In The Last Road Trip, Mary Blake Bulloch convinces four of her sorority sisters to redo their college trip which was cut short by a disaster twenty years earlier. Each woman is dealing with her own crisis of some sort—divorce, terminal illness, death of a beloved brother, etc—as well as dark secrets from the past. Each hopes the trip will provide some respite as well as a chance to renew friendships. During the new trip, old grievances resurface, and former alliances shift like tectonic plates. Things better off left unsaid are said while things that should be said are reburied.
This is a dual point-of-view story with a timeline split 1999 and 2019. While it’s a good read, with five main characters who have similar voices, it’s easy to get them confused. I would have preferred stronger character development in fewer characters. I enjoyed seeing the fractures within each individual friendship and within the group itself as well as the ultimately healing.
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The Last Road Trip (Red Adept Publishing, LLC, February 10, 2025) is available through:
Your local independent bookseller | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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You can read my review of Klepper’s debut novel here.
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