As a romance writer, this is one of the greatest ways to bring a couple together. You’ve got forced proximity – the smaller the vehicle the better – and a whole lot of time with nothing else to do but get to know each other. They don’t even have to know one another before you put them in the vehicle! That is the premise for the first book, Drive Me Crazy. A cross-country road trip will certainly give you enough time to thoroughly get to know someone.
But honestly, whether the characters already know one another and are friends or enemies, there is something almost magical about the endless possibilities the road trip can provide. I am a firm believer that you can learn more on a three-day road trip with someone than you would in an entire month of dating. You can learn what kind of driver they are – patient? Impatient? Speed demon? Slowpoke? After that, you will find out their taste in music, food, drinks, what kind of snacker they are – sweet or salty – you know, the basics.
And the biggie that tends to come out on a road trip, is the family history. Did they go on vacations? What were they like? Did they get along with their siblings? Their parents? The first road trip my husband and I took, for example, he learned how my only experience with long-distance road trips was where we drove for 24 hours straight without stopping for the night and my parents were terrible communicators so there was a LOT of yelling and it was all-around miserable.
I still have a little PTSD from that one.
You see what I’m saying, though, right?
In romance, it’s all about getting our couple from their meet cute to their HEA. And as a reader, how fun is it to be learning all these little tid-bits about our characters when there are no outward distractions other than the road? You get to almost hyper-focus on building the relationship within the confines of the car and yet we end up learning so much! And the longer the trip, the better.
With hours up on hours and days upon days to fill, what will our hero and heroine do? Well, with my sense of direction, the answer is to fall in love!
So not only do I LOVE to write romances that involve road trips, I adore reading them as well. And it doesn’t matter if the whole book focuses on the trip or if it’s really just part of the story, it still adds a fun and fascinating dynamic that I simply adore.
Looking to read one yourself? Here are my top five picks!