Review by Booklist Review
Raised by her single schoolteacher father, uninhibited Carla has spent a good part of each year traveling the wild parts of the Americas and beyond. When she's home, she works in a Hooter's-like, pirate-themed bar. Flying to Ireland to be maid of honor in her best friend's wedding is a different kind of trip. She expects to be picked up at the airport by the uptight best man, but instead, Eamon arranges to meet her at a bar, and they end up in bed. The next day, driving across Ireland, they take some adventurous detours involving camping and being terrorized by a bull before joining his large family and her friends, characters from Doller's The Float Plan (2021) and Suite Spot (2022). Sizzling sex and a sharp focus on the measured building of the relationship between Eamon and Carla, from a cute meet to congenial travel buddies, from deep friendship to love, are paired to perfection, while sensitive territory is explored in Carla's relationship with her Vietnam veteran dad who has Alzheimer's. Doller makes complex characters in complicated relationships come to totally convincing life as she makes each novel better than the one before it.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Doller takes readers on a rollicking Irish road trip in her wonderful third Beck Sisters rom-com (following The Suite Spot). Free-spirited Carla Black meets Eamon Sullivan, the brother of her best friend's fiancé, when he comes to pick her up from the Dublin airport and drive her to the countryside for the wedding--and she knows immediately that they'll be falling into the "cliché" of the "maid of honor and the best man hooking up." After all, just looking at Eamon is "like trying to stare directly at an eclipse and not go blind." After a night of witty banter and hot sex, the pair set off on the road--unaware that the trip will change both their lives. Carla was raised by a single father, the loving but now ailing Douglas "Biggie" Black, who gave her the passion for adventure that's followed her into her nomadic and spontaneous adult life. Meanwhile, Eamon has always wanted to see the world, but he's had too many family responsibilities to find time to leave Ireland. Just a few exciting days on the road together are enough to have Clara questioning her tendency to run from her problems and Eamon ready to slough off his reputation as the "sensible lad" in his family. Doller uses this fun, adventurous romance to explore big themes of home, family, and finding happiness and purpose in life. Readers won't want to put this down. Agent: Kate Schafer Testerman, KT Literary. (Mar.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In the third "Beck Sisters" romance (a follow-up to The Suite Spot), Carla Black is running away, though she sees it more as traveling. Her father has Alzheimer's, and Carla can't stand to see him slowly drifting away. Right now she's in Ireland for her friend Anna's wedding, and she's waiting at a bar for the groom's brother, Eamon Sullivan, who will drive her to the wedding location a few hours away. Eamon longs for adventure but has never taken the first step toward his dreams--until the night he meets Carla. With her encouragement, they take the long route to the wedding, stopping along the way to check things off on Eamon's adventure bucket list. Somewhere on the drive, their vacation fling deepens into something dangerously close to love. VERDICT This charming, funny romance throws total opposites together in a road trip full of mishaps and happy accidents. Though the happily-ever-after is a given, the journey to that conclusion is a delight, and readers won't want it to end. Recommended for general purchase.--Heather Miller Cover
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