RITA® Award—winning author Elia Winters delivers a sexy, playful frenemies-to-lovers road-trip romance.Megan Harris had hopes of seeing the world, but at twenty-five she’s never even left Florida. Now a wedding invitation lures her to Quebec…in February. When her ex-friend Scarlett offers to be her plus-one (yeah, that’s a whole story) and suggests they turn the journey into an epic road trip, … they turn the journey into an epic road trip, Megan reluctantly agrees to the biggest adventure of her life.
A week together in a car is a surefire way to kill a crush, and Scarlett Andrews has had a big one on Megan for years. The important thing is fixing their friendship.
As the miles roll away, what starts as harmless road-trip games and rest-stop dares escalates into something like intimacy. And when a surprise snowstorm forces Megan and Scarlett to hunker down without the open road as distraction, they’ve got a bigger challenge than making it to the church on time: facing the true nature of their feelings for each other.
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The Hideaway Inn by Philip William Stover
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Just Like That by Cole McCade
Hairpin Curves by Elia Winters
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Just Like This by Cole McCade
Teddy Spenser Isn’t Looking for Love by Kim Fielding
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What Happens On The Road Trip… Won’t Stay On The Road Trip. This was a fun road trip tale featuring classic road trip items, much angst, some increasingly hot sexy times through much of the back half (ish) of the tale, and, since it *is* a romance, a HEA to close. I’m not quite as prolific in the FF romance ARC scene as MF or MM, but this largely follows the standard romance format no matter the particular sexualities. (Though in my experience, MM tends to have the most sex for some reason.) If you like romance at all, this is definetly a book to try out. If you like road trip tales at all, this is definetly a book to try out. If you’re looking for a good summer read or even trapped inside (for whatever reason 😉 ) read, this is absolutely a good book to try out. Very much recommended.
Hairpin Curves was a smack in the middle of the road read for me, and the thing is a lot of the reasons I really liked it were also part of the reason for that meh feeling. It’s a friends to enemies to lovers romance, which I like. There’s also a bit of forced proximity. Either or both of those can make for an engaging romance, and the fire those tropes can generate between characters can lead to some pretty good heat and chemistry. The problem is that these two are almost apathetic toward each other. They exchange a few barbs here and there, and they’re not friendly toward each other, but it’s not enough to explain them not speaking for so long or to generate that earlier mentioned heat. The dialogue between them feels more like that of acquaintances rather than friends who fell out, which may be what the author was going for in the beginning, but that didn’t give me reason to be invested in the relationship. That brings me to why they even went on a road trip together in the first place. It just doesn’t feel believable after Megan and Scarlett going so long without a word, plus Scarlett doesn’t seem to have the best motives when she’s planning how to wrangle a road trip out of Megan since she can’t afford to fly to the wedding.
All of that aside, my main problem with this book is the slow pacing. That’s not to be confused with a slow burn romance because when that’s done right, the anticipation builds until the characters finally figure it out. This isn’t that. It may be what was intended, but the first half of the story lags enough that it never quite builds enough momentum to make it the page turner I was hoping for. Things do pick up in the second half, and I started to feel like this could be a couple worth rooting for. It’s also pretty low angst, and that along with the pick up in pace saved this story for me.
I was really hoping for a better reaction to this book. I feel like female/female romance doesn’t get nearly the exposure of male/male, male/female, or any other variation. This one does have its moments and parts of it, especially in the second half, have that something in a romance that grabs and holds my attention, but everything combined made this one just an okay read for me.
“Hairpin Curves” by Elia Winters was a lighthearted and fun road trip/forced proximity romance featuring well-developed, likeable characters and a story that, while sweet, definitely had some heat to it.
When former childhood friends Megan and Scarlett set out on an epic road trip from Florida to Quebec to attend a third friend’s wedding, there was quite a bit of awkwardness between them, but also an undercurrent of attraction that was tough to ignore. As they got further into the trip and began to understand more about why their friendship fell apart when they left for college, they finally started to open up and have fun with each other again. It soon became clear how well they complemented each other both as friends and as a couple; Scarlett was very outgoing and impulsive, while Megan was more thoughtful and methodical. They had a number of issues to work through but I thought that their relationship developed at just the right pace, and I appreciated how supportive they were of each other, particularly when it came to Scarlett’s insecurities regarding her intelligence and Megan’s insecurities about her appearance.
