4.5 Stars

I should start this review off by saying I’m a huge Amanda Radley fan. It’s going to take work for her to write a book I don’t love. “Detour to Love” is classic Radley. It’s a slow burn, ice queen, age-gap, and low heat romance.

Celia and Lily meet while traveling to Tokyo. Celia, 51, is an executive going to accept an award she really doesn’t want. Lily, 25, is finally meeting her crush in person after years of talking online. Their journey is interrupted and they are forced together after some unusual circumstances.

Celia really starts off as the rude ice queen. Over time her story comes out and you can’t help but feel badly for her and see her in a different light. Lily, comes across as very sweet (and patient), if a little naïve. However, she doesn’t put up with Celia’s rudeness and calls her out on it time after time.

This is strangers to friends to romantic love. We don’t really see much of the romantic love until the epilogue. Watching them become friends and really get to know one another was a joy. They’re each dealing with some painful things going on at the time of their meeting and by chance are able to help each other. Neither has a close group of friends and because of their circumstances, they provide the support the other needs.

As I said above, this is very low heat. There aren’t any explicit scenes so if that’s a must have for you, you should look elsewhere. I didn’t find it lacking but I also wasn’t expecting it.

In the end, this a really well written romance about two people who come into each other’s lives at the right time. I recommend this to romance fans who enjoy fun and funny banter.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books in exchange for an honest review.

Netgalley Review:

I really enjoyed both MCs. They had good chemistry and were humorous. My only critique would be (being careful of spoilers) the plotline around "Allen". That whole plotline felt like it should have been heavier. It was a very tragic and upsetting part of the story but the characters seemed very capable of whimsy around it. I would read more by this author. 3 stars.

ARC provided via NetGalley because of Patreon.

I really enjoyed this book. Good characters and naturalistic and fun dialogue to establish a dynamic absolutely up my alley and this book has this in spades. Amanda Radley has the ability to introduce us to these ice queen characters that are extremely unlikeable, even by the standards of that trope, and by the end, make us fall in love with them. This was certainly the case here.

There are points where I was smiling or laughing out loud at the excellent banter between the two leads, and I really enjoyed the journey (literally and metaphorically) each of them is on to grow and help each other discover something important about themselves.

I gave this book five stars because I will definitely be coming back to re-read this later. This is in my top three books by this author, whose work I obviously enjoy enough to support on Patreon. Looking forward to the next book and I wouldn't mind a sequel with these characters either.

More than romance, this book is about grief, but it has humor. The characters are very different but find themselves drawn to each other after some bad moments. Do not expect a lot of sex on its pages, this is a slow burn romance, but is was a very nice reading.

What a snappy, witty read. The back-and-forth dialogue between Celia and Lily is fun and fast. Celia is all barbs and rudeness at the start, Lily seems sweet but she can hold her own. The two of them are thrown together a number of times and from there a relationship grows.

The romance is quite understated and drawn-out, but that’s not the main part of the story. I really like how the two of them support each other and help each other through some tough times.

Nothing really gets resolved until the very end, leaving little time to see them together as a couple, but I enjoyed the journey very much. The running jokes they have are hilarious, and the darker moments are handled thoughtfully.

My rating: five stars

This was a story of discovery and moving on from tragedies. Lily and Calia are extreme opposite and start out as enemies but circumstances push them together.
I have to say I was disappointed there wasn't any hooking up. I kept waiting for it and then nothing. The characters and the storyline was deep and properly developed but I missed the sex.

I absolutely adored this story! Celia and Lilly meet by chance on a flight from London to Tokyo. They might have gotten off on the wrong foot but there was an immediate pull towards each other. They’re forced together in a number of unfortunate events but eventually form a fast friendship. This book took you around the world which made it even more enticing to read! So many places in this book I haven’t been and made me want to visit! It was such a great enemies to friends to lovers with an age gap romance!

This book gave me all the airport and travel vibes I was missing this year!

I finished this in one day. It was addictive. The story just wanted you to keep reading it, the chapters were the perfect length to keep you interested, the characters were so charming, and the issues in the book were addressed so well.

