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 book has all the contents of a great romance novel, cheesiness, realness, and love. The perspective of going back and forth between the present day and the beginning of their relationship got complicated at times, making it hard to get invested in the story. I felt like there were too many characters and backstories to follow. That being sad, I thought this was a fun and light read and great for romance fans!

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.

“I don’t care about almost. I care about what really happened. Everyone’s got the potential to do the wrong thing - if we were measured that way, we’d all come up short. It’s about what you do.”

Quick Summary: Dylan and Addie broke up and now they are in a very small car together on their way to a wedding. This is the story between past and present, the highs and the lows of the relationship.

What began with a very slow start ended up redeeming itself in this love story following Dylan and Addie.

This is my first novel by Beth O’Leary and based on other reviews this book is not quite like her others. When I think “romance” I tend to think of something light-hearted and uplifting. I can’t say that this book fits that bill. The Road Trip felt a little gritty and real- peep the CW’s at the bottom. All in all, it made for a unique romance.

Honestly, I struggled with the first half of the book. It didn’t really grab me and there were a couple of pretty unlikable characters (*ahem Marcus*).

Nevertheless, I persisted. And I ended up liking it more by the end! One of my favorite parts of this book was the strong sisterhood-like bonds between the female characters. Addie’s sister, Deb, is one of my fave supporting characters to date. I also really enjoyed the character development. This was spotlighted as the narrative alternated between “then” and “now”.

This one was just alright for me. I recommend this for people looking for a bold second-chance romance.

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review! The Road Trip comes out in the US next week on June 1st.

3.75 stars

Content Warnings: Sexual Assault, Alcohol/Drug Abuse, Homophobia, Manipulative Behaviour, Eating Disorders

I did ask myself how Beth O'Leary was going to top her follow up to the Flatshare but she has done it again with this one! The novel is set mostly in the car and tells the story of 4 people who are all travelling to Scotland for a wedding. What transpires is full of hilarity and heart. I absolutely adored this book and was so sad when it was over. 10/10 awesome beach read.

This is a second chance romance told in alternating timelines switching between both main characters and where they are now in life vs when they first met.

Overall I enjoyed the book but I did have some trouble connecting with the characters. I found them kind of unlikeable in the beginning and it wasn’t until over halfway through the book that I really started to get invested. I don’t want to give away too much but there was a main plot point that I could see coming from a mile away which brought my rating down a bit.

There were quite a few funny parts pertaining to the road trip itself and squishing 5 adults in a mini cooper which greatly improved the story for me. I also tend to enjoy alternating timelines in books and this one was done well. I appreciated seeing the characters backstories and what went wrong in their relationship.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Berkley Publishing Group for the early review copy. All thoughts and opinions are mine.

Huge thank you to NetGalley for sending me a copy of this arc! This was my first arc and it most certainly did not disappoint.

A contemporary romance about exes forced to take a road trip to a mutual friend's wedding? Sign me up!

I am not a critical reader by any means, I read to have fun. So I hardly ever think about writing styles when reading, but I am such a sucker for multiple POV and when a book switches from past to present. And The Road Trip had both of these! Which took the book from your typical rom-com to a book you didn't want to put down because you needed to know how they got where they are in the present.

Dylan's POV was my favorite to read, especially during the past parts. It was adorable seeing him fall for Addie from the very beginning. Going from past to present and having both character's POV helped me connect to the characters on a deeper level than I usually do with rom-com books.

I also really loved all the plot twists. You wouldn't think there would be as many shocking reveals in a contemporary romance, but this book definitely had them. It made me want to speed through the last 20% of the book to find out more, for sure!

Overall, this was a cute book from start to finish. Any other arcs I get will have a lot to compete against for sure!

I don't know words right now to be very honest.

I'm writing this review a few days after finishing this book and I still haven't made up my mind about it.

I absolutely adored The Flatshare and it was one of my favourite reads of 2020. So I was super excited and intrigued to see what Ms Beth O'Leary would do with this one. However, the storytelling technique is so different from what I expected. So I'm... unsure.

