Beth O'Leary

Two exes reach a new level of awkward when forced to take a road trip together in this endearing and humorous novel by the author of the international bestseller The Flatshare. 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.

The Road Trip

'Joyful and uplifting' Sheila O'Flanagan 'O'Leary's best yet' Gillian McAllister 'A charming, heartfelt story of love found and love potentially lost' Laura Jane Williams 'This book is perfect' Rosie Walsh THE BRAND NEW NOVEL FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR, BETH O'LEARY. Addie and her sister are about to embark on an epic road trip to a friend's wedding in rural 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 four 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? HEAR WHAT EVERYONE IS SAYING ABOUT BETH'S FIRST TWO NOVELS: 'I adored every page of this super-smart, brilliantly funny romcom' Rosie Walsh on The Flatshare 'The new Jojo Moyes ... This has all the ingredients of Me Before You... seriously funny' Cosmopolitan on The Flatshare 'Touching, funny and skilful, a delightful read' Katie Fforde on The Flatshare 'The Flatshare is a huge, heart-warming triumph' Josie Silver on The Flatshare 'Beth has done it again! Warm, witty, and a cast of characters I wish I was friends with - I truly loved it!' Laura Jane Williams on The Switch 'Eileen Cotton proves you don't have to be in your thirties to be Bridget Jones. A triumph of a second novel' Anstey Harris on The Switch 'I am blown away. I didn't think Beth could top The Flatshare but she has. It sparkles with wit, warmth and compassion. It deserves to be huge!' Gillian McAllister on The Switch

The Heart-warming New Novel from the Author of The Flatshare and The Switch

Never in a million years would I have guessed that Rodney's a psychotic stalker WTF

Sophia

"Yeah, that sounds about right. Why? Is that a problem?"

"Rodney Wiley is not invited to my wedding."

"No," I say, as patiently as I can imagine. "No, Rodney, she doesn't."

"Great! It's someone else who must've drowned, then," Rodney says, sounding cheered. "I'll get out of the river, in that case."

"You're ... in the river? Actually in it?"

Marcus perks up at this and sidles nearer.

Rodney's absolute conviction that there is a dead body in the river is really throwing me.

I don't like Marcus but he's right. Dylan needs to learn that he has to live for himself first and then for Addie. Him idolising her and thinking she's perfect is so not healthy that it's turning their whole relationship toxic. He has to fix himself and he should do it without having a girlfriend. And Addie needs to be alone for a while, too. I can't believe I think this but I'm glad that they broke up. They weren't right for each other yet.

"Fuck your dad. He's been controlling your life for ever. Make your own choice."

"It's not making your own choice if it's for a girl."

I flex my hands. My fingers still hurt. I look down - my toes are yellow-white.

"How do I know I'm making my own choice, then?"

"You're going with your dick. And working for your dad, that'd be going with your head. I'm talking gut. The thing that you know deep down makes the most sense. The thing that's truest to who you are."

She shouldn't invalidate her own feelings like that. He hurt her and she should explain it to him and maybe put a little space between them in order to sort everything out. This is not healthy.

I've always believed everyone should get a second chance. And he's sorry, and was it that bad, anyway, him staying away a bit longer than he said he would while he figured stuff out?

And ... I still love him. So there's that, too.

The Audacity? Is she a car or what? I thought I could like him but his past self is so unbereable that I can't like him altogether. Douchbag

This is the first thing Marcus says to me.

Addie is brighter than that sort of talk. She is wild and clever, sharp and bright, always twisting out of my reach. She isn't mine.

This is dangerous. Not the car troubles, I mean, but Dylan.

For a split second there, as I watched him strolling across the tarmac with his hair blowing in the wind, I didn't mind missing out on Dolly Parton and Minstrels with my sister.

There is a knock at the car window, passenger side. I shriek. My hand flies to my chest.

But Dylan's reaction is the most surprising - he throws an arm out in front of me, as though we're still moving and we're about to hit something.

If someone would talk about me like this I would simply die - why is he so f*cking cute?!

I thought we'd made a little progress - earlier she turned to me and offered half a smile, like the smallest bite of something delicious, and my heart soared.

A real smile from Addie is a true prize: hard to win and utterly heart-stopping when it comes.

Help he's still so achingly in love with her I can't-

Every time I look at Addie something leaps inside me, dolphin-like, and you'd think after twenty months it wouldn't hurt quite like this but it does, it hurts, the kind of hurt that makes you want to fucking wail.

The driver has wound the window down, and she's stretched an arm out, gripping the roof of the car. Her wrist is looped with bracelets, glimmering silver-red in the car lights' glare.

The gesture is so achingly familiar - the arm, slender and pale, the assertion of it, those bracelets, the round, childish beads stacked up her wrist. I'd know them anywhere.

