timelines she used to tell the story. Toxic friendships, sexual assault, homophobia and depression are some heavy topics that come up in this book and the author did a great job at addressing them, normalizing therapy, and balancing the novel with humor. Though on the longer side, I thought the pacing worked well and paralleled the long road trip the five characters were on. This book will stick with me for a while!

😍loved \\💋some scenes
🤟second chances, mishaps, emotional
📚Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
🎶The album Ocean by Lady A

This one fell short for me. I was expecting a fun read but I felt trapped in the car with the characters for hours. I was taken hostage on this ride with very little plot and no guidance. The characters were not likable except for our heroine and sister who barely managed to save the read. I tried too hard to be kooky for me when instead felt very odd

I have read the author's work before and eagerly requested an advance copy of "The Road Trip"... you can tell she is maturing as an author in this work. Here we have a "second chance romance" trope - where Addie and Dylan (along with a few friends) reminisce about what went wrong on the way to a friend's wedding in Scotland in a Mini. Sometimes funny and sometimes not, told in "then" and "now" sections and shifting POV's, it's more than a rom-com. and not quite what I expected. I enjoyed it, but it may be a bit darker than most expect. My thanks to the publisher, author and Net Galley for the ARC.

Review published on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RBR5KK1TLKQ5L?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp

Aviso de gatilho: Abuso de drogas e álcool, abuso familiar e emocional, co-dependência, depressão e tentativa de estupro.

Addie e Dylan não se viam há 20 meses, desde o dia em que ele terminou com ela e saiu do ler que eles dividiam. O ex-casal já estava preparado para esse encontro, mas não ali no meio da estrada a caminho de um casamento na Escócia, e menos ainda com eles tendo que dividir um carro minúsculo durante esse trajeto.

Eles se encontrarem já era constrangedor o suficiente, mas a presença da irmã de Addie, Deb, e do melhor amigo de Dylan, Marcus, tornava o pequeno carro ainda mais sufocante, e também Rodney, um conhecido da noiva que as meninas estão dando carona. A viagem parece interminável com cada olhar magoado, silêncio rancoroso, corações acelerados, paradas não programadas e descobertas sobre novidades uns dos outros. Será que eles chegarão ao destino sem mais mágoas na bagagem?

Desde que li Teto para Dois eu sabia que iria querer ler tudo o que Beth O'Leary escrevesse, e quando vi a oportunidade de fazer a leitura antecipada de The Road Trip, eu não pensei duas vezes. Esse livro ele é muito diferente dos outros dois da autora, não tem aquela leveza de humor. Aqui eu senti o drama desde o começo, com a história intercalada entre o presente e o passado, e também com a narrativa dos dois protagonistas.

Partes do passado encaixam com momentos do presente, e assim fui entendendo melhor o que levou a ruína desse casal tão apaixonado. Teve um personagem, que não posso dizer quem, que as suas ações que me incomodaram muito, mas eu sei que ele foi criado para ser essa pessoa. Eu devorei essa história ansiosa para o desfecho, Beth O'Leary tem esse efeito em mim. Recomendo muito essa leitura.

Another warm, heart tugging contemporary romance from author Beth O'Leary!

Having to go on a road trip with your best friend/sister is stressful enough, but what if you have to travel for hours in a cramped car with your ex-boyfriend and his messed up friend that helped drive you apart? Such is the trope the author tackles, but with a deep originality that grabs you from the first chapter.

This book is told from Addie and Dylan's POV, and explores their past relationship and how it ended, as well as their current outrageous situation they end up in. O'Leary writes characters that are deeply human- warm, loving, but so very flawed. Especially since Addie and Dylan met and started dating when they were quite young, and still trying to figure out their lives.

I really enjoyed going on this drive with them, and the author masterfully tackles darker issues like attempted rape, emotionally abusive parents, depression, and more. Marcus, the horrible friend, definitely stretched the idea that no one is irredeemable- a main theme of the book, but that might have been because he reminded me of an ex I had once- manipulative, self-centered, and horrible at apologizing.

Still, the tone of this book is one of hope, forgiveness, and second chances, and it was a joy to read.

