Review: The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary

 Title: The Road Trip

Author: Beth O'Leary

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Berkley

Publish Date: June 1, 2021

Source: Owned

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "What if the end of the road is just the beginning?

Four years ago, Dylan and Addie fell in love under the Provence sun. Wealthy Oxford student Dylan was staying at his friend Cherry's enormous French villa; wild child Addie was spending her summer as the on-site caretaker. Two years ago, their relationship officially ended. They haven't spoken since.

Today, Dylan's and Addie's lives collide again. It's the day before Cherry's wedding, and Addie and Dylan crash cars at the start of the journey there. The car Dylan was driving is wrecked, and the wedding is in rural Scotland--he'll never get there on time by public transport.

So, along with Dylan's best friend, Addie's sister, and a random guy on Facebook who needed a ride, they squeeze into a space-challenged Mini and set off across Britain. Cramped into the same space, Dylan and Addie are forced to confront the choices they made that tore them apart--and ask themselves whether that final decision was the right one after all."

My Two Cents:

In "The Road Trip," Addie is going to the wedding of one of her good friends. It should be a fun event and great celebration. Unfortunately, things don't often go to plan. Add one car crash, one over-protective sister, a odd hanger on, a sarcastic/ sometimes scathing guy, and Dylan (Addie's ex) and you have all the makings of a good chaotic romantic comedy with a lot of funny moments and a healthy dose of love. 

Initially, it seems that Addie and Dylan are ill-fitted to be together. She is somewhat of a free spirit, while he still seems too involved with trying to figure out his standing within his family and whether or not he really wants to embrace it or to carve his own path. I loved both of these characters. Addie just seems like a fun person to be around and Dylan initially comes off as somewhat of a jerk who cares about appearance perhaps a bit too much. One thing that I love about both this book and some of Beth O'Leary's other books (The Switch and The Flatshare) is that she does a great job of pulling back the layers of her characters so your first impression is not always what you get.

Dylan is a much more complicated character than you initially get to see. Eventually as the story unravels, you get to see what he is really like and all of the directions that he is being pulled in. I really liked seeing how he transforms throughout the book!

This was a great read! Beth O'Leary is becoming one of my go-tos when I'm looking for a good romance with great characters and a lot of heart!