[ARC Review] Miles and Miles of You by Jennifer Bonds

Publisher's synopsis: Lucy Gonzalez might have once been a stressed personal assistant, but now she’s hitched up her grandma’s bitchin’ vintage Airstream and hitting the road with all the best places to find cheap eats and see the sights on a shoestring budget.

And she has company along for the ride. If those thirst-worthy abs seem familiar, it’s because they belong to billionaire Miles Hart. True story, he used to be Lucy’s boss until she quit on him. Something about not being appreciated? Anyway, you will appreciate Miles—and his groveling—plenty on this trip.

Now, you have front-row seats to the hottest trip of the year. Sparks! Fireworks! Unexpected smooching! And you won’t want to miss the jaw-dropping surprise that will make this destination totally worth the hilarious journey…

My thoughts: Whew, there was a lot to love about Miles and Miles of You: a road trip (that hit up some places I'm all too familiar with), some very close proximity, mutual unrequited pining, a (former) boss/employee relationship, and a woman who up and quits her unfulfilling day job and makes her dreams of becoming a success influencer come true. Basically, Lucy is living my dream life...

I loved Lucy, and I think she's the type of character that a lot of people can relate to. Even if quitting your job on a whim to start over as a travel influencer isn't in most of our futures, Lucy's urge to still play it safe and not be spontaneous is an all-too-familiar feeling for a lot of people. I saw a lot of myself in Lucy's character, and I know I won't be the only one. 

Miles is a lovable, clueless man. I thoroughly loved that one of Lucy's big sticking points with Miles was the fact that - while she spent the last two years pining for him - he barely knew any details about her and never felt the need to pay attention to those details during all the time they worked together. I know he was her boss, and likely would have been out of line had he sought out those details, but this man can barely function at work without Lucy and it was quite adorable to see him realize just how much he didn't know about his own assistant. 

Since this story was mostly set on the road, we didn't get many secondary characters who left lasting impressions, but the ones we did get - namely Miles' brothers - definitely made an impression. I was so glad to see that this book was labelled as book one in The Harts series because now I can't wait for both brothers to get their own HEA. 

Lucy and Miles' trip on Route 66 was one of growth: of discovering who they truly wanted to be, of learning who the other person was, and, of course, of social media followings. I grew up not too far from several of the landmarks they hit at the beginning of their Route 66 journey, and I loved that Bonds didn't just stick to the big attractions along the route. Has anyone ever made Odell, Illinois a location in a romance before? I feel like that is a first, and it made the whole journey feel that much more real and relatable.

I was immediately pulled into the story by Bonds' writing, her characters, and the vivid descriptions of Miles and Lucy's journey. This book will make you want to drop everything and believe in your dreams.

A huge thank you to Entangled for providing a review copy of Miles and Miles of You.  

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Release date: 11/7/22
Format: eARC
eARC provided via: NetGalley