This is a light-hearted and perfect summer read. With interesting characters and a good storyline. It also has some good laugh out loud moments.

Ever since I read my first Joanna Bolouri novel waaaay back in 2016, which turned into one of my joint books of the year, she’s been a don’t-bother-reading-the-blurb-just-buy-it author for me.
The Weekend Trip felt a bit different to some of her others (not in a bad way), more serious, maybe less rom com but still with the sharp writing, big dashes of humour and realistic, relatable characters I’ve come to expect and enjoy.
Once I started reading, it was very difficult to stop.
I’ve often thought about the five wonderful young women I shared a house with at university (more than 26 years ago now!). I’ve only managed to keep in touch with one but that hasn’t stopped me wondering about the others over the years and how they are getting on. They were all such different characters and personalities. Maybe I liked The Weekend Trip so much because it reminded me of those largely happy days (as you can imagine, six girls living together was not without drama) and it was easy to almost insert myself into the story.
Even though five (plus partners) is a lot of characters, I felt like they were so well written that I really got to know each of them without being overwhelmed with information. The chapters chop and change, focussing on the different women and their lives (written in the 3rd person) which helped with the pace of the story.
The chemistry between Alex and Aidan was palpable but when he turned out to be Tara's (fab name) partner for the weekend, it was difficult to see how it could go anywhere. I would have been very anti any cheating (obviously) but the author makes the story unfold so it doesn't seem (without giving anything away) wrong.
All in all this was a great book, very enjoyable. For some unknown reason, this author doesn't seem to get the kudos she deserves.

Thanks to Bookouture for the ARC.

Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

Four friends, Tara, Erin, Becky and Beth have all been roommates as well as best friends during university. Their graduation is coming up, and they decide to have a final party together at LoughView House. Here they promise to be there for each.

After 10 years later, Erin’s loses her husband and makes a decision to sell the house, so invites her friends before the house sells.

Will the friendship that lasted throughout university still remain after secrets are revealed?

The story had areas that you could relate to, growing up, grief and health issues.

I recommend this book.

This book represents the two sides of a friendship in which one wants to be there and the strongest friend and sister the other can rely on, but not totally reveal their true self. Paul said it best that if they were truly as strong as what they stated, why did ten years pass? Only cards and words sent to Erin during her time of grief? Beth's reluctance to reveal her diagnosis of MS? Tara's unwillingness to share her time in rehab? The friends may have laughed at sending their wishes into the future at graduation but they put those words into the universe hoping they would happen. I felt this book is a true representation of fate such as Alex and Aiden and although we all struggle with self doubt, that we really should see how others see us. Like Becky, we should not shape ourselves into who we think the other will like us best. This book was hopeful and uplifting and a reminder to truly treasure life.

What's it about (in a nutshell):
The Weekend Trip by Joanna Bolouri is an uplifting tale of 5 college besties who grew apart after college but rekindled their friendship ten years later during a weekend get-together.

My Reading Experience:
I loved the friendship themes that ran throughout the story. So many of us lose contact with our college friends as we travel our individual paths after graduation. It was heart-warming to watch this group of friends slowly regain their original connection and feel comfortable enough to open up about their struggles. It reaffirms those friendships' genuineness and ability to withstand the test of time.

I also loved the humorous moments, the scandalousness of some storylines, and just the overall fun times of the reunion. Those moments offset the seriousness of what's going on in these friends' lives without compromising the gravity of what the individual people are dealing with.

The story hits so many relatable moments. The characters, their challenges, their successes - they could be anyone's group of friends from college or even high school. It's this relatableness that gives the story its uplifting message. If these five people can come back together and become the lifelong friends they were always meant to be, then we all can have that same experience with just a little effort.

Characters:
Five friends - Erin, Alex, Beth, Tara, and Becky - were close friends and roommates in college. They agreed to stay in touch, sealing that promise on the beach at Loughview House before heading out on their individual journeys. Ten years later, the friends are entirely out of touch, so Erin decides to have a reunion before she sells Loughview House.

Erin inherited Loughview House as college was ending. She becomes a successful actress and marries Scott Flynn, a successful businessman (film and TV catering business). But after the death of her husband, she wants to get away from all the memories the house holds.

Alex is a successful novelist who has been very unlucky in love. She meets the man of her dreams as she is headed to Erin's reunion weekend. But will anything become of it?

Beth married her college sweetheart Paul. Her life was thrown off track when she got an MS diagnosis, but she doesn't want her college friends to know about it.

Tara followed her dream to go to New York, but the only thing that came out of that was drug addiction. She returned to the UK and entered rehab. She arrives for the weekend reunion with her casual date, Adrian.

