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Beth O’Leary’s The Road Trip should have ticked all my boxes – I love a road trip book, forced proximity is fun, and I’m a sucker for second chances. Additionally, Ms. O’Leary’s first two books were delightful. This one? Not so much. Why? Well, let’s get into it.
Dylan and Addie met in Provence, four years previous to our story. Dylan was staying at a mutual friend’s estate, and Addie was working there on staff. They fell hopelessly in love. Two years previous to our story, they stopped speaking. At the start of our story, the cars they are in literally crash into each other in a Tesco parking lot while they’re on their way to a wedding in rural Scotland.
The book is four stories; Addie in the present, Addie in the past, Dylan in the present, Dylan in the past, and it jumps between all four of them at a speed I found dizzying. When you add in the other three characters who were also in the cars, and their particular baggage… y’all, this book is exhausting.
While this is a romance novel in the strictest of senses – the focus is the romantic relationship of the protagonists, which ends happily – it feels different. Not only does it cover alcoholism, depression, sexual assault, homophobic parents, and a few other sundry issues of being human, but it just feels heavier. The charm that was present in Ms. O’Leary’s first two books would have been welcome here, but I had a hard time finding it.
The Road Trip tries to do too much, and so instead of being able to sink into a story, I found myself catapulting between the lived traumas of several folks, wondering all along how this was going to end well. It does, by the way! People use their words, healing either begins or is in process, and all five of the members of the road trip leave this book better than when it started.
Readers’ mileage will vary on The Road Trip, as it does most arduous journeys. I’ve read a lot of other reviews of this book while writing this one, and it appears that a person’s enjoyment of it hangs on a few things: whether one likes the flashback plot device, how one feels about spending time with these secondary characters, and amount of ‘real life’ one wants in ones’ fiction. For the record, I am wary of the first, I like more balance on the second than we get here, and I’m usually two really big thumbs up on the third. I think it was the whiplash of the time jumps that made this all feel … meh to me. Yes, I think that’s the word that fits this. To me, this book was ‘meh;’ I didn’t enjoy it, but I didn’t hate it, and if someone else loves it, that’s lovely.
I’m already looking forward to Ms. O’Leary’s next work, which I hope echoes The Flatshare more than The Road Trip does.
Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent retailer
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Grade: C-
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Subtle
Review Date: 05/06/21
Publication Date: 06/2021
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Voracious reader, with a preference for sassy romances and happily ever afters. In a relationship with coffee, seeing whiskey on the side.
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Wow, this is interesting just from the perspective of being so much weaker than her two previous books.
(Pst RE tagging BTW – for some reason clicking her name brings up everyone named some version of Elizabeth!)
What’s happening is that clicking her name brings up every author whose name contains “Beth” and “O,” presumably because somewhere in the code it’s reading “BETH O” as the search phrase and dropping after the apostrophe. I don’t have the permissions to get into that section of the page, but maybe Dabney or Caz can do something…
Can’t fix it without taking out the apostrophe. Sorry!
K – I’m currently listening to this & the narration is EXCELLENT. I’m not sure I would be nearly as engaged with the story without the narrators (a man and a woman!) terrific interpretations of the principal characters and the secondary characters, too. I’ve also read mixed reviews of this one, but I’m very much enjoying the audio and at about 25% in, it isn’t confusing me at all. Maybe worth a try to see if you like it better?
Sounds like one of those examples of excellent narration elevating a not-so-great story into something more enjoyable to listen to than to read!
I’m so glad you’re enjoying it, Em! My TBR is too long to give this one a second chance, but I’ll pass on the intel to others.