Found the characters unsympathetic, and Celia was straight out unlikable. The only 'reason' Lily even went for her was because she crushed on successful older women, which just seemed so flimsy to go on, especially when Celia went out of her way to be extra-rude to her. The connection just never clicked for me, making it hard to root for a relationship, let alone a romance between these two

I enjoyed this one considering it was my first book to read by this author. Unfortunately nothing really stood out to me.

The clowns were a surprise. Alan was a surprise too. An easy enjoyable read. Radley is great with a pen and delivers an entertaining, perfectly paced tale.

This is a nice slow burn romance. But I wish I had known there was a largest age gap between Celia and Lily. That took a lot of my enjoyment away.

I found this to be an enjoyable read, keeping me on my toes throughout. The storyline was written well and flowed seamlessly. I look forward to reading more by this author!

Absolutely charming slow burn romance full of wit and humour. A combination of age gap, ice queen and holiday romance with a twist, Amanda Radley hits a new high with this one.

Celia and Lily meet in a shop in airport and immediately starts off with a fight. This is a age gap romance but written in a interesting way. Loved the book.

Thank you for the publishers for the review copy.

I love all books by this author, can highly recommend. Just wonderful. The main characters are well developed and its so well written you feel personally involved in the journey.

A very quick and sweet age gap romance. I am not sure how I feel about that large of a gap since it puts the main characters at such different spots in life and the one having a kids only a few years younger than the other makes me feel uncomfortable. But I did like the slow burn and the interactions between the two.

Not my first book by this author, I’m delighted she chose BSB to further develop and hone her talent and it shines in Detour to Love. It’s important to note this author excels at sweet and angsty romances with emphasis on character development instead of hot and steamy bedroom naughty bits. The results are modern fairy tales with sparkling dialogue typically based in the UK. Detour to Love has the added delicious story arc of an age gap romance laced with insanely hilarious snark and sarcasm between Celia and Lily. It’s difficult to like Celia at first, but the more you read the more layers peel off her spikey exterior to reveal her grief for her dead son. The adventures they take on together, whether forced upon them or planned, had me laughing or sighing in glee for every step they bravely take together. It’s so infrequent we read a story with so much focus on the relationship rather than the attraction or chemistry, but Detour to Love will leave you delightfully smiling after The End. I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Detour to Love by Amanda Radley.
The story between Celia and Lily is well written, kept me interested enough to read in one day,which i found totally relaxing.
Celia and Lily are both great characters thrown together by fate. The chat and back chats are quite humorous and I found my self smiling or chuckling.

Would i recommend: Yes if you're looking for that time out moment in your day

I always love Amanda Radley’s books and this was no different!!

Both halves of the romantic pairing were so well developed - each had their own strong storyline outside of the romance arc and I truly cared about each woman individually as well as whole heartedly rooting for them to get together!

The romance itself was unlike any other I’ve read and it was so refreshing!! Neither of the two women were looking to fall for someone and the slow unfolding of their feelings felt so natural!

An absolutely stunning romance with heart, depth and brilliant writing.💞

This was such a cute love story. I have read other Radley romances, but this is her first book with BSB. Detour to Love seemed to be in line with her other romances. Sweet and cute. These two mains meet when they are both flying to Tokyo. Celia Scott is flying to receive an award she does not want and Lily Andersen is flying to meet her online love interest. I love that Radley tackles some serious issues in this one. One being why Celia is having so many issues with this award and Lily who is going to meet a stranger and could be walking into danger. There for sure is a lot of twist and turns that will keep you engaged. This was more of a slow burn but Radley did a great job with the pace of the romance. I for sure enjoyed this one and will give it 4 stars.

This arc was provided by netgalley and the publisher for an honest review.

Another Bit of Perfection from Amanda Radley
Celia is a busy, stressed out an uptight executive who is flying to Tokyo to accept an award she doesn’t want anything to do with and its causing her a ton of emotional stress. If that’s not bad enough, the airline messed up her reservation and now first class is full of literal clowns. She’s in a bad way and there seems to be no hope on the horizon. Lily is a free spirit, go with the flow artist who is off to Tokyo to meet her online girlfriend, the only person who has truly been there for her during a rough patch in her life. When Celia and Lily meet, personalities clash… then they are seated next to each other. Neither is excited about it and it looks like it’s going to be a long flight, then things get complicated… Fate has a way of making things interesting and the pair are thrown together time and again… Maybe, just maybe they aren’t so bad together…

I ADORED this story!!! I thought it was sweet, lovely, tender and wonderful. Of course it was flawlessly written and edited, Ms Radley would produce nothing less. I loved how Celia and Lily clashed but were there for each other when the chips were down. I loved the emotions the characters had and that the writing brought forth in me. There were parts where I laughed and parts where I cried…. I truly cared what happened to these women. This is one of those books that you won’t want to put down and I stayed up well into the night because I NEEDED to see how it ended!! This is not a book that will disappoint and I have it in my re read pile already!

