A lot of reviews say this book was darker/heavier than expected. It does include alcoholism, destructive behavior, and sexual assault. But, for me, I read this immediately after finishing The School for Good Mothers (which was horrifying) so I thought this was relatively fun, especially the wedding crasher and the roadside antics.

I had to keep reminding myself that the characters were only in their early 20s for the flashback scenes. There is some unbelievably immature/insane behavior that drives the conflict, but it was easier to swallow coming from new adults.

I haven't read a lot of second-chance romance novels, so I'm not sure if this is a cliche, but I liked the message that therapy can save a relationship! Well, therapy and honesty. ( )

Maybe 3.5
The parts of the book set in the past felt kind of gatspyesque, which was kind of fun, but it also made it kind of tricky to see the present as modern. Although it also gave me slight A Separate Peace vibes with Marcus and Dylan’s relationship.
I didn't like how much of the conflict was based on misunderstanding, but I also thought that Addie was absolutely right that if Dylan would so easily believe badly of her then how could he really know her?
Honestly, part of me wonders if the main reason I enjoyed this book is because so much of it is angsty and I was so bleh when I read it.
Why does Dylan have so little character besides caring about Addie and being a mopey poet?? And Addie is just a traumatized sad angry girlie. And Marcus is the goofy flirt who gets randomly serious and * shockingly * is so hurt and traumatized and so sad and piney. And all the characters are like that, they can be summed up so easily. But I found the book entertaining.
( )

I listened to The Switch by this author and absolutely loved it. This author has such a witty, clever way of writing. I love the dialogue in her stories, and this was another good story from her. My only complaint was this road trip got a little long for me.
I enjoyed the now and then, reading about how they met, unfolding the layers of what brought them to the emotions inside the crowded vehicle for the (looong!) road trip.
I own The Flatshare and look forward to reading it as I've read many great reviews for that book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book. ( )

Actual rating: 2.75/5

I read two of Beth O'Leary's other books, The Flatshare and The No-Show, and enjoyed both despite some issues, so I approached The Road Trip with fairly high expectations. Sadly, this one was a bit of a miss for me.

The premise was really interesting: two sisters, one ex, one best friend and a random person are forced to travel to a wedding in a very, very small car. What could ever go wrong? Knowing Beth O'Leary's style by now I was expecting a poignant story wrapped in some humour but, while her writing is flawless as usual, this book didn't really hit the mark. The main issue I had with this was I just couldn't care less about any of the characters. And the main couple I was supposed to be rooting for? I actually wished they would break up for good, so... not a great result.

The story is told in a dual POV (Addie's and Dylan's) and across two timelines, alternating the present-day road trip and the beginning of Addie and Dylan's love story. If I'm being honest, I wasn't too keen on the past timeline except in that it served to slowly unveil the reasons that brought them to break up. This summer romance honestly felt a bit too much like insta-love, with absolutely no reason for either of the characters to be as possessive as they were that early on in a mostly physical and quite superficial relationship. Nothing wrong with that if that's what you're going for, but their actions and thoughts just didn't seem to match up, with them portraying this as the most amazing love story ever when in truth it just wasn't that deep. When the big reveal of the reason behind their break-up came along after being teased for most of the book, I was frankly disappointed and more than a bit annoyed.

The road trip part of the story was much more engaging and had plenty of funny moments as well as some more insightful ones, where characters were given a chance to develop. These were still few and far between though, with the result that I actually did not care about the characters, not even enough to hate the most unlikeable ones. There was also a particularly problematic situation regarding one of the characters, which wasn't really tackled in the way I would have expected having read the author's other works. That being said, I did like the way the conversation around mental health was handled and the way one character matured by the end of the book, even though his behaviour had been appalling up to that point and it didn't really feel as though that was fully addressed.

Despite these issues, Beth O'Leary's writing is captivating, so much so that I was still entertained and had no problem finishing this book. I also alternated the ebook with the audio version, and the narrators made all the difference. Josh Dylan and Eleanor Tomlinson were absolutely perfect in this and added loads of charm to characters who would otherwise have had very little. Honestly, I may have enjoyed this book even less had I only read it, but the audiobook improved my experience of this.

I'm still curious to read The Switch and whatever Beth O'Leary writes next, but this one was very disappointing.

CW: This book contains mentions of: sexual assault, stalking, toxic friendship, alcoholism, and mental illness.

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way. ( )

*1.5 stars*

I stayed up to finish this book not because I was loving it but rather in disbelief. Her previous first two books got 4.5 - 5 stars from me, but this was bad. I do not understand how I am meant to root for the leads together in any form. The initial relationship later felt so toxic with no serious resolution, the male lead was a weak twat that honestly felt irredeemable to me. She deserved better as a character, I deserved better as a reader. The "toxic character" in the book was way over the line and urgh!
I am just disappointed.

BTW, please read Abby's review . She says it all ( )