The writing is sublime. I also absolutely flew through it, couldn't put it down. It's told in dual-timeline which was perfectly executed. The characters are all really well-written. However, I just could not connect to any of them.

I didn't ship Addie and Dylan all that much. I mean I wanted to see how it'd end but I didn't really like how they got together in the first place and I think their romance was just far too messy. When I read romance, I (and this may sound silly) like to see myself in the relationship? But like, I would not want to be in this kind of relationship. I never truly felt that they were in love and on top of that, it's just too complicated. Like WHO wants to be in a relationship that's so hard?

Anyways, I still really enjoyed it and want to read more from the author. Just not exactly what I expected.

Two years ago Dylan and Addie were in love. After a rough split they now find themself forced into a less then ideal circumstance, on a road trip to a mutual friends wedding. Though the road trip is all but pleasant and it seems all that can go wrong does, they realize maybe their feeling for each other are still there but can all the past, hard feeling and betrayal be overcome?

I loved the last two O’Leary books but this one I just didn’t love as much! The book took a very long time to get going and I didn’t care for Marcus one of the side characters so much that I found myself distracted by him.

That being said, I absolutely loved the second chance romance troupe of this one and found myself really cheering for Dylan and Addie.

Can I just say YOU HAD ME AT ROAD TRIP?!?!?!?!?! I mean c’mon.

And the playlist for this one was nuttin’ but winner winner chicken dinner. Old faves .to new faves, I was truly having a Veruca Salt moment while attempting to score an early copy of this one.

Now that I’ve read it I have to confess that it wasn’t as good as The Flatshare or The Switch . . . . .There. I said it.
But good grief. What author out there can bat 1,000???? I will fully take the blame this time because I truly did enjoy the shenanigans and LOL-able road trip parts. Unfortunately one of the travelers was a Grade-A douche and even his minor redemption arc towards the end couldn’t save him from my wrath. While I was sympathetic to Dylan, I would never choose him to be a book boyfriend either. Not to mention the driving force behind the “then” segments. I’ve made my opinion perfectly clear on how I feel about that subject matter being turned into a tired trope. And the happily for now? Well, in the immortal words of Ms. Swift above, if I were Addie I would only be able to say - "we are never ever ever getting back together." I think their problems were maybe just a weeeeeeee too big to simply forget about and attempt a do-over.

But hey 3 Stars still ain’t bad and I’m definitely gonna be begging for whatever Beth O’Leary releases next.

ARC received from Berkley via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

3.5 STARS

Addie and her sister, Deb, are headed on a long, slow trip to Scotland for the big fancy wedding of a close friend. Hoping to get an early start, things come crashing down literally when Addie’s ex-boyfriend, Dylan, rear ends their car. He and his best friend since childhood, Marcus, bum a ride with Addie although she is less than pleased to accommodate them. Their break up two years earlier was heart wrenching and devastating for both of Addie and Dylan. The last thing Addie wants is to be stuck in a tiny car with Dylan, the odious Marcus who had a dastardly role to play in the breakup, and a strange guy named Rodney who adds anther level to the lunacy of this trip.

Several mishaps occur along the way that are interspersed with Addie and Dylan’s backstory told in tandem with the chapters in the present. From their first meeting in magical Provence where Addie and Deb were caretakers for the summer in a beautiful villa while Dylan and his dissolute friends where there to party, Addie and Dylan’s relationship is chronicled starting with their beginning and going through the big blowup. Dylan and his friends are “intense posh people” newly graduated from Oxford University who behave like “they’re overgrown children” while at the villa. Marcus is particularly hard to take making this reader want to slap Dylan with his own book because time and again he allows Marcus’s antics to sabotage his relationship with Addie even after they are all back in England.

Addie comes from a working-class family with her half-sister Deb, all of whom love and care for each other. Dylan has some serious issues with his father that continue to torpedo his self-esteem while fancying himself as a modern-day Lord Byron writing tragic, dark poetry and struggling to find his course in life. Each of the car’s occupants who take turns driving add comic relief to the story including the dark horse, Rodney, while Addie and Dylan are coming to terms with their prior relationship. I like Addie and Deb a lot; however, Dylan and Marcus leave much to be desired. Dylan needed to man up in a serious way and when he did not, Addie decided three people in one relationship was too many.

