Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - The Road Trip

a testament to why you don’t move in with your partner after less than a year of dating if you are 21.

i missed what attracted dylan and addie to each other beyond physical attraction and memories of a good summer - and it does not help that their flaws get a bit more screentime than their qualities. but accepting that they are in love and want to be together, i appreciate the exploration of a "right person, wrong time" relationship. dylan and addie were both very young and insecure in their past timeline, and i like how beth o'leary elaborated on that and the influence of their personal struggles on the couple's dynamic.

i personally like that this was not an easy-breezy rom-com and was rougher around the edges, it was just light enough for me.

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0live_tr33's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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idesofmarch's review

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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abimyers_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

3 ⭐
2 🌶️

The Road Trip follows a group of people travelling to a wedding together after their cars crash. In one car is Addie and Deb who are sisters and Rodney a random person needing a lift and the other car happens to be Dylan Addie's ex and his best friend Marcus.

Duel perspective following Addie's and Dylan's relationship at the beginning and being forced together in a car.

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jg34's review against another edition

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challenging tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I’m a bit conflicted on this one! I think in the end I liked the story a lot but there was a lot of frustration getting there which made the read less enjoyable, but also made for a good book.

Things that annoyed me (maybe sort of spoilers???)
-Marcus obviously
-Jumping forward and backward in time only getting tiny bits of the story until the very end
-Friend group reminded me of magnolia parks (a book I did not finish bc I couldn’t stand the toxic friendships)
-The overall fact that Dylan never stood up for Addie and couldn’t see Marcus blatantly trying to break them up

The fact that all of this comes together and gets resolved quite well at the end proves to me it was all worth it and it was all calculated on the authors part but I was truly about to go crazy at times. So enjoyment level.. 2/5 but everything else 5/5??? I guess I went into this hoping for a lighthearted rom com but that is not what I got

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