I’ve read a few books by Amanda Radley and particularly liked Huntress and Bring Holly Home. This author was previously known as A.E. Radley and most of her career has been as an independent writer. This is her first book published by Bold Strokes Books and under the name Amanda Radley.

Celia Scott is an upper-level executive in an insurance company on her way to Tokyo to receive an award she doesn’t want for personal reasons. Lily Andersen is a children’s book illustrator who’s travelling to Japan to meet her online crush. As they find themselves seating together on the plane, their personalities clash and they initially cannot stand each other but fate makes them cross their paths and realise that maybe they were meant for each other…

This is an opposites-attract, age-gap, enemies to lovers romance by this author who has previously used these tropes in her extensive career. The age gap is quite substantial (Celia is 51 and Lily 26) and even though the main characters are completely different, the author makes their attraction work. I wouldn’t say that the chemistry is explosive; the romance is slow-burn and there aren’t any explicit sex scenes, but the mains are good enough together more in an intense platonic friendship than anything else.

I was under the impression that this was a romantic comedy based on the cover and blurb. It starts like that, with a few funny moments. However, the tone of the novel suddenly changes to slightly somber and it never goes back to the initial lightness despite that there are some funny moments afterwards. I’m not going to explain why because it’s not stated in the blurb and I don’t want to spoil anything, but the circumstances around one of the characters made me change my reading mood substantially. It’s not that they behaved out of character, it’s absolutely understandable, things considered, but nevertheless, it changed the general tone of the book or at least my impression of it.

If you enjoy slow-burn romances with more emphasis on the emotional than the physical aspects and don’t mind an age gap of 25 years then this might be for you. 3.5 stars.

ARC provided by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I want to thank Netgalley, Amanda Radley and Bold Strokes Books Inc. for sending me an advance digital copy of this book. All opinions will remain my own, as always.

This is the first book by Amanda Radley that I have read. It has received a plethora of praise and great reviews online but for me I just couldn’t get really into this book. I love a good love story with passion and heat and this book just didn’t have that. The love story is very slow to develop, in fact by the time I had read 90% of it, I didn’t even know if the main characters were even that into eachother. There is also a very large age gap between the two main characters - which is accentuated by the fact the Celia (the older of the two characters) keeps paying for things which in turn for most of the book, gave me more of a maternal vibe than a love interest vibe with her. The character development is great but for me it just wasn’t a passionate enough love story - and I don’t mean that in a steamy way (though it didn’t have that either).

I did not finish this book. I started and lost interest very quickly. I may give it another go sometime down the road but for now it's a DNF. Sorry about that.

This book is quite like walking on water. If you're fast enough it will give you a few seconds before you drown in the amazing story the author has written. It is shockingly extraordinary and original.

Yay, my first five star review of the year! The book only took me a while to get through because I was trying to savour it.
This was the perfect balance of light-hearted but sensitive. Celia is an ice queen, or maybe just a jerk, but I don't think it's possible not to sympathize with her once you hear her backstory. Which was, by the way, nicely handled and not at all an info dump. Lily is terrific, a slightly naïve optimist, but she's an unstoppable force and has a high emotional intelligence, when she wants to. I was pleasantly surprised to find that she had as much depth as Celia did.
The plot was flawlessly executed. It didn't get boring once the initial thrill of the premise was over, which I have found tends to happen when the book promises a vacation-like setting outside of their normal lives. The push and pull always made sense, and gave us a lot of insight into the characters. Although it takes a while for them to actually get together, it never feels like someone is stalling.
As for the last few chapters. I wouldn't state that the romance was rushed per se. It seemed in character for them to take it so slowly. I did think a little too much happened off screen, as there were a couple of less subtle time skips right at the end. Even one more chapter of getting comfortable with each other, of casually dating, would have been fabulous. Still, it worked relatively well. As a sidenote, I thought the lack of a sex scene went hand in hand with the mood of the story. The characters had chemistry, but there was more of a romantic vibe than an overtly sexual one. With the other emotions running through their minds, they could not have jumped into bed after only a short period of dating anyways.
So I haven't read Amanda Radley before, but you bet I will be looking out for her after this.

I absolutely love books by Amanda Radley and this is no exception. Celia and Lily are wonderfully fleshed out characters and the writing is excellent, as usual. The book touches some heavy subjects in places, but this does not take over the overall feel of the book; its romance is light and its comedic banter is perfection. My only complaint would be the last two chapters covering one month and six months later respectively. I would have liked to read what happened rather than a brief summary. This left the ending feeling a little rushed and I felt a bit cheated and left out of Lily and Celia’s story. Other than that, wonderful!
I was given an advance review copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.