I love short chapters. I think they're the best for when you have too much to do and you just want to read a chapter or two as you take a break. This was perfect just for that. I would work on a project, then read a chapter or two, love the characters even more, then get back to work. And so the loop went on.

The best part of this book was how it portrayed emotion with the two main characters. It wasn't any 'love at first sight' or 'this is the person that's meant for me'. Throughout the story, you can sense the feelings and the trust growing slowly, and that was so lovely to witness. You don't read that everyday.

I think this was a beautiful story and I'm so glad I got the chance to read it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books, Inc. for the earc for an honest review.

Celia Scott is a high profile executive on her way to Tokyo to received an award she doesn't want. Among the many unfortunate events of the trip she meets Lily Andersen, an artist, traveling to Tokyo to meet a friend she met online and has fallen in love with. The annoyance and dislike is mutual between the two women, and that is before they even made it inside the plane. The trip results in detours neither woman was expecting and in a connection neither was prepared for either.

As always, A. Radley has written an amazing, sweet and slow burn romance. I was hooked from the first page. It was sweet, funny, witty and loving. I absolutely loved both characters and I really liked how they bonded and treated each other. One thing I truly appreciate about this author is how authentic and real the romance and characters are. I did not want the book to end. This will definitely be a yearly read. Can't wait to get the paperback and add it to the Radley collection in my bookcase.

This is an age gap romance, and no one does age-gaps romance better than A. Radley. I have been a fan of this author before she joined Bold Strokes and I am very happy she is part of that team now. Hopefully her amazing stories will reach more people.

This ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for a honest review

This book was brilliantly written, the chemistry between the characters clearly shined through and it was very enjoyable. It's a cute and quick read that could definitely get you out of a bad mood. I love enemies to lovers in a book, it's really fun to see the growth between two characters and how they go from one extreme emotion to another. It was very exciting to see a different kind of romance, in the sense of the age gap which isn't normally present in romance novels, but in this one it brought something new to the table which I really enjoyed. I think though maybe this book could have been a little bit shorter, as there were some unnecessary parts that I think didn't add to the story. The six month jump at the end kind of irritated me because I feel like we didn't get to see the change from friendship to relationship clearly enough but I was satisfied with the ending. I wish that the author made Lily more confident in other things than just her friendship with Celia. If we was to see her go to Denmark again with Celia and stand up her to grandma that would have been a better ending in my opinion. This book is very different to what I have read before because I haven't really read much LGBTQ+ books, however I would like to read more and this was the perfect starting point. I rated this book four stars and would definitely recommend to people who I know love romance books.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

Detour to love is an easy read, but was a lot more serious than I was expecting based on the cover and the summary. I was expecting a rom-com and this was not that. Other than the fact that the two end up together I don’t know that I would even consider it a romance. I think it would have been much stronger to have them not end up together and have the book be considered women’s fiction.

My biggest struggle was that I didn’t believe in Lily and Celia as a couple. I honestly think Lily and Celia are much stronger as friends. The book had absolutely no heat to it. It is a clean romance, but you can have longing and heat in clean romances. I just read it and I have no idea what the attraction was between the two of them beyond companionable friendship. Also the book never reveals if Celia is gay, bi, pan, or somewhere in between. Lily asks Celia point blank more than once in the book and she never answers. I guess the answer is “not straight” because they end up together, but I would like for my lesbian romances to at least give me two characters who can admit they’re queer.

Also it is one of my pet peeves when a book involves traveling and multiple cities but you never really “see” the cities. The book revolved around a trip to Tokyo but literally all of the Tokyo scenes on page are at the hotel. I appreciated the Tivoli scenes, but even the Edinburgh scenes could have been anywhere with a castle.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Stroke Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warnings: excessive drinking, homophobia, death of a parent, references to suicide

Amanda Radley’s book always make me happy because I know that I am going to be entertained. The writing is great, there’s humor, great characters and a wonderful and an original story. This book did not disappoint! The story with Alan was hilarious!!! I laughed so hard. But the best part was how Celia and Lily fell in love over time. I loved it and I can’t wait for the next book.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Trigger warnings: excessive drinking, suicide, death of a child, homophobia.

