The Road Trip

This was unexpected! Really good romance. I enjoyed it a lot!

I approached this book thinking I was reading a fun romantic romp for the Valentine's holiday, but found a somewhat deeper story. The narrators Addie and Dylan hop back and forth in a dual timeline - one where they meet one summer and the other in present day, a few years later. The story touches on relationships, mental health, finding yourself (sometimes amidst supportive people, sometimes not), and sisterhood in addition to love, and leaves you with some things to think about.
I'll admit that the Addie/Dylan relationship in the ‘before' made me frustrated, which was likely intentional, although the growth in the ‘after' is rewarding. I loved the relationships between most of the women characters, especially Addie and her sister Deb. Deb's character is deserving of her own story, that's how fun and complete she is. Overall, this is a good book, and was worth my time. I've read the author's other books and I'll read more of her in the future. It would be a good book club choice, and the discussion questions at the end of the paperback edition are actually good ones to get a conversation going.

2.5 stars.

Having been a huge fan of The Flatshare, I really, really wanted to like this book. But dear God, there was just no reason to root for these two to get back together, even though they were obviously going to. They make each other utterly miserable as soon as Addie leaves France. We're clearly supposed to feel that the characters have grown and matured between “then” and “now” but I didn't see much evidence of that. This was just a deeply frustrating read.