Reviews

Relationship backwards and forwards, from the inside and out.

3.5 stars.

This is both a little dark and quite funny. But there is also something not quite whole about it. I loved O'Leary's other two titles, particularly her debut. And this continues a 'breezy' and sophisticated feel of an author who knows how to thread together characters into a slightly quirky plot and weave in some romance.

Certainly, the idea of a pair of former lovers stuck together for hours with two best friends and a hitchhiker on the way to a wedding up the slowest moving motorway in the country... in a Mini... has its funny side.

I liked the structure: in the present-day there's a wedding catastrophe as two pairs of people, two sisters and two best friends, connected by the previous relationship between Dylan and Addie are forced into a Mini on their way to the nuptials of a mutual friend. Which means there'll be forced conversation, revelation, heart-spilling and discomfort. Especially as there's a fifth person, a random wedding guest there for a lift.

And there's the story revealed from a few years before, of how the couple met, Addie the summer caretaker of a large property in France, Dylan a summer resident, and post-adolescent 'what am I doing with my life', trust-fund son. With a playboy best friend, Addie with a bolshy sister.

The scene is set. Or rather, the two scenes are set.

I loved seeing the fledgling relationship get off the ground, some very realistic scenes of longing, of physical intimacy and falling in love. And the squirmy nature of meeting years later and the latent feelings it brings up, enjoyed this too. But some other elements didn't gel - I didn't really like Dylan's backstory, his struggles with his 'purpose', Hamlet-like procrastination, and his total reliance on his best friend took a lot away from the character in my eyes.

The Big Revelation as well, afraid it really didn't work for me, either as a scene of shock-disgust and relationship-ending explanation, or how it is handled by anyway, or even the motivation behind it. Didn't like Marcus much, the best friend with his own 'secrets' (saw that coming a mile off) and Deb's own story was barely touched on, and she could have been quite interesting. Though it did mean a lorry driver gets to conveniently help out several times (I'll leave that nugget of randomness out there to savour). Marcus gets a scene or two devoted to showing him in a better light, but I didn't buy into either of them, he's just not a very convincing character, or genuine.

Kind-of liked the eventual conclusion, could see where it was heading, I'm still not convinced by Dylan, that someone like that would have been so attractive to Addie. But I liked the general premise and the two time spans working around each other. Oh and the wedding hitchhiker - unnecessary I thought. Just daft.

Enjoyable enough, but didn't give me the high the authors others have done.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

vickyfarbs's review against another edition

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lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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