Becky is a free spirit who follows her dreams wherever they take her. She is a masseuse, currently, and arrives at the reunion weekend with her girlfriend, Christine.

Narration & Pacing:
The Weekend Trip reads at a consistently fast pace. It switches points of view between the five friends but stays in third-person narration as it changes focus. This is the only area that I struggled with. I love the fast pace, but switching POVs between five people sometimes needs clarification. I struggled with remembering who was who and their individual stories.

Setting:
An estate called Loughview House on the coast of Ireland is the setting for this story. It provided a meaningful backdrop for all five friends.

Read if you're in the mood for:
An emotional, funny, and inspiring contemporary friendship story
A fast-paced tale full of lovably flawed characters
A novel that resembles such TV shows as Friends or How I Met Your Mother

My first book by Joanna Bolouri and it won’t be my last. Very enjoyable story.

Alex, Erin, Beth, Tara and Becky all met at university and very much enjoyed sharing a house together. When the girls graduated, they met up at Loughview House (Erin’s inherited house) and they made a promise to keep in touch, no matter what. Fast forward 10 years and not one of the girls have kept their promise, and the group has lost touch. When Erin decides she wants to sell Loughview House, the place the girls made their promises to stay in touch in, she invites all the girls for one last weekend there and also to give them all a chance to catch up with each other’s lives. However much has changed throughout the last 10 years and a couple of the girls are even hiding secrets. Will this weekend arranged by Eric be as fun as the times they used to share 10 years ago, or will the girls find they have outgrown their friendship? All will be revealed that weekend at Loughview House.

This was a good read from Joanna Bolouri and I knew I would enjoy it as soon as I laughed out loud on the first page over Winston’s antics. Right away I really detested Christine and that is proof of good writing, making me feel such a way about a character. I admit at the start I did find it a bit difficult to know who was who but it didn’t take me long to figure out who everyone was and pretty soon I actually felt like I was in the friendship group with the girls…. Again, great writing! This book also educated me on Beth’s illness as although I had heard of it, I didn’t know much about the symptoms of such a horrible and devasting disease. That was very enlightening.

Overall, I thought this was a lovely feel good story about a group of university friends reuniting and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend it to any rom- coms fans, you won’t be disappointed. Wholly deserved 4 stars..

Thank you to NetGalley, Joanna Bolouri and Bookouture for my advanced reading copy. Out now.

Unnecessary Drama by Nina Kenwood

This book was a delight! Brooke is so excited to finally be moving away from her childhood home and starting a new adventure in university. She is horrified to find out one of her new roommates is her enemy from high school. A classic storyline but this take on it felt fresh and fun. I absolutely loved how relatable and charming Brooke was, her tumbling thoughts and feelings were so relatable.

She does ramble a bit and is bursting with anxieties, so I can see how some might find this one a bit much, but I found her endearing and the overall story quite entertaining. There were many laugh out loud parts, and really lovely growth moments as well.

The audio was fantastic! I flew through it - highly recommend it to brighten your mood. Can’t wait to find more books by this author. Thank you to @macmillan.audio for the opportunity to listen to this one! It’s out on August 8th!

#macmillanaudio #summerbooks #reading #audiobook #audiobookreviewer #audiobookrecommendation #netgalley #newfavouriteauthor #newfavouritebook #ninakenwood #ebooks

The next time a group of my school friends want to do a weekend away after a long lull in communication, remind me to say “Thanks but no thanks!”

Kidding… mostly. But it sure seems like this common romcom conceit always ends up with horrible, long-kept secrets getting dug up, relationships imploded, and entire life directions turned on their head. [b:The Weekend Trip|163790378] is no different: 10 years after they last gathered at Erin’s house, Erin, recently widowed, invites Alex, Tara, Becky and Beth back (and their partners) back for a reunion. They’re thrilled to see each other, but under the surface, there are secrets and tensions: Beth is hiding her MS diagnosis, Tara can’t admit that she went to rehab, Becky has subsumed her hippy personality to please her unpleasable girlfriend, and Alex… the cute guy she met at the airport and gave her number turns out to be Tara’s new boyfriend.

Though the Alex-Tara-Aiden love triangle generates a significant chunk of the drama, this novel is really about the friendship among the five women. They admitted from the start they had little in common, and by the time they’re a few hours into their reunion, it’s hard not to wonder if it isn’t for they best they drifted apart. By the end, nothing that occurred will have come as a terrible surprise, but Alex, Tara, Erin, Beth and Becky have found their way back to one another, and to the better versions of themselves they hoped they might grow up to be.

