ARC REVIEW: The Coach Trip – by Izzy Bromley

Title: The Coach Trip
Author: Izzy Bromley
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary
First published: May 16th 2023
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Finished reading: March 25th 2023
Pages: 319

“I’m getting old, no matter what fancy face creams I use to try and delay it. And we can’t stop those we love leaving us too soon. But what we can do is make sure that we make the most of what we still have.”

*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***

REVIEW

WARNING: unpopular opinion ahead!!

I love stories with a focus on older main characters as well as stories with a travel element, so I truly thought that I had hit the jackpot with The Coach Trip. The blurb sounded like so much fun with the two friends going on a coach trip with a bunch of septuagenarians, and I’ve been looking forward to read it. Sadly, I didn’t exactly have the reading experience I was hoping for, and I ended up struggling considerably with this story. I’ll try to explain why below.

First of all, I have to say that I still love the premise of this story. The idea of having the two friends joining a coach trip catered to the older population had a lot of potential. I also loved the travel aspect of this story, with the different stops including descriptions that made the locations come alive. I do like a bit of armchair travel when I’m reading! The travel element was probably the main reason that I kept reading to be honest.

Now, what didn’t work for me personally then? It has a lot to do with the main characters and how they behaved. I absolutely despised Emma’s best friend Mel, and she never really redeemed herself either. She was self-centered, arrogant, disrespectful and simply rude, and I really hated having to spend so much time with her. Emma was so frustrating as well, because she lacks backbone and confidence and lets Mel walk all over her (yes, she is forgetful, but that is no excuse for Mel treating her that way).

What I also can’t get past is just how ageist The Coach Trip is. Not only with how Emma and Mel see the rest of the participants of the coach trip, but how the story itself portrays the older characters as what is basically a bunch of miserable and helpless old biddies and grumps. A rather bleak and disrespectful view of older age, and not even the fact that the story later shows that they are ‘not that bad’ after all could redeem it for me. The older generation complaining about the ‘young ones’ was likewise ageist and quite cliche to be honest.

It’s such a shame, because the premise had so much potential for me… But between the ageism and a highly unlikeable character, The Coach Trip turned into a struggle for me instead. The second half did improve slightly, but as a whole it wasn’t enough for me to change my opinion about this story. I know that I’m in the minority though, because most people do seem to enjoy this story so far.