Trigger warnings: attempted rape with victim blaming, depression, alcohol/drug abuse, emotionally abusive parents- including rejection of a gay child, stalking.

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley publishing group for this ebook arc.

I really just enjoyed this book that somehow managed to be laugh out loud funny and keep all of the characters, including a few unlikable ones, super sympathetic.

Five people in one car with more complications than can easily be summarized in one review. The story moves between the then and the now, unveiling history as things pop up in the present, the history providing some context for the now.

Similarly to The Flatshare, this is another just really enjoyable title from O’Leary.

This was a cute romance but not one of my faves but I think it would be good for as a summer read on the beach or laying in a hammock.

Narrated by Josh Dylan and Eleanor Tomlinson

The Road Trip opens in the PoV of Dylan Abbott, just after he and close friend Marcus set off on a road trip to northern Scotland to attend a friend’s wedding. Dylan’s sort of listening to Marcus struggle to apologize (for what we don’t know – yet), but his attention is elsewhere; it’s fixed on the profile of the driver of the car in front of theirs. Is it Addie?

I almost take pity and tell him it’s all right, he doesn’t have to say it if he’s not ready, but as we idle . . . Marcus is forgotten. The driver has wound the window down, and she’s stretched an arm out, gripping the roof of the car. Her wrist is looped with bracelets, glimmering silver-red in the car lights’ glare. The gesture is so achingly familiar—the arm, slender and pale, the assertion of it, and those bracelets, the round, childish beads stacked up her wrist. I’d know them anywhere. My heart jolts like I’ve missed a step because it is her, it’s Addie.

But just then Marcus screams, the car in front brakes hard, and Dylan can’t react fast enough. He ploughs straight into Addie’s car.

Road-tripping with Deb to Cherry and Krish’s wedding in Scotland was supposed to be an epic adventure. With plenty of snacks, an excellent country music playlist, and loads of time, Addie was looking forward to getting away with her best friend and sister. A car slamming into the back of Deb’s Mini was definitely not part of the plan, and neither is running into the driver currently exiting the other car.

It’s Dylan. Twenty months ago he left her and she’d shouted at him to never contact her again. . . Seeing him is even harder than I expected it to be. I want to do everything at once: run to him, run away, curl up, cry. And beneath all that I have this totally ridiculous feeling that someone’s messed up, like something didn’t get filed when it should have up there in the universe, because I was supposed to see Dylan this weekend, for the first time in almost two years, but it should have been at the wedding.

After confirming Deb is okay (and getting an “I’m okay, too” from the stranger in the backseat (Rodney, who posted on the “Cherry & Krish Are Getting Hitched” Facebook group yesterday evening asking for a lift to the wedding from the Chichester area)) who she’d already forgotten about, she climbs out of the car to survey the damage.

Told in dual PoVs (Addie’s and Dylan’s), and in a dual timeline (Now and Then), The Road Trip is alternately hilarious and heartbreaking. Dylan and Marcus end up cramming into the Mini with Deb, Addie, Rodney, Deb’s breast pumping kit, and the luggage, and nothing goes as planned. The trip is a trip; if something can go wrong, it does. I laughed out loud at some of the hilarious situations this misfit group found themselves in, and could wholly relate to the misery of too many people in a too small car, trying and failing to remain civil with one another.

There are twists and turns, traffic jams, lorry drivers and stalkers, and oh my goodness, it’s all magnificently awful. Terrible. The Worst. And very, very funny. It’s also perfectly balanced by the alternating Then chapters that chronicle the failed love affair between Addie and Dylan. You’ll swoon as these two quickly fall in love during an idyllic summer in Provence, and then struggle alongside them as life, friends, and a surprise turn of events brutally and abruptly shatter the relationship. O’Leary brilliantly and cleverly segues between Now and Then, and I waited on tenterhooks to finally discover what happened to tear these two apart. The big reveal is terrible and heartbreaking and frustrating, and also – somehow – worse than expected.