This is pleasant trip – the stakes are fairly low, and the lessons of friendship are affirming.

[b:The Weekend Trip|163790378] by [a:Joanna Bolouri|7444029]
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️💫 3.5 stars rounded up
🌶️ Mostly just Alex and Aiden trying not to stare at each other and failing
🏡 If anyone has a big beautiful country house to give away, I’m accepting offers
📚✈️ Alex and Aiden’s airport meet cute was pretty darn adorable
👩🏻‍🦽Beth’s story was all the more meaningful since I think the author also has MS?
🔮🦶I cheered when Becky gave Christine the boot.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Bookoture for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

OK. Just finished reading the book and still not sure what to say about it. I liked it - truly, really - but it didn't wow me. It was your nice, average read, just like thousands of other nice, average reads and, you know, it's a book by Joanna Bolouri. There was a time after her debut novel came out that we, book bloggers back then, were talking about "Bolourism", because she was brilliant and her first novels were brilliant.
Now... Well, now, they're your nice, average reads. Sadly. I don't mean it was a bad book - it was not, but it was also not an outstanding read. The writing style is great, light and engaging and I almost immediately felt invested - in the story, but not neccessarily in the main characters. There were five of them and as the story was relatively short, I feel that I didn't get to know any of them so really, completely, deeply. They felt superficial and not 100% developed, or maybe it was their backgrounds that felt very surface level.
I liked how the author intertwined the subplot of mental health and chronic illness into this story, it was present but not too overwhelming, yet it made you think. It's great that she doesn't shy from writing about hardship and emotional turmoil in life.

Nevertheless, it was a light, entertaining read, a perfect for a weekend trip (yes, I've just said this). I can guarantee you're going to realx with this book in your hand and enjoy the story of friendship, love, loss and second chances.

3.5 stars

The Weekend Trip by Joanna Bolouri
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I adored this book and just couldn’t put it down!

Erin, Beth, Alex, Becky, and Tara were college roommates, and more than just friends, like sisters. But college was a decade ago, and their lives after took them all different places. They’ve hardly kept up on social media, much less seen each other since then. But when Erin invites them all to a weekend getaway, the old friends agree it’s time to reconnect and catch up. There is an easy comfort in being back together after all these years. But there is also a lot of life that has happened between then and now. The 5 women are dealing with issues that the others don’t know about, like loss, illness, addiction, and crappy relationships. And those things can’t just be set aside and forgotten, even for a weekend trip. And to make matters more complicated, the handsome man that Alex met on the plane (and gave her number to) shows up as Tara’s new boyfriend. Can friendship really span all that time and distance?


I’m about the same age as the women in this story. And after college all of my closest friends were also scattered across the country nowhere near each other. And so I have first hand experience of the whole - seeing each other after years of not being in touch. When we see each other there is an ease to falling back into comfortable friendship, like not a single day has passed. Even though years have passed, even though there is a lot about each others lives that we’ve missed. And I always leave feeling like there is something in my soul that has been refreshed. Joanna Bolouri does such a good job of realistically capturing that phenomenon. The magic of friendship.

The characters are all realistic and flawed, but still like-able. This book is primarily about the friends and their relationship. The romance is more of a side plot. If your looking for a quick, feel good read, with light romance/tension then this is a perfect next read for you!

This was such an easy, enjoyable book to read. I love JB’s writing, it’s always warm and engaging and pulls you in. I found myself laughing out loud multiple times throughout. I do not usually like ensemble stories as I always feel like either one or more characters gets short changed or I end up not liking some of the arcs but I really enjoyed this one and I felt each character had a satisfactory conclusion to their story.

The story takes place at a reunion of sorts after ten years apart, (which is understandable as friendships do tend to drift after uni). Alex, Beth, Becky, Erin and Tara were distinct characters, with their own personalities and quirks and each was working through their own issues during this mini reunion. I loved how their reunion not only led to their reconnecting but meant their friendship going forward was more real and honest and stronger. There is a budding romance running through the story which I enjoyed despite the twisty circumstances of it, (the author made it hard to hate any of the players apart from the awful psychotherapist). The heart of the story however was the friendship of the women and the rebuilding of their bond which was great. Overall 3.75 ⭐️ rounded up.

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley. I've enjoyed previous books by Bolouri so was pleased to be invited to read her latest book. This was an enjoyable read and I liked the storylines and dynamics of the characters. Bolouri developed the characters well and I was engaged with the story.

i loved this one! thank god becky dumped christine, she was a judgmental nightmare. i really want more books about women and friendship as opposed to romantic relationships

4.5! I ended up enjoying this way more than I was expecting!