Parts of this story are rather enjoyable especially with Deb’s alley cat morals and the challenges of their awkward journey while others are somewhat tedious with Marcus’s continued bad boy behavior and Dylan’s wishy-washy life choices, then and now. The chance for Addie and Dylan to find there way back to each other while squashed in a hot car on a seemingly never-ending trip is the most interesting and funny part of the story.

4/5⭐️ TW: Sexual Assault

To say that I liked this book is an understatement. I loved it!! In the beginning all you want to know is “What happened?!” And you go through this story of these two people who you spend this whole book rooting for. It takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions and keeps you guessing at every turn! I got to the point where I couldn’t put it down and I just had to finish and know how it ended. And boy that ending!

If you love a contemporary please read this book!! It was so cute and the perfect book to get me out of my fantasy binge I was in haha. I will address the trigger warning, there is a small scene with sensitive material that I felt I should acknowledge I’d that’s a sensitive topic for you. But please don’t let it discourage because it was handled well and again this book is so very much worth the read!! I will now be going to read as many other Beth O’Leary books as I can! :)

From the first paragraph, I knew this book would be a good one. I immersed myself into the book from the first chapter and I cannot say enough good things about this book! Honestly amazing! The writing is incredible and the plot is just one to die for. I am absolutely obsessed with this book. My favorite part would have to be the character development throughout the book. Character development is something I look forward to and this book did not disappoint.

I seriously never ever thought it’d be possible to find a couple I loved as much as Tiffy and Leon (The Flatshare), but Beth O’Leary has done it again... Although they were incredibly messy, came with their faults, and had a long journey to come into their own, Addie and Dylan were a delight to get to know.

Addie and Dylan end up on a road trip... together... and the estranged lovers haven’t spoken in two years. What was supposed to be a fun road trip to a friend’s wedding quickly gets awkward when an accident throws these two together again on a trip that’s riddled with disasters that prolong the journey... Will the time spent crammed with three other people in a Mini bring these two a second chance or will it deepen the divide forever?

I really enjoyed this book. I haven’t read 400 pages faster in my entire life. I was transfixed by unraveling Addie and Dylan‘s past and cracking up over the mishaps of the road trip at present.

Things I loved:

Non-linear timeline from both Dylan and Addie’s point of view.

Deb. I loved everything about this character. I want more of her, possibly her own love, or non-love, story... wink wink nudge nudge.

I also adore how Beth O’Leary writes her women. From the main characters to those on the sideline, all of her women turn their nose up to what society says they should or should not be, and are 100% unapologetically themselves. It is refreshing and empowering. I hope that it reminds every woman (and man) that it is okay to just be you.

Things I wish were a little different:

Addie’s forgives of Dylan. There needed to be more damage repair in this department.

I wish Rodney’s story was more fleshed out. Although a good side story, I would have loved for it to have gone a bit further.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For fan’s of The Switch or The Flatshare, please note this does not have the same warm fuzzy feelings - it’s more raw with comic relief... But don’t let this deter you. Overall, I’d say this was another home run for Beth O’Leary. If you’re into second chance romance and love at first sight I’d definitely recommend taking a Road Trip this summer.

Trigger Warning: toxic relationships, alcoholism, sexual assault - If these are a trigger for you, read with care, if you have questions please feel free to DM me.

Every time this author comes out with a new book I must read it. I was a big fan of The Flatshare and although I still wasn’t sold on her last book, The Switch, I still liked it enough. I really fell back into her writing with this one and enjoyed the unique plot centered around a road trip.

The book is told from two point-of-views, Dylan and Addie. It also is told from two timelines as well, Then and Now. I liked the added bonus of the “Then” plotline because it gave information about their past relationship and what went wrong. It builds their characters as well as the minor characters like Marcus and Deb.

