Elia Winters is a new to me author, but yet another of those delightful people I follow on Twitter. I heard good things about Hairpin Curves before seeing it on NetGalley. It was a fun road trip romance read. I received this as an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Megan and Scarlett were friends as teens, but that ended when Scarlett ghosted Megan after they made plans to be college roommates. When another childhood friend invites them to her wedding in Canada, the two agree to road trip together from Florida to Quebec and back. Megan has never traveled but she has made a scrapbook of the places she wants to go. Scarlett would like to be friends again, and hopes a road trip will allow them to rebuild their relationship. Megan isn’t sure she can forgive the way Scarlett abandoned her,. Her life is at a turning point and she hopes a road trip, even one with Scarlett, will help her find some clarity about what’s next.
I particularly enjoyed the road trip aspect to the story. I lived in the mid-Atlantic for a couple of decades and have driven a lot of the roads Megan and Scarlett take. I actually got google maps out and plotted the course as they drove. I particularly appreciated the late winter timing of the road trip. At any other time of year there would have been a lot of sitting in traffic. I miss living out there, and I miss being able to take long car trips.
I thought Winters did a great job with the tension between Megan and Scarlett, the desire to reconnect and the wariness about being hurt again. The slow build of trust and the gradual acknowledgement of desire really worked. There are multiple layers of pining before Scarlett and Megan get their happily ever after. It’s a lovely soft read.
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