As addictive and entertaining as The Road Trip is (both timelines), the author’s superb characterization of both the principal and vibrant, fabulous secondary characters, sets it apart. Addie is a relatable twenty-something trying to find herself. She’s plagued with the same self-doubts and worries most women have at that age, but she’s emotionally wise and good and kind. She loves her family and Dylan, and is slowly but surely finding her way professionally. Dylan, a scholar and poet, spent a childhood belittled and bullied by his father, and now that he’s graduated, he’s struggling to find himself while keeping his depression at bay. He finds comfort and solace in Addie, and tries to extricate himself from his toxic relationship with his dad. In the Then portions of the novel, the author ruthlessly depicts Dylan’s depression and its devastating effects on his decision making, and then beautifully juxtaposes it with Dylan Now – in therapy, working, pursuing his master’s degree, and no longer financially dependent on his father. I loved the contrast between the slow burn of Now and the speed at which these two fall head over heels in love Then; moments like this

He’s not looking at me like he’s never seen me before—he’s looking at me like he’s never seen anyone else.

near the close of the novel, made me swoon. It’s lovely.

The secondary characters are equally good. Brutally honest and unflinchingly loyal to Addie, Deb is the sister we all wish we had. She’s totally give no shits awesome, and might be my favorite fictional character ever. I was less fond of Dylan’s friend Marcus. While he has some genuinely funny moments, I spent most of the novel hating him and his dysfunctional relationship with Dylan. He’s a dick. Honestly, I’m still marveling over how the author managed to redeem this character by the end of the novel. But she does! Then there’s Rodney, awkwardly awful and ridiculous; Uncle Terry, obnoxious and gross and perfect; Cherry (I mean, I loved her); and lifesaver Kevin, the lorry driver. Friends, this oddball cast of characters is terrific and enhances the story in every way.

While I fully enjoyed the plot and its execution, new-to-me narrators Josh Dylan and Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark’s Demelza) are a revelation. Their performances are flawless, and they bring each of these characters vividly to life in audio. I can’t imagine a better narrator for either of the leads, or any of the secondary characters, and I giggled every time Dylan or Tomlinson voiced Rodney in all of his strange and awkward splendor. I finished listening and immediately looked to see what else they’ve narrated. They’re that good.

Friends, when I initially read the blurb for The Road Trip, I wanted to read it. Despite my current ‘NO MORE WOMEN’S FICTION’ thing, I went with my gut and bought the audiobook. Best decision ever. Frankly, I wish I could discover this story all over again. The Road Trip is – so far – my favorite book this year, and it’s a delightful reminder that Beth O’Leary perfectly straddles the line between women’s fiction and contemporary romance. The Road Trip audiobook is that wondrous combination of brilliant storytelling and pitch perfect narration. I loved it and highly recommend it to listeners and readers alike.

Breakdown of grade: Narration – A Story – A

This was my first book by this author and I can confidently say it won't be my last!

This book was the perfect summer read. The characters are extremely likeable, the plot is paced just right and it was hard to put down. I will absolutely be recommending this to everyone for a good beach read!

A hilarious and well thought out road trip romance! I said sign me up immediately! Beth O'Leary is a wonderful writer and I think by now I can say she's becoming one of my favorite authors! Her characters (like the crew in this book) are quirky, unique, and just so fun to get to know! I can't wait for more!

This is the third book I have read by Beth O’Leary. The first two seem to be similar and I feel this one, went out on a limb. The Road Trip, is a Rom/Com about two sisters and a cast of characters that travel together, to a wedding. You can imagine the silliness that occurs during this drive and yes it was cute. But it shows a deeper character development that I enjoyed. The sisters, start out together on this journey. They have the trip all planned out and then by chance meet up with Addie’s ex and his best friend and the fun begins. They try there hardest to be adults and they do a pretty good job.. Addie’s sister and Aidan’s best friend can’t get along. Also they are driving another wedding guest to the wedding in Scotland. The story is told by Addie & Aidan, past and present. O’Leary does a great job, with these past and present views. There is laughter, heartache and all out silliness. I did enjoy this story and was able to read this quickly. Such a good summer read. I have recommended it to friends and family. Thank you to Netgalley & Beth O’Leary for my copy, for an honest review. This was a 4 star read for me, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did..