The Road Trip

by Beth O'Leary

Blurb:

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?

This book was May's read for The Cosy Book club and seen the length of the book, I think this was my fastest read of the year thus far!

Overall, the book is very easy to get through and pretty fast-paced. I liked the fact that you read the two views of the main characters Addie and Dylan. On the other hand, I was often confused by this alteration. At times I was just lost in remembering who was saying what, so I had to go back and re-read sections quite often to get back into the right character.

I also liked that the story is divided into several sections 'Now' and 'Then' to picture current and older events. However, at times I was quite confused by this decision because sometimes I forgot if I was reading the section 'Now' or 'Then'.

Even though I wanted to know and read more about the story, I wasn't at all surprised by the ending, so it's all pretty predictable. Which is generally something I don't like. It was nice to learn more about how Addie and Dylan got to know each other and to learn about their toxic behavior and Dylan's (very) toxic friend. It was even more interesting to see how they had developed over time and took their time to work on themselves. The 'main' storyline is just there to give other characters a chance to evolve, but it seems to me as just a side-quest since a hell of a lot is going wrong during the trip. A bit too chaotic for my strict efficiency :p.

So 3 stars for a fast-paced romance story about personal growth after toxic relationships.