I received an eARC of this book via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this review.

I adore this book! The Road Trip by Beth O'Leary is a comedic and oftentimes heartbreaking story about finding love, losing love, and all the messy bits in between. Imagine, if you will, planning a road trip to your best friend’s wedding and everything that could go wrong does. Now you are trapped in a car with your overprotective older sister, a random guy from Facebook, your ex who you want to hate but can’t find the energy to, and his best friend who mutually hates you. Road trip from hell, right? This is the book in a nutshell, but y’all it is so much more! Told in dual POV and alternating past and present, The Road Trip will leave you smiling long after it ends.

Addie and Dylan fell in love one summer while she was working at her friend Cherry’s vacation home as the caretaker. Dylan was there on what was supposed to be a family trip, but as all things with his family, it wound up just being him. The two immediately hit it off, and the chemistry is quite steamy, but both are still immature and learning who they are as adults. Dylan struggles with depression, and I really appreciate how delicately the author handled this. She writes it from his perspective, and it feels true to life. Addie is insecure. Dylan met her at a time in her life where she was carefree and fun.

Flash forward to the present. The two are heading to Cherry’s wedding, in separate cars, and haven’t spoken in a year and a half. When Dylan sees her in the car ahead of him, he loses focus remembering her, how much he loves her and how much he misses her. Then he happens to run his car into the back of hers. To prevent the group from being late to the wedding, they all pile into Addie’s sister’s mini-coop. Can you imagine? Five full grown adults in a mini-coop? I laughed every time it was mentioned.

The story slowly unravels alternating between Addie and Dylan’s past, watching them fall in love, and their present, crammed into a mini-coop trying not to acknowledge the elephant in the car with them. I loved Addie and Dylan. They are a sweet couple that you can easily root for. Deb, Addie’s sister, is fantastic. She’s a single mom and always has Addie’s back. Marcus, Dylan’s best friend, is an interesting character. I wanted to hate him like Addie does, but I found that he was growing on me. His character arc made me tear up a bit even if I did want to reach through the pages at times and smack him on the head. The last character in the car is Rodney. He is a bit of a mystery. He just needed a ride to the wedding and Deb and Addie thought why not. They don’t know him or how he knows their friend Cherry. So he’s a wildcard, an innocent and harmless one they think.

Overall, if you haven’t already guessed it, I absolutely loved The Road Trip. The bits of the past we got really helped to shape how I interpreted Addie and Dylan in the present. The story and pacing flowed seamlessly from one section to the next. I honestly could have read another 300 pages and been happy. There wasn’t a single character I wasn’t interested in. They were all fully developed and unique. I wanted to get to know them all! If you enjoy sweet, second chance romances with quirky antics and comedic value, I highly recommend you grab a copy.