The Road Trip

By Beth O’Leary

ISBN # 9781529409055

Author’s Website: www.betholearyauthor.com

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar

SPOILERS!!!

Summary

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?

Review

The Road Trip was an interesting and wild ride. Like most stories, it all starts with Bang!!!, but in this case, with a small car crash accident which makes all the characters fit into a crammed SUV and drive for 300 miles to the destination wedding of their friend. While on the road, sisters Addie and Deb must share their car with Rodney, a guest that needs a ride, Marcus, a somewhat friend of theirs, and Dylan, Addie’s ex-boyfriend.

The last time that Addie and Dylan saw each other,  she begged him not to leave her and the last time he heard from her, Addie told him not to contact her anymore. The wedding of their mutual friend, Cherry, was going to be the first time they saw each other in over 2 years, but now they are crammed in a car making their way to Scotland.

As the miles seem to never end with too many stops on the way, secrets come up float, feelings get hurt, they meet a nice driver that helps them, and one of them has a secret plan.

Two years is a long time to change and mature, but is it enough to give them a second chance?

The Road Trip had an interesting narrative which goes back and forth in time to tell the story of how Addie and Dylan met, their relationship up until they broke up, and a drive filled with country music and snack breaks. It was a nice story that showed us the point of view of Addie and Dylan throughout their relationship, the issues that each one had, and was too scared to tell the other, and how it was all bottled up until the breaking point. While they are the main characters their family and friends (Marcus) played a big role in their relationship and how they tried to make it work.  

Addie and Dylan were good characters to follow along in their journey, but The Road Trip had many other side characters who were interesting, and I wish we could have learned more about them. Among my favorites were Grace, Luke and Javier, and while we got a lot of Deb, I wish we had had scenes with her baby or Addie with the baby.

In the beginning, the story had a slow pace, but it starts to pick up and get more interesting. The girls come back from their summer in France and reality hits Addie, doubt setting in. Getting to the point of where the reason that made them break up was a good hook to keep the reader interested and keep reading it to find out.  I liked that we got to see Addie working at school and Dylan trying to find what he was passionate about.

The culmination of their relationship was shocking, I didn’t expect that outcome of why they broke up. I assumed it had to be something with Dylan’s family, and maybe unrequited love from Marcus to Dylan, but after a while, we learned that they were not ready to be in that relationship and both of them needed to mature and find each other first.

More shocking was learning who Rodney was. I was just as surprised as everyone else in the car, I thought he was somebody’s cousin going to the wedding. He had funny scenes and odd phrases here and there.

The Road Trip had a nice ending, not everyone lives happily ever after, but something solid for Addie and Dylan to start again.  People were forgiven, other relationships ended, some were given second chances, and Addie and Dylan kissed for the first time again.If you are a fan of Beth O’Leary works, then I recommend you the Road Trip. Many things can happen while driving 300 miles to Scotland, some of them are accidents, stolen vehicles, and even forgiveness.  Oh, and crashing a wedding.