Overall, I enjoyed “Hairpin Curves” and recommend it for all fans of contemporary romance, especially my fellow road trip romance lovers. I would read more of this author’s work in the future.
*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of this book. I am providing a voluntary review, and all thoughts and views are my own.
I’ve been meaning to read something by Elia Winters for a while now, so when I was offered the chance to participate in the blog tour for her latest release Hairpin Curves, you can bet your booty I was all over that. And after finishing, I was left wondering why I hadn’t succumbed to this brilliant author’s words before now.
Megan and Scarlett’s story is a friends-to-quasi-enemies-back-to-friends romance with a road trip and forced proximity and just all the delicious tropes as far as the eye can see! I am here for tropes, as long as they’re approached with a careful hand and a touch of something fresh. All of that and more can be said about Ms. Winters and this delightful trope-tastic tale.
She also does a wonderful job of handling bisexuality in both characters. As a pansexual, I often find myself frustrated by the way characters who are attracted to more than a single binary gender are portrayed in romance. Sometimes it’s just a convenient plot point. Other times it’s a mostly unrealistic revelation tied to dramatic moments and fails to be handled with respect and honesty. Sometimes it’s used as a weapon, where love interests refuse to believe their potential partner who is attracted to more-than-one-gender could possibly be happy with only them. Because, after all, bi- and pansexuality automatically means a person can only be happy in a polyamorous situation or else they’ll be prone to cheating. <> That all being said, this is not how Ms. Winters portrays either of her bisexual characters, and to that, I cheers her!
This story kept me engaged and turning the page. I believed in their romance, and I wanted them to find their much deserved HEA. My pom-poms were out from very early on, and when they came back together after the black moment, I let out an audible squeal. Those kinds of reads are the best. The kind you can sink into, wrap up your emotions into, and when it all comes out the other side rainbows and roses, heave a great sigh of readerly relief and contentment.
I’d recommend this story as an excellent one for readers interested in diving into lesbian romance for the first time, because I think it is handled so very well. It would be the perfect springboard to show readers who might be unsure of the genre just how beautiful it can be!
Megan and Scarlett used to be great friends, now? Not so much. Megan felt left behind as Scarlett moved from Florida for college and life. When Juliet invites them to her wedding in Quebec, they reluctantly agree to road trip their way from Florida to Quebec.
Megan packs her scrap book and polaroid camera, hesitantly ready to see what she’s been missing out on. Even with ground rules, Scarlett manages to surprise Megan with her thoughtfulness in planning stops that Megan might enjoy.
I liked that we eventually got to find out what split Megan and Scarlett apart and upon learning those reasons, they were able to address it and move forward in their budding relationship. They both complimented and challenged each other. Their chemistry and attraction to each other grew with each stop they made and I loved it.
Their romance was a slow burn that grew in intensity. There were a few moments that had me fanning myself lol. I was a little surprised by the boldness of Scarlett at first, but then I can’t see Scarlett being any other way but bold, even in the bedroom.
Megan and Scarlett had been friends since childhood, but the friendship had ended when Scarlett failed to follow through on her promise to attend the same college as Megan. Megan was hurt and disappointed and as time passed it became harder to even think about mending their broken friendship. Several years after their falling out, Scarlett appears back in Megan’s life when each of them receives a wedding invitation to another friend’s wedding. They tentatively agree each would like to attend the wedding, and a road trip is born. This is the story of the road trip from a small Florida town to Quebec in February – what could possibly go wrong on such a trip?
This is a slow-burn romance, which could not have been easy to write. Winters, an award-winning romance writer, pulled it off very well. They visit DC, NYC, and Salem (MA), the latter is a turning point for them both. The characters are complex, seemed more “real” than many LesFic caracters, and Winters has them grow over the course of the road trip. The road trip itself is not romanticized – they can be tiring, boring, and people just want them over.
If you like your romances with angst, denial, and slow-to-ignite attraction, this is the book for you. Even the road trip was interesting as they made their way from a mild winter Florida to the snowy streets of Quebec – and Winter even threw in a blizzard for good measure. This book deserves to be at, or near, the top of your-to-be read list.
My thanks to Carina Adores (Harlequin) and Edelweiss for an eARC.