There was a lot of hype on social media surrounding Beth O’Leary’s new book The Road Trip, so I decided to give it a go. I’ve never read anything by her before, but I’ve seen previous titles get decent buzz as well, so I had high hopes going in. Turns out, it isn’t quite your average romcom read. This brought some unexpected depth on the page. I’ll get to that in a moment.

First off, this cast of characters is straight up bonkers. Addie and her sister Deb are driving through England to a wedding in Scotland, along with a random stranger who asked for a ride on the wedding page. Who should rear end them but Addie’s ex Dylan and his (horrible) best friend Marcus. They are also on the way to the same wedding, so everyone piles in a Mini Cooper and prepares to make the several hours-long trip north. Sounds delightful, right?

As if that wasn’t enough fun, they keep running into more problems, including accidentally losing Deb when she gets out of the car to pee while stuck in traffic and of course, that’s when they start moving again.

This starts strong with the all the shenanigans and goofiness, but the flashbacks eventually lead to a dark place. It takes the reader through Dylan and Addie’s relationship from start to its end, and those chapters made me want to scream. I wanted to scream at Addie for not standing up for herself. I wanted to scream at Dylan for being an idiot. But most of all, I wanted to beat Marcus to a pulp for being a creepy, needy, spoiled disaster. He’s infuriating and the way he leads to their breakup is horrible.

I normally try to avoid spoilers, but I am going to mention a big one here, so skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to know. This sentence is your final warning. Okay, here we go. I really hate rape and sexual assault as a plot point. Like, a lot. I really wish the author took the time and effort to concoct a different reason for them to break up beyond the best friend witnessing her sexual assault and telling the boyfriend she was cheating, and the idiot boyfriend believed it. Infuriating. It knocked a full star rating off how I felt.

But after that dark time, things go back to being bonkers so it ends on a high note. A bit of a WTF type of situation, but a high note nonetheless.

The Road Trip is quirky and steamy, with a dose of reality that comes with long term relationships. Overall, it’s an enjoyable beach romance read.