Blog Tour: Stuck in Second Gear by Carmen Reid

Even when I am trying to resist the lure of too many blog tours, there is one thing that will call me. Some days I am strong enough to resist, there are some days when I just can't. When I saw the blurb for this book, my resistance was very weak. How could I resist a road trip across France?

Lucie Marshal is flabbergasted when she receives an invite to her ex-husband's wedding to a much younger influencer. How very dare he! How on earth can he even afford such a lavish event, perfectly curated for social media, when she is still paying off the debts from their acrimonious split. There is no way that she is attending this wedding.

When Lucie and Miles split, she didn't just lose a husband, she lost her interior design business, her well to do lifestyle, and there are now very distinct cracks in her relationship with her daughter Zoe. She hasn't even met the man who is the father to her soon to be born grandchild. What did she gain? Well, some debt, life in a new town closer to her ailing dad, a car that is going to cost her a fortune to repair to make it roadworthy and not much more. 

When there is a sudden train strike and all the flights are booked, Lucie's dad convinces her that she should take his old Jaguar and drive heavily pregnant Zoe to the wedding, and he will pay the costs. He also suggests to her that maybe she should try and live a little, have some fun along the way. And then her nephew Deva needs a lift too. Can anyone say road trip!

For Lucie, it would be best to just get to the wedding destination, drop Zoe and Deva off, and she can continue on to the little hotel by the sea that she has booked before making the return trip. Deva, however, is absolutely obsessed with all things Coco Chanel, and soon they are making deviations from the easy route, visiting Paris, the Auvergne region and more. I would not want to be driving a Jag into central Paris or some of the country roads in France!

Both Zoe and Deva have their own stories to be told during this road trip. Zoe's partner Rafi doesn't seem to want the same things as she does, and Deva's mother has very particular ideas of how he should live which don't equate with him living his best life!

I loved this book. I have never read Carmen Reid, but now she is on my list of authors that I have to read the backlists of! There was a lot going on in this book, what with all the events that happen as they drive across France, relationships to be repaired, with Deva taking ownership of who he really is, an influencer wedding where there is an unexpected guest and so much more. Carmen Reid does a great job of balancing the sad, the sweet, the funny moments, the joy and all the emotions in between.

I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted by The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews. Be sure to check out other stops on the tour shown below. Thanks to the publisher, Netgalley and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy. 

Rating 4.5/5

About the book

Stuck in Second Gear

Divorced, Re-wedded. Survived....

Lucie Marshal is absolutely furious! How did she go from being a successful wife and mother to divorced, teetering on bankruptcy, and barely speaking to her grown-up daughter? Even worse, she’s just heard that her moronic ex-husband Miles is marrying a much younger woman in an influencer-style wedding in France #blessed #theone

Lucie will absolutely NOT be going. To hell with Miles, his new teeth, new hair and new wife! She’s perfectly fine...In fact, Lucie feels lost and angry almost all of the time. Just what happened to her younger, freer wild child self, who used to live life to the full?

But then pregnant daughter Zoe needs a lift... and eccentric nephew Deva needs a lift too and now Lucie has somehow agreed to drive her Dad’s beloved old Jag all the way across France to take them to her ex-husband’s wedding.

With a pitstop in Paris, a breakdown, unexpected passengers, and miles of open road, all set to Deva’s showtunes soundtrack – could this be the journey Lucie needs to find a way back to herself?

Purchase Link - https://mybook.to/stuckinsecondgear

About the Author –

Carmen Reid is the bestselling author of numerous woman’s fiction titles including the Personal Shopper series starring Annie Valentine. After taking a break from writing she is back, introducing her hallmark feisty women characters to a new generation of readers. She lives in Glasgow with her husband and children.

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