Book Review #94: The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary

 

I have read Beth O'Leary's two books before this one, and I liked them both. Overall I preferred 'The Flatshare' to 'The Switch', but they were light, entertaining stories that I enjoyed, so I was excited to read this one.

Addie and her sister are driving to a wedding when their car gets rear-ended. The driver of the other car? Addie's ex-boyfriend Dylan, also travelling to the wedding. Dylan and his best friend have totalled their car, so Addie offers them a ride. Suddenly the car is full... of luggage and secrets, and Addie and Dylan are forced to confront the end of their relationship. But is it really the end?

I didn't love this book. There were things that I liked, but mostly it was just okay.

I went back and forth on my opinions of the main characters, Dylan and Addie.

To start with Dylan, he is a poet, and this is show in his unrealistic speech patterns. I felt like at times it was a bit too on-the-nose - we didn't needed to be reminded that often that he was a poet.

I liked Addie the more I read of her, whereas I liked Dylan less as the story continued. I never disliked Dylan, but I felt neutral about him for almost all of the story.

It took me a while to really get these characters. At almost 100 pages I didn't understand them, I didn't connect with them, and I wasn't particularly enjoying their story.   

Having said that, I absolutely loved the character of Marcus (Dylan's best friend). He was such a complex, interesting character. He definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea, but he was my favourite character without a doubt.

The story itself wasn't that entertaining. I only really started to enjoy it at around the 200 page mark, when we actually started to find out what happened to cause Addie and Dylan's break-up. I was much more interested in the past of their relationship than the current road trip.

After finding out the reason for the break-up, I warmed to the story a bit more. I thought the reasoning was solid, and made a lot of the events in the present timeline make more sense.

The biggest problem with this story, for me, was that it was leading to the reunion of a couple that I didn't believe should be together. It never worked for me, and I finished the book feeling a bit disappointed - even though I actually enjoyed the sweet ending.

What was good?

I really like the way O'Leary writes. Her writing style has become familiar to me after reading three of her books, and I find it comforting. If I continue to read her books, it will be because of the way she writes.

What was bad?

We are told time and time again throughout the story that Addie and Dylan have 'changed' between the two timelines in the story, but I never felt like this was evidenced enough. In fact, these two points could have been two weeks apart, and I don't feel like anything would have changed.

Overall

This was probably my least favourite of O'Leary's books. I enjoyed looking back at the overall story more than I enjoyed actually reading it. But it is a well-written novel, and the story itself is better once you actually finish it.

2.5/5 stars