The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary
Published by Quercus
Publication Date 17th April 2022
Book Description:
Addie and her sister are about to embark on an epic road trip to a friend's wedding in rural 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 four-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?
My Thoughts:
Beth O'Leary's first novel The Flat Share is one of my favourite books of recent years so I had high hopes for her two further novels, The Switch and this one, The Road Trip. I have yet to read The Switch but eventually managed to slot this one into the reading schedule when I swapped to "mood reading" rather than reading by deadline. It didn't take long to slot into Beth's comfortable writing style and within just a couple of chapters I was hooked into Addie and Dylan's story.
The story is told in two timelines: the NOW and the THEN. We meet four of the main characters straightaway: Dylan and Marcus, friends since their schooldays, are setting off on their way to a friend's wedding. Unknown to them, the car in front of them is going to the same place; Addie and her sister Deb have also set off early to make the trek from Chichester to Scotland. The four of them have history - a history which ended very messily and with many unresolved issues so when Dylan distractedly crashes their car into the back of Addie's Mini things don't look good. Somehow they all end up in Addie's Mini, together with a random addition named Rodney, who nobody knows, continuing their hours-long journey to Cherry's wedding.
The next 350 plus pages relate the story of how the four of them survive the mammoth journey - mainly down to the addition of a great character, Kevin the lorry driver, who manages to save the day as well as everyone's sanity by being in the right place at the right time. The THEN chapters explain how the four of them have ended up not speaking to each other for the best part of two years, and there are chapters where each character is trying to work out how they are feeling about everything, past and present - and whether there can be a future which features the others.
It turns out there are far more layers to explore than any of them realised, and maybe Cherry's wedding was destined to bring more people together than just the bride and groom? I love the diverse cast of characters who are all slightly flawed in their own way. The story itself is a proper journey of discovery which I found to be an easy read with funny parts and a whole dose of soul searching among the gang. It turns out that all you need is a bit of communication and less jumping to conclusions for everything to fall into place.
A great read for the beach or poolside.
About the Author:
Beth O'Leary is a Sunday Times bestselling author whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. Her debut, THE FLATSHARE, sold over half a million copies and changed her life completely. Her second novel, THE SWITCH, has been optioned for film by Amblin Partners, Steven Spielberg's production company. Beth writes her books in the Hampshire countryside with a very badly behaved golden retriever for company. If she's not at her desk, you'll usually find her curled up somewhere with a book, a cup of tea and several woolly jumpers (whatever the weather).
No comments:
Post a Comment