The Reluctant Roadtripper (A Romantic Comedy)

That's All, Folks!!!

So it's probably rare that you can say a story idea came from a drinking game, but this one did. Technically, it came from a post another Wattpadder - the lovely Ella Rowan -  put on her wall about six months ago when she was bigging up my books.

Ella made up a tongue-in-cheek drinking game you could play with regards to some common themes that appear in some, but usually not all, of my stories. At the time, I was working on Practice Makes Perfect, but I took note of these themes.

And then, when it was time to write something new, I decided to make a deliberate attempt to incorporate all of the themes. Let me just check that I got all the ones I think I remember from Ella's list . . .

💜Cheese, described in detail? I think I dialled the cheese talk down a little, but it definitely made at least one appearance. ✔️

 
💜Hero with glasses? Hell, I figured I may as well make the heroine short-sighted as well while I was at it! 🤷‍♀️ ✔️

💜Mountain climbing?  Ish. I mean, it was a hill as opposed to a mountain, but we're counting it, okay? ✔️

💜Gorgeous Scottish scenery porn? Well, that's kinda what inspired me to make it a road trip around the North Coast 500, so hopefully, tick on that. ✔️

💜Supercool Glasgow nightlife? To be fair, they only made it to Wetherspoons in Argyle Street, but we're going to count this, too. I'm sure someone out there somewhere thinks Sir John Moore's is cool! (I just need to find them and make them admit it.) ✔️

💜Mention of Friends? I'm pretty sure I got a Ross reference in at some point. Yes, I did - Mirren's "near death experience" at Corrieshalloch Gorge. ✔️

So . . . Yeah, in the event you ever do decide to play a drinking game using one of my books, The Reluctant Roadtripper is the only one I actually constructed that way on purpose. (Additional note: play this game at your own risk. I refuse to take any responsibility for the state you could potentially end up in.)

I also really wanted to try writing a hero who was just . . . totally into the heroine from the outset and never really attempted to hide it, or play games, and I had a lot of fun with Owen (although maybe not the type of fun I would want if he was real). Usually, my heroes are a bit more guarded, at least at first, and I like to think he was quite a refreshing character in that he was just all in from the start. He might just be my new favourite hero. But then I've said that about most of my heroes, so 🤷‍♀️.

It's also been so much fun to write about my home country and give some insights into its beauty, as well as its quirks. I hope it's been nice for others to learn more about Scotland! I've completed the North Coast 500 in its entirety by car (as a passenger - much like my girl Mirren, I can't drive) back before it got too popular, but I've also visited small areas of it many times so it's got a special place in my heart. If you ever decide to do it, I would recommend pretty much all the places I mentioned . . . but I would agree with Owen that John O'Groats is overrated (to be fair, I actually told him that!). And please be responsible - no parking in passing places, holding up locals, or hanging your washing on someone's garden fence, okay??? 😉

Thanks so much to everyone who hopped on board (see what I did there?) from the start of this book before I even knew where it was going. There are so many of you, and I want to tag you all, but I also don't want you to come to this page too early and lose your place in the story (because things like that honestly happen to me all the time) so I might come back and do this at a later date . . . But you all know who you are, and I have been loving reading all of your comments. 💜

So cheers for taking yet another chance on a "pantser" -  I really hope you enjoyed The Reluctant Roadtripper as much as I loved writing it! If you have any favourite scenes or characters I'd love for you to share!

And apologies for rambling on for so long here . . .  *facepalm*

💜💜💜