Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary

157 reviews

idesofmarch's review

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

2.75

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abimyers_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

3 ⭐ 
2 🌶️

The Road Trip follows a group of people travelling to a wedding together after their cars crash. In one car is Addie and Deb who are sisters and Rodney a random person needing a lift and the other car happens to be Dylan Addie's ex and his best friend Marcus.

Duel perspective following Addie's and Dylan's relationship at the beginning and being forced together in a car.
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jg34's review against another edition

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challenging tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I’m a bit conflicted on this one! I think in the end I liked the story a lot but there was a lot of frustration getting there which made the read less enjoyable, but also made for a good book. 

Things that annoyed me (maybe sort of spoilers???)
-Marcus obviously
-Jumping forward and backward in time only getting tiny bits of the story until the very end
-Friend group reminded me of magnolia parks (a book I did not finish bc I couldn’t stand the toxic friendships)
-The overall fact that Dylan never stood up for Addie and couldn’t see Marcus blatantly trying to break them up

The fact that all of this comes together and gets resolved quite well at the end proves to me it was all worth it and it was all calculated on the authors part but I was truly about to go crazy at times. So enjoyment level.. 2/5 but everything else 5/5??? I guess I went into this hoping for a lighthearted rom com but that is not what I got 

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ineedsomemoretea's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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itsbumley's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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sissiemilia's review against another edition

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dark emotional lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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elysedc's review against another edition

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4.0

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patsypoo's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Meh... Didn't buy into the central romance, couldn't stand any of the characters except Deb and I thought the Rodney subplot was completely unnecessary and not handled well at all.
Stalking isn't a side joke. It's terrifying for the victims.

It still passed the time though and I will continue to read more Beth O'Leary for the foreseeable future. 
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avisreadsandreads's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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downsophialane's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Beth O'Leary has delivered a dual timeline second chance roadtrip romance that doesn't shy away from complex, difficult and at times unlikeable characters. While I was invested in Addie and Dylan, their relationship was just so stifled by Marcus' presence, almost from the beginning. I think we needed some real halcyon days completely apart from his friends. Though part of their arc together is recognising that their friendship is was toxic, the Dylan/Marcus plot could have benefitted from a little more evidence Marcus being, like, worth the trouble?

I would recommend Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren or Happy Place by Emily Henry over this for anyone looking for a second chance dual timeline, but I didn't have a bad time reading it so I wouldn't not recommend it. I will definitely be seeking out Beth O'Leary's other work. 
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