A review by portybelle
The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

5.0

 

As is her usual style, Beth O’Leary’s narrative unfolds between past and present and with her characters telling their side of the story in turn. I feel this works really well as you get the first person point of view from each character and really get to understand their perspectives and understanding of what has taken place,

The two main characters in this book are Addie (voiced by Elinor Tomlinson) and Dylan (voiced by Josh Dylan). They meet in France where she is having a working holiday as a caretaker in a beautiful villa. Dylan was meant to be staying there with his family but the family called off and he is joined instead by his best friend Marcus. Love blooms between Addie and Dylan despite being from very different worlds and despite the best efforts of Marcus to thwart the romance. However, we first meet them when they are both on their way to a mutual friend’s wedding in Scotland in different cars which are involved in a crash. It soon becomes clear that a) they are going to have to car share to get to the wedding on time and b) this is going to be very awkward as they split up a couple of years previously.

I loved listening to this book and only took a few days to finish it as a I was totally gripped by the story of Addie and Dylan. It was lovely seeing them fall in love and deciding it wasn’t just a holiday romance. It was funny following their road trip to Scotland with everything that could go wrong seeming to go wrong. A very stressful journey with five people squashed into a car as Marcus, Addie’s sister Deb and extra passenger Rodney were also all in the car.

Obviously I was desperate to know what had happened to cause Addie and Dylan to split up as they seemed so happy. There was a point in the book where it suddenly hit me, a real ‘aha, so that’s what happened’ moment. I have to say that Dylan didn’t show himself in a good light at that point and even given the circumstances I was disappointed with him. Despite that though, I was also very keen to find out if they would be able to overcome everything and get back together.

I so enjoyed The Road Trip, a real journey in so many senses for Addie and Dylan. Having not really been so keen on this author’s last book this has restored my faith in her storytelling abilities and I’ll definitely be reading her next book.