I do love the English, all those words I do not hear that often when I read so many American novels. But here I get them all and I bloody love it.

Carrie is dumped by her fiancé (who I thought was an utter ass, but later I did change my mind. He was just a man after all.) Poor Carrie is hurt and angry and I like her, and I like her even more when she has a little revenge. Her new leading man is Matt, but things move slowly along and that is a good thing. I really like how it works out in the end. Nothing fast and furious here. As for Matt, oh, he is a doctor out in the jungle, and to top it off, he is hot. She also calls him a dirty Mr-Darcy and that sure caught my attention. Sometimes I liked him, sometimes I wondered about the woman he was seeing. But all in all I liked him and I thought these two should hook up.

Much of the book is about the roadtrip. Carrie needs to get over Huw, Matt has his own issues why he is in England. So there will be sun, sand, kisses, arguing between them and realizations.

Conclusion:
I liked this one because it was sweet, but it was not too sweet since Carrie made her fair share of mistakes. It's life. Cute, happy and a page-turner.
( )

really really predicatable, not very well written ( )

This book started off well. The premise was kinda cool: I think just about anyone would live to set off around the country side in a camper. However, I felt like things became rather rushed in the end. I actually wondered if Ashley had a deadline to meet because of the incompleteness of the story for the last 100 pages. Carrie and Matt's realization that they loved each other came rather forced in the end. Still, Carrie and Matt are both so likable that you can't help but to root for them and feel happy at the end. ( )

Life was set, planned and charted for Carrie Brownhill. The love of her life, Huw, and her were set to be married but only four weeks before their wedding date he calls it off to suddenly be married to someone completely different only a few months later. Shocked and confused Carrie decides the perfect solution is a caravan trip with her best friend Rowena, but that falls through as well. Faced with the option of sulking around for the next month or taking along the handsome yet annoying Matt Landor she opts for the adventure of a lifetime and ends up with more than she bargains for. What results is a road trip neither Carrie nor Matt will ever forget.

Sometimes you simply need a good solidly funny book with great characters and a little romance. Carrie Goes Off the Map was exactly that for me. Having recently suffered from a bit of a reading slump I was thrilled to have the opportunity to read Phillipa Ahsley’s latest. I’ve had a number of her books sitting on my shelves now for a while, but haven’t had the time to pick them up and now I feel like I’ve done myself a disservice. Phillipa knows how to write! Her characters were so easy to relate to and the story had moments that gave me those little butterflies because of the sheer happiness in the scene. I loved it! Even now, days after reading it, I’m still grinning at how things all turned out.

First of all, Carrie. Oh my, Carrie Brownhill is quite the character. Admittedly there were times, many times, during reading the book that I wanted to reach out and scream at her. Oddly enough it wasn’t so much in her “moping” period just after having lost her fiance, because for me that was perfectly understandable and it also didn’t seem to go on for a long time. What made me frustrated with her was her lack of ability to see what was right in front of her, Matt. His character was perfect. Not that he was this unrealistic perfect guy that couldn’t truly exist, but that he was very honest and real. Now, I do have to say that by the end of the book I can see why there were so many times that Carrie just didn’t get things and I’m happy she didn’t because the book would have been much shorter and more boring had she just “figured it all out” to begin with. And let me say…the ending is perfect!

Also, this is the perfect road trip book! If you’re not one for road trips you may even end up liking this one because they don’t spend all of their time on the road. Much of the time is spent at different beach locations along the English countryside and for someone who’s never visited, it was incredibly easy to imagine. With at least two or three stop offs on their trip there were a wide enough variety of characters that you didn’t get bored of Carrie and Matt squabbling off and on, but you also had enough angst of wanting to see them finally get together. Overall it was just the right balance of travel, characters and interaction.

Carrie Goes Off the Map by Phillipa Ashley is the perfect read for Chick Lit fans. Filled with characters that make you laugh, cringe and even get excited about it simply is a fantastic read! Carrie’s journey with Matt Landor begins as something she absolutely loathes and by the end turns into a relationship that has readers hoping will end amazingly. And it absolutely does! This was a book that got me out of a reading slump and back into a grove primarily because the writing was so good. Carrie Goes Off the Map is a hilarious and heartwarming road trip that readers won’t soon forget!

Originally reviewed and copyrighted at my site Chick Lit Reviews and News. ( )

Phillipa Ashley has a fun, lively style to her writing that keeps the tempo moving in her stories, and her characters progressing. I'm always struck by writers who can get me to care about the main character quickly, and I always seem to feel that way with Ashley's heroines. In this case, Carrie could be any woman who has been dumped by her man/fiance. However, her situation seems compounded by feelings of all the time she lost and for being played a fool. It's not as if the relationship fizzled out and they both knew it wasn't right, it was like being jilted and left the outsider and the unwanted. All you have to do is add a main male lead character who is charismatic, attractive, aloof, and a Mr. Darcy comparison, and you have a real recipe for sure romance.

Whatever it is about a woman who has been scorned and left aside that draws a man in, I'll never quite understand, but we all seem to love it. I can't say that I know of anyone who has done that in real life (gotten together on the back of a nasty split, although I know they exist), but there is something appealing about having that resolution. This story isn't an easy get together though. Much of the story is spent traveling the countryside, as Carrie and her handsome doctor, Matt, take a road trip to forget their woes. As any road trip is bound to do, the two get into their quarrels and eat their fair share of gas station fare. With that comes short tempers, but also a number of conversations brought on by fatigue and heightened emotions.

As with Phillipa Ashley's novels, I really enjoyed this newest one. Carrie's story is one that many women will recognize and see themselves in from start to finish (or at least wish to). ( )