I've had to take a minute to wrap my head around this. It was a well written story, the characters were not perfect which I enjoyed, and there were some heartbreaking moments.

I will start by saying I did enjoy this story, it's a cute and quick read.

I'm not sure I liked Celia for Lily that much, can't tell what Lily initially saw in her besides the fact that she found her hot.

Celia was just rude for no apparent reason, then you get a little back story and you feel yourself feeling sorry for her, but as the story unfolds you like her a bit more for her sendr of humour and the way she get protective of Lily.

I haven't got much to say about Lily besides the fact that I really enjoyed her optimism and way of living her life. She's content with life and enjoys it.

A cute little story of a blossoming relationship between 2 women.

Something that started on rocky waters between then turned into fluffiness (i know it's not a word, don't @ me).
The present age gap between them only slowed them down a bit. It was rather refreshing to see a couple that's not the usual find in romance novels.
Even though they did end up going through quite a lot together, I am extremely happy that the book didn't fall into the typical Lesbian stereotype of 24 hour romance.... Or at least it wasn't obviously mutual.

The plot flowed smooth, POV was from both main characters, Lily and Celia. You got to take a look into the thoughts of both ladies as they battled their personal situations.

Easy read, beautiful book.

Please note that there is topics of grief, dismissal of sexuality ("it'll pass"), and topics of suicide.

Thank you to NetGalley and Publisher for gifting me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My first Radley read and I couldn't be happier! This book was do great! The story was well written. I couldn't help but love these people. This book is a warm hearted with a great story to be told!
I really loved the way this is told. Her writing is so unique and I'm already on Kindle store looking for more!

A fun and quick read that follows two women's travels from the UK to Tokyo and back again, with some delays and detours that throw them into each other's path.

It was a rough start for me, as the one of the MCs seemed to be very unlikable. I was won around though as we followed the two women on their travels. The support they showed each other and their growing friendship was lovely to read about.

It did find it a little uneven in pace, with the romance only kicking in right at the end. I would have found it a more satisfying romance with another 100 pages or so, showing us the romance rather than leap a month and then six months into the future.

However the issues raised were handled well, the various travel disasters and cities they visited were fun, and again watching the friendship develop were enough for me to really enjoy this book.

This is a slow burn age-gap romance. Celia, a high profile insurance broker meets Lily, a children's book illustrator, at the airport. Both on their way to Tokyo. Celia is going to accept an award she does not want and Lily is on her way to meet her online love interest.

The two do not get along and their flight does not go smoothly. But slowly they from tentative friendship while developing feelings for each other.

It's a heartwarming, clean and smut free (and a bit sad) story about two women helping each other. Celia and Lily balance each other out. The age gap is big tho and might not be everyone's cup of tea.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

To think I almost passed on this book! For some reason the blurb didn't grab me and I was doubting whether or not to read the book but I am very glad I did. This is one those book where you hit it off with both characters. The banter was really fun, dialogue flowed easily and there was a good mix of drama, humor and a bit of romance. The connection that formed between Celia and Lily was written very well, you could see it happening. The romance is definitely slowburn and apart from a kiss or two there is not much action. Which actually works out fine, I also liked the fact that no label was put on Celia... she appeared straight in the beginning of the story but why do you need labels anyway if it's about the connection between two people regardless gender? I would have been happier if the romance, when finally admitted by both women was also described instead of making a 6 month jump in time.

There is an age gap by the way, and a pretty big one too, but even though I normally don't really fancy that in a story it didn't bother me at all. This was a really pleasant read that reminded me of a good british romcom.

***An ARC was provided by Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. ***

This was a cute f/f romance. It was quite slow burn, dealt really well with mental health and grief, and was sweet. It was not sexually explicit at all, which can be unusual for romance novels. I wasn't hopping up and down about what it said about online romantic relationships but that's about it.

This was so fun and such a great summer "beach read" for 2021.

I loved the travel element and in a time where we aren't able to travel anywhere, this was escapism at its very best and I was here for it!