Miss W kindly lent me ‘The Road Trip’ by Beth O’Leary to read, and I am ashamed to say that it has been on my shelf since April, which really is not good enough. When I was politely reminded that I had not yet read it, I ensured it became my next read (if only picking my next read was always this easy).
Now, ‘The Flatshare‘ and ‘The Switch‘ were both fun reads. I really enjoyed both of them and their lighthearted but meaningful escapism, with ‘The Switch’ just coming out on top for me.
However, I found ‘The Road Trip’ a little harder to get into when I started it. I liked the idea, people thrown together on a road trip and all that entails, mishaps and more. Yet, this was just a little slow for me (as the rather awkward road trip was for the characters) and the characters were a little harder to engage with than in the previous books. I was not sure I was all that fussed what would happen, or what had happened in the past.
And, then, I suddenly hit a point where the book really picked up. Once you did know what had happened in the past, and why exactly it was as it was between the characters, I started to find it harder to put the book down. ‘The Road Trip’ did go on to handle an incredibly difficult event with sensitivity and heart, and brought to the fore exactly how important consent is, the tragic impact it can have on someone when they feel that it is very nearly taken from them, and how relationships can be changed as a result. Alongside dealing with the subject of the mental health of another character.
This will not go down as one of my favourite books, and maybe it could have been a little slicker, which may have held my attention a little more, as I whizzed through the final third once I felt that I had engaged with the story and the characters. But, it did very nearly become a DNF for me, which would have been a shame as I would have missed the best bit of the book.