My heart jolts like I've missed a step because it is her, it's Addie, her eyes meeting mine in the rear-view mirror.

Ok he is totally still in love with her so the real question is not when they're going to get together again but what happened that made them break up

For a flash of a second I see the driver's face in the rearview mirror. She reminds me of Addie - if you think about someone enough, you start to see them everywhere.

Beth O'leary

The Heart-Warming New Novel from the Author of the Flatshare and the Switch

Ena Kalkan

The summary of this book pulled me in like no other. I was so excited to read this. Had such high hopes for it. But I found myself losing interest in the characters, in the story itself, about halfway through the book. Sadly, I just couldn’t bring myself to finish it.

started off loving the concept of this, only for the relationship to be toxic & just painfully uncomfortable to experience. men r gross 🥰

also had the impression going into this that it wasnt smutty but it.. was 🤨

shit redemption arc, super rushed ending left me feeling meh

started off loving the concept of this, only for the relationship to be toxic & just painfully uncomfortable to experience. men r gross 🥰

also had the impression going into this that it wasnt smutty but it.. was 🤨

shit redemption arc, super rushed ending left me feeling meh

Patricia Nelson

I approached this book thinking I was reading a fun romantic romp for the Valentine's holiday, but found a somewhat deeper story. The narrators Addie and Dylan hop back and forth in a dual timeline - one where they meet one summer and the other in present day, a few years later. The story touches on relationships, mental health, finding yourself (sometimes amidst supportive people, sometimes not), and sisterhood in addition to love, and leaves you with some things to think about. 
I'll admit that the Addie/Dylan relationship in the 'before' made me frustrated, which was likely intentional, although the growth in the 'after' is rewarding. I loved the relationships between most of the women characters, especially Addie and her sister Deb. Deb's character is deserving of her own story, that's how fun and complete she is. Overall, this is a good book, and was worth my time. I've read the author's other books and I'll read more of her in the future. It would be a good book club choice, and the discussion questions at the end of the paperback edition are actually good ones to get a conversation going.

Yasmin Dunnewind

I liked this story of Beth O'leary too. The first book I read from her is The Flatshare and her books are just such a nice read. The characters were all interesting and all the different storys of multiple people where well written. These books u can read very well and I like that u don't really have to think and work ur mind to understand it. Overall it was fun read and I loved the switch from then to now

Petaco

DNF-not a romcom. Too much drama. Not my kind of people.

Tbh I didnt expect this to be so dramatic... I was very surprised by how dark it was at some points. I don't know about it, wasnt my favourite book to read :/ 

Marie

Beatrice

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: (view spoiler)[sexual assault, stalking, toxic friendship, alcoholism, and mental illness. (hide spoiler)]

For more reviews, visit Book for Thought.

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.

It's probably not my best introduction to Beth O'Leary as the subjects and topics explored are a lot heavier and more toxic than I was expecting.

It was still an easy listen on audiobook and definitely wants to make me read some of her other books in the future.

Victoria Justice

It's probably not my best introduction to Beth O'Leary as the subjects and topics explored are a lot heavier and more toxic than I was expecting.

It was still an easy listen on audiobook and definitely wants to make me read some of her other books in the future.

erin miller

Lottie

i was so bored in the beginning and I didn’t really like the book at first to be honest. But after a while it kinda got better and it got funny. I loved the end very much !! It was so cute but also hilarious 👍👍

switches between past and present timelines. Was kinda bored during the middle of the book but the ending was good. Easy read but def not a must read

Tori Albin

Shreya Punj

Jennifer mitchell

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review (note that the book is released at the time I got around to reading/reviewing)

There were parts of this story I enjoyed, even some parts that made me laugh out loud, but overall I was just bored during most of it. 

What I didn't like:
-The pacing of this story felt off to me. The book interchanges between past and present perspective, which I liked, but I felt like some of the "past" sections were randomly thrown in and didn't make sense where they were placed.
-Marcus, the main male character's best friend, was a frustrating character to read about. What I mean by that is it felt like the author had a lot of plans of what she wanted to do with his character, but instead of picking one thing and sticking to it, she threw it all together in a big jumble. I couldn't tell what his motivations were and whether or not I was supposed to like him. Even after finishing the book and learning the truth about Marcus (which was a pretty obvious reveal), I still couldn't figure out if he is someone I'm supposed to root for or not. Sometimes characters like that work in a book, but I don't think it worked in this case.
-Too many characters doing too many things. Again, it seemed like the author had a plan and reason for introducing some characters, and then she changed directions and forgot about them. It ended up being too much. I'm all for some fun side characters (which there were some) but I think this story would have flowed better without the long tangents about the extremely minor characters. It made it seem like they were going to have more importance to the overall story, but they didn't. It's very possible there's going to be a spinoff book in the series, and the author was setting up for that, but by itself it was just too much.