I can’t say that I cared for Dylan or Addie more than the other because they were both good characters. They each had their issues when it came to the relationship but it was nice to see them be able to resolve it even if the way it came about was unconventional and quite bonkers! It didn’t stop me from rooting for them though.

Marcus and Deb are the sidekicks of Dylan and Addie who definitely have a lot to say about the pair and their previous relationship. I liked the banter between them and it showed how much they care for their friend/sibling. I’m not going to lie, I did like Deb more as Marcus could be a bit of a dillweed but he did have some redeeming qualities by the end. The little plot twist for him didn’t really make sense to me but because I liked everything else I didn’t let it bug me too much.

Besides all of the relationship talk, there are a lot of funny moments from a guy named Rodney. He is so interesting and really became the comedic relief. I can’t say more about him though because it would ruin some of the fun of the book!

Overall, this was an enjoyable read. I liked the unique setting of it being a road trip as well as the characters. If you haven’t read any of her other books I would definitely recommend them! Each one has something unique about it.

Oh, let me count the ways I adore this book. Beth O'Leary must have a magical pen (or keyboard, more than likely).
The Road Trip is one of my most anticipated reads for 2021 and it absolutely did not disappoint. The cast and setting is extraordinary! I love the second chance/forced proximity mash-up and they happen to be favorite tropes of mine individually. Putting them together? Simply irresistible. This book features a dual timeline and dual POV. The mix of the two blends perfectly over the course of the novel as glimpses of the past merge with the present.
Addie and Dylan have instant chemistry when they meet on holiday (for Dylan, summer work for Addie) in the French countryside. Nothing can possibly err when their passionate affair is all consuming. In the present, however, both are heartbroken. A car accident forces them to face each other and their past over a very messy and difficult trip north to a Scotland wedding of a mutual friend. With three other grown adults in a Mini Cooper, there is nowhere to hide.
After The Flatshare and The Switch, Beth's writing continues to feel unique and timeless. I am a big fan of all three and already need to know what's next! Whatever it is, I'll be waiting somewhat impatiently. In the meantime, I'll happily reread these three on my shelves.
Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts in this review are my own.

If you think you know road trip romances, think again... this may be one of the most original books I've read in a while. Full of unpredictability, twists, depth, and the perfect side characters, this is a book I'm still thinking about the day after.

I liked the book, and it is inarguably beautifully written--even integrating lines of prose that I can't imagine coming up with. O'Leary is a masterful writer. But this is not a light rom com. If anything, it's a bit dark. I haven't read The Flatshare, but from my time reading The Switch and what I've heard about The Flatshare, this one is a bit different. Told in alternating perspectives (between Addie and Dylan) and alternating timelines (then and now), the story shows the beginning of Addie and Dylan's relationship, and the present, after their demise, as the two are stuck in car with each other on a road trip to a friend's wedding. The other characters in the car--Deb, Addie's sister; Darcus, Dylan's best friend; and Rodney, another wedding guest--add a lot to the plot and none of them are inconsequential or insignificant even as they first may seem.

This is a book that got me thinking, and I quite wrap my head around it still. Like, I know the book was good, but I can't decide how it made me feel, you know?

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for my eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5 stars - 9/10

Unfortunately this didn't really sparkle for me the way the Flatshare did. I felt like the Flatshare was sexy and smart and well-written, and I was so invested in the romance. The Road Trip, by contrast, was full of some truly terrible people who I did not want to read about (I would hate to be trapped in a car with them), and ultimately, I wasn't really invested in the main couple getting back together.

IT IS SO REFRESHING TO READ A ROMANCE THAT IS UNPREDICTABLE. I fell in love with O'Leary after I read Flatshare (I mean, one bed trope - yes please!!). I then fell in love with The Switch and have been waiting so patiently for The Road Trip. I devoured it. It was fresh and exciting and unpredictable and lovely. If you love second-chance romance then this is your book. If you don't care for second-chance romance, this is still your book. I will be recommending The Road Trip to library patrons, friends, and family.