The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Chick Lit
Pages: 468
Published By: Quercus on 12th December, 2024
Format: Paperback
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Book Synopsis:
Addie and her sister are about to embark on an epic road trip to a friend’s wedding in the north of Scotland. The playlist is all planned and the snacks are packed.
But, not long after setting off, a car slams into the back of theirs. The driver is none other than Addie’s ex, Dylan, who she’s avoided since their traumatic break-up two years earlier.
Dylan and his best mate are heading to the wedding too, and they’ve totalled their car, so Addie has no choice but to offer them a ride. The car is soon jam-packed full of luggage and secrets, and with three hundred miles ahead of them, Dylan and Addie can’t avoid confronting the very messy history of their relationship…
Will they make it to the wedding on time? And, more importantly… is this really the end of the road for Addie and Dylan?
Book Review
I’d previously read The Flatshare and enjoyed it so I wanted to try another one of her books… I ended up enjoying this one a lot more!
I didn’t go into this book with high expectations and although I found the storyline to be nothing groundbreaking, it moved at a decent pace throughout. The dual timeline adds to the enjoyment by giving the present day much more context. It also helped flesh out the characters for me as I like finding out about them through their backstories. I have to admit, I would’ve struggled more with this book if it didn’t use a dual timeline. While the pacing is decent, the story still feels longer than it needs to be.
The characters themselves are again quite simple just like the storyline but the supporting characters helped move the story along and added a nice touch into the plot. I couldn’t stand Marcus all the way through but the humour from Deb’s character helped balance it out.
Although this is a romance book and there are a lot of attempts at making it lighthearted and fun, there is quite a bit of serious content to unpack with this story. I didn’t necessarily find that to be a bad thing as it gave the story a bit more depth, but think it’s a good thing to mention for readers who are wanting to read this book.
I definitely enjoyed this book enough to read from her again but it didn’t absolutely WOW me as it is just your typical romance. However, if you enjoy the second chance romance or forced proximity trope or maybe want to read a chick-lit book then I’d recommend giving this one a try to see what you think.
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