In 2012, five friends party to celebrate the end of university. A decade later, they decide to meet up again but their lives have changed considerably from what they expected…
The Weekend Trip is a warm book about friendship and the strength of love.
Erin’s husband has died. Becky is pretending to be someone she’s not to keep her girlfriend happy. Beth has been diagnosed with MS but is keeping it a secret. Tara is out of rehab and is in a new relationship. Alex is a successful author but her love life is non-existent until she meets a stranger on the plane.
The group of friends all had such hope and expectation ten years ago. But the reality of their lives is very different. There is a huge amount of emotion in this book and I’m sure every reader will identify with the gaping chasm between our plans and reality. I felt an underlying sadness at the distance between the friends which has developed naturally as their lives took them in different directions.
This book also raises awareness of MS which is a disease I had heard of but not understood the severity of the symptoms. Beth doesn’t want to be defined by her illness or elicit sympathy from her friends. Although I empathised with her situation, I was sad that she didn’t feel she could be honest with her friends, and also that the group hadn’t supported each other in the past decade. I thought Beth’s husband Paul was amazing for his dedication and devotion as well as his humour.
The Weekend Trip is an enjoyable and emotional book about the power of friendship. I have previously reviewed Bootcamp for Broken Hearts by Joanna Bolouri.
The Weekend Trip: A totally uplifting and heart-warming romantic comedy by Joanna Bolouri
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.
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 Scotsman, The Skinny, The Scottish Sun, Huffington Post and HecklerSpray.