What I liked:
-There were some really funny, laugh-out-loud moments in this book that I really enjoyed. I think the 5 main characters on the actual road trip had great interactions and the present chapters following them were my favorite to read about.
-The main characters had good chemistry and I was rooting for them, even if I was bored throughout. I still wanted to see them reach their HEA.
-The writing style made it easy to read this book. I've read The Flatshare and my biggest critique with that was the writing style. So it was a very pleasant surprise to find this book written differently and in a way that was much easier to read.

Overall:
Didn't hate it, didn't love it. I probably wouldn't read it again, but I did mostly enjoy it while I was reading it.

Alice Myles

Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for an advanced copy of this book

Beth O'Leary does it again. After loving both The Flatshare and The Switch, obviously, I was very excited to pick up her newest offering The Road Trip. This book definitely had a very different tone from the previous ones but as with those, I devoured this in one sitting! I loved that the characters were the same age as me which is so rare for me to find in books - early twenties romances just don't seem to exist - although I didn't really find myself relating to any of the characters. I enjoyed the dual timeline and didn't really prefer one part to the other, I loved how the story progressed with each section. This is definitely not a lighthearted rom-com though so don't go into it expecting sunshine this is very much a novel about depression, co-dependency, and abuse in many different forms with a splattering of romance thrown in (and Rodney for some comic relief). These characters are flawed and I genuinely wanted to yell at them on numerous occasions but ultimately I very much enjoyed my time with this book!

Gosh there were so many toxic relationships in this book it was draining at some point but it's good to see with the "now" and "then" how they evolved.

Taniareads 

Há algo na escrita da Beth que é bastante viciante, algo difícil de explicar o porquê de ter conseguido ler este livro em dois dias, o que para mim é algo raro de acontecer. Uma leitura leve, com capítulos curtos que nos deixam à espera de mais. Um romance de segunda oportunidade, ex to lovers, com uma dose bem grande de comédia, algo que adorei bastante! Este livro trouxe-me bastantes gargalhadas com a Deb e até pelo Rodney. Gostei bastante 😊 não é um livro com uma grande carga emocional e um plot extraordinário, é sim um livro sobre um grupo de amigos, os seus problemas e algumas crises existenciais, é sobre ser adulto, sobre o amor e a sua incerteza, é sobre a descoberta de nós próprios e o medo do mundo real. Houve partes no livro que não me identifiquei e revirei os olhos, especialmente com o Pov do Dylan, mas no fundo, fez-me pensar no mundo e no salto que temos que dar para a responsabilidade do mundo adulto.

Turtle lover

I just wasnt thaat into the book. 

1/3 - 🚗
2/3 - 🚗🚗🚗
3/3 - 🚗🚗🚗🚗

I just feel like it was all over the place since it goes from then to now. the plot was also complicated that i do not get if they really like each other. it was difficult trying to finish this book. a big oof though for the plot.

Werka

summer

Fraser Simons

This feels really contrived, unfortunately. Which is too bad, because it’s got a juicy setup. But most of the book doesn’t pace the drama of the character in the car dynamics well, because it’s preoccupied rationing the explosive past tension between the two protagonists. The casualty for this choice is every other aspect of the story. 

Then, when we do learn “what happened” it uh, kinda makes it difficult to care about any of the characters, except Addie, who feels like a stand-in for every woman who is conventionally attractive. It tries to be deeper than it us, somewhat dipping in a tow into toxic male behaviour and self doubting, but doesn’t dig down enough to get to gender performance or the root behaviours. There’s a brief bit where one or the other is self aware, but otherwise, with every other aspect of the story, it feels like it’s merely a veneer for a kind of shit relationship that presents as redeemable but, again, feels like artifice. 

The prose do keep the pages turning though. It’s very consumable and always feels easier to complete than put down. I can see why people like it, but somehow The Flatshare seems far more interesting and believable.

Meg Cornhill

Helen Borham

I raced through this book. The story follows five people thrown together on a roadtrip from Chichester to Scotland for a wedding. These include exes Addie and Dylan who haven’t seen each other since their relationship ended 18 months prior. 

Beth O’Leary has a great ability to weave humour and light-heartedness with complex feelings and darker topics. The Road Trip is really cleverly crafted. It has all the ingredients of a classic rom-com backed up with a unique and unpredictable plot. Also the cast of characters were eccentric and lovable

Ally Simons

** spoiler alert **
           Super cute, the audiobook was great. Only issue I have is are we supposed to forgive our protagonist for having an emotional affair with someone else just because she gets assaulted?? Didn’t sit the best with me but oh well, worth the read!

Becky

Classic Beth O’Leary! It took me a little bit to get into with the dual narrative and the switching between now and then but it made me feel as warm and cosy as all of beth’s other books have! Being a teacher myself there were some bits of it that really made me laugh and it was just such a wholesome read 🥰

The Road Trip

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