I was a bit worried from the first prologue chapter because I didn't like that we bounced between perspectives from paragraph to paragraph. I also was a bit overwhelmed at having 5 main characters introduced all at once and found it hard to keep track at first.

But the next 5 chapters were solely from each of the main characters (Erin, Beth, Becky, Alex, and Tara), so I felt that I got to know their personalities more and it defined them better. While it did switch back to bouncing between perspectives in the same chapter for the rest of the book, I got used to the writing style and it didn't bother me as much as it did at the start. I still much prefer one perspective per chapter, so that's where it fell just shy of 5 stars for me.

I loved the characters, though. Each of the 5 main women were so unique, and despite their flaws, I really came to love them all. I also enjoyed Paul and Aiden as side characters. Alex and Aiden's dynamic was so fun, and Paul and Beth were the perfect definition of "old married couple." I hated Christine, which was intended, but she made me love Becky that much more for how she handled herself.

The plot of following 5 friends as they reunite after a decade of being apart was so fun and realistic. I felt like it was so endearing to read about their struggles and how they overcame them. I felt like their friendship was so relatable and a good balance between messy and fun.

This was just the perfect book for me at this point in my life, and the messages throughout were just what I needed. I also liked both the mental health rep and the chronic illness rep with multiple sclerosis.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

A beach house setting, a group of friends reunited after a decade plus some drama brewing makes for a fun summer read! I love the flashbacks to get to know each character and their different personalities. Each one annoyed me (like Tara always helping herself to everyone's stuff! Hands off my fancy lotion!) but each one also tugged at my heartstrings as I thought of my own girlfriends. The way their lives turned based on their predictions from 10 years ago was fun to follow along with, as well as the unexpected drama at where their lives turned out. I especially love love LOVED Beth and her resilience.

I have loved each of Joanna Bolouri's books and this was high on the list of more to enjoy!

The Weekend Trip is a novel about five university friends who reunite in their thirties for a weekend in beautiful Ireland at Erin's beach house, which she inherited from her grandfather and is planning to sell. I found the plot to be entertaining and captivating, particularly the interactions between the friends. Despite the passage of a decade, it was clear that they were still the same people at heart. I enjoyed the simplicity of the novel and read it over one weekend/

The story begins with Erin, Becky, Beth, Tara, and Alex celebrating their graduation from university and bidding farewell to their time of flat sharing and embarking on a journey into the world. The story is told from multiple perspectives, revealing the backstories of each character, all of which serve a purpose in the present narrative. The story moves along at a comfortable pace, with humour and touches on sensitive subjects.

Im very mixed on this book.

Here are some of the big positives first
-such a fun story! I love a beach house setting and this one delivered
-a very good and sweet ending.
-deep relationships
-a very quick story with a good flow

And some of the negatives
-too many main characters. There are FIVE main characters. And everyone has two versions of their name that they go by so it took a while to place everyone.
-too many POVs. The POV shifts constantly and I didn’t always know whose emotions I was hearing.
-this isn’t really a romance book, even though that’s what it’s labeled. It’s more just fiction with romantic elements.


And one point I’m not sure is positive or negative:
-only one or two likable characters.

A weekend get-a-away with friends you haven’t seen for 10 years. Though they haven’t kept in touch during those 10 years, they hope the friendships bonds they had before will still be there.
Can they all connect again? Will it be a positive time together? They have all changed so much. Plus, the weekend includes their partners…..how will that meld into things?
Many thanks to NetGalley, Bookouture and the author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I had the most fimun time reading this! I loved it! I couldn't put it down it had me completely excited to keep reading! Perfect summer read to get lost in!
I just reviewed The Weekend Trip by Joanna Bolouri. #TheWeekendTrip #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]

Synopsis: Five college girlfriends reunite after a decade apart for a weekend trip with their significant others, and all are hiding new secrets from one another that come to light.
Pros: This is a very sweet story about friendship. It discusses chronic illness, grief, loyalty and LGBTQ relationships. I enjoyed the characters and thought the story wrapped up nicely.
Cons: It was a bit dull for me, nothing wildly exciting to read about, though nice. Also, this may be an issue since it was an arc, but there were several errors in the writing that left me confused (ex. Alex scratched his chin-Alex was not a him. It meant Aiden but said the wrong name.) This happened several times which was strange, but again will hopefully be corrected for final print but dragged it down for me.
But if you’re looking for a nice story about friendship, check this out when it’s released August 7 by Bookouture. Thank you Netgalley!