Road Trip by Mary Kay Andrews ~ a Review

by Donna Huber

With tensions simmering, two sisters hit the road and find themselves on twisty lanes, in colorful villages, at local pubs, and with handsome men whose gift of the gab is surpassed only by their charm. Can Maeve and Therese find the real painting, remove a family curse, solve a cold case, and actually survive without killing each other?

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

June 2026; St. Martin's Press; 978-1250372888
audio, ebook, print (448 pages); women's fiction

I always look forward to Mary Kay Andrews's latest summer book. I started reading them when Hello Summer was first published, and it remains my favorite still. Road Trip is a good book, if a little bit of a departure from her usual writing. 

First of all, you will notice that this book isn't set in the South. Sure, we start in Savannah, Georgia. Maeve and Therese's mother has just died, and the story opens with the funeral. This is when we learn the sisters are estranged and polar opposites. Unlike some of her earlier books, both sisters are equally the main characters. Though I feel we see much more of Maeve's life than Therese's. But before we get the character focus change, let's discuss the setting. If it isn't set in the south, where is it set?

The lush, but rainy Ireland. Specifically in County Wicklow. So not an urban area, but a tiny village dominated by the Tarrymore Estatae. There is a small inn, a couple of local pubs, a tea room, a library, and a distillery. The tour of Tarrymore kind of reminded me of my visit to Biltmore Estates in Asheville. Instead of wine tasting at the home farm winery, there is a whiskey distillery. 

The lack of a coastal setting made this book feel less like a beach read to me. With the trip to Ireland, thought is still gives vacation vibes, but because the sisters don't really play tourist, those vibes were muted. 

The second departure has to do with the main characters. While the family focus is keeping with her normal style,  there is usually only one female main character finding her true path. In Road Trip, though, both Maeve and Therese are trying to find their footing. 

Therese has always been a bit of a free spirit - leaving Savannah as she could to chase stardom elsewhere. And really anywhere but Savannah. She so wanted to be free of the town, she never saw her dying mother, and arrived late to the funeral. She is like a leaf drifting on the wind, and she realizes she needs roots.

Whereas Maeve lives by the book. She took a leave of absence to care for their mother. She lives for routine and control. But when she is fired the day after her mother's funeral from her university job, and the prospect of an inheritance is looking like a pipe dream, she must figure out if the path she thought she was supposed ot be following is the right one.

I consider them both main characters, even though the story leans heavily towards Maeve. There were times when Therese felt more like an afterthought. I thought it was odd that she wasn't invited to the Grogans family dinner. I thought it was kind of rude. Both of the Grogans and Maeve. I understood her not being invited to the pub when Liam and Maeve went on their first date. But not being invited to a family gathering felt like more of an insult. 

Finally, the third difference from the typical "MKA beach read": there is a touch of historical fiction.

We are used to there being a bit of a mystery (my favorite, Hello Summer, features a political scandal that needs to be uncovered), so the hunt for the provenance of a painting that has been in their family since their ancestor Kathleen came over to the U.S. in 1926 is an expected element. However, MKA doesn't just tell us about this ancestor. There are a few chapters actually told in Kathleen's voice. 

Genre mashups are much more prevalent now. What was once a unique storytelling technique is now a regular feature in the literary world. MKA's summer books have always been a little mystery/suspense, romance, and women's fiction, but now she has thrown in historical fiction. Does it work? I think so. I was actually kind of sad when we switched to learning the rest of Kathleen's story through letters she wrote to her brother.

None of these departures is a bad thing. It may give you a book you aren't expecting. But the changes work well and show MKA's capable writing skills. 

There are a few secondary characters worth mentioning. Thankfully, with two main characters, MKA chose to keep to a limited number of secondary characters. Most notably, there are Liam and Lady Esme Rossington. To a lesser extent is Therese's love interest, who plays an important role in the plot, but is given little more than a cursory glance. 

Liam is your typical beach read love interest. He is more perfect than is realistic. The one "flaw" he is given felt out of place. He has no real growth and is little more than a one-dimensional character. I really thought, with his initial reaction to the mention of Kathleen, that there would be more of a story there. His whole storyline is a predictable romance plot.

More could have been done with Therese's love interest. But it isn't really surprising that he is so overlooked, given how much Therese is relegated to the shadows.

The interesting secondary character is Lady Esme Rossington. She is no lady of the manor. When her parents donated the manor house and home farms to the National Trust, she was left with little more than a shack for an inheritance. She may be mistaken for a vagabond from the descriptions of her clothing and general appearance. But make no mistake about it, she is a real firecracker. 

I think my biggest bone to pick with this story is the title. It wasn't really a road trip. Sure, they had to use a car while in Ireland, but they barely left the village. If I had rented a car while in Prague, I wouldn't have considered that a road trip. If I had driven that car to the two cities I visited in Poland, then that would probably have risen to the label road trip. It really is a minor thing, though.

If you are looking for a good vacation read that might have you looking for tickets to Ireland, then this is the book for you.

Buy Road Trip at Amazon

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.

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