I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Weekend Trip by Joanna Bolouri Also by this author: The List, Bootcamp For Broken Hearts
Published by Bookouture on 7th August 2023
Genres: Chicklit, Contemporary, Humour, Love & Romance
Pages: 300
Format: eARC
Source: from Netgalley
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Five old friends. Two new partners. One big problem…
In Erin’s beachfront home in Ireland, I blink at my former best friends and laugh. Is it awkward we haven’t seen each other in ten years and nobody really knows why? Yes. So I pull out the champagne with a flourish and start blasting our old playlist. It’s a reunion weekend, after all…
But it’s not long before my determination to have fun starts to fizzle. Perhaps inviting new partners was a mistake. I’m already exhausted by Becky’s new girlfriend, and Beth’s husband is trying too hard with the compliments. No, I’m not trying out a “cool silver highlights” look. It’s a grey hair.
Still, at least the others have partners. The most exciting romantic development I can report is a quick flirt with a handsome stranger on the plane over.
Even flighty, non-committal Tara is bringing someone. But if that wasn’t surprising enough, I could never have anticipated Tara’s ‘someone’ would be the man from my flight.
If things weren’t already awkward, they certainly are now…
The weekend was meant to finally bring us all back together. But will this reunion only push us further apart?
A hilarious and uplifting page-turner about the power (and pitfalls) of friendship and romance. Fans of rom-coms by Sophie Kinsella, Marian Keyes and Mhairi McFarlane will devour this laugh-out-loud tale.
The blurb reads like this is a rom-com but in reality, I think this book is more about friendships. There is some romance in this book but it’s not the main focus Those friends that you might not speak to every day but the ones that have seen you at your lowest and still been there for you. Those friends that you haven’t seen for ages but as soon as you do its like it was just yesterday. You know each other so well it just instantly falls back into place.
I loved all the university nostalgia in this one and really made me miss those uni days. The antics me and my friends would get up to and the simple lives we used to live. I haven’t seen my uni friends in a while and there is something about uni friends that are different to other friendships. Whether its the bubble you live in while there or something else I don’t know but there is this sense of almost family with uni friends I think.
I found this to be a fairly light-hearted read with some more serious elements of chronic illness and mental health issues added in. While they were talked about they weren’t the main focus. I think Joanna was trying to show how these things do not define a person and you can be more than just someone with a chronic illness or an addiction.
If you are looking for a weekend escape with the most beautiful setting and all the nostalgic vibes then pick this one up!
About Joanna Bolouri
Joanna Bolouri worked in sales before she began writing professionally at the age of thirty. Winning a BBC comedy script competition allowed her to work and write with stand-up comedians, comedy scriptwriters and actors from across the UK. She’s had articles and reviews published in The Skinny, the Scottish Sun, the Huffington Post and HecklerSpray. She lives in Glasgow with her daughter.
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