Featured Photo by Flo P on Unsplash

Light Spoilers Ahead

Thank you to NetGalley and Union Square & Co. for giving me a free ARC of this book to read.

I tend to be particularly fond of narratives that are the complete and total opposite of my own life because they allow me to turn the escapism up to 100. That’s a major reason why I enjoyed the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in a way that I haven’t enjoyed any other movie in a long time. The other reason is, well, Benicio Del Toro.

In a related vein, The Rally by Carla Vass introduces us to a bunch of wealthy people who take a two-week road trip through Europe, drinking, fucking, and drugging their way through several countries. The absurdity of their behavior is what makes it so entertaining.

The book focuses on Charlotte, co-founder of a startup dating app who gets pushed out of her own company by the men in charge. They give her a pretty bad deal: Take the payout, sign the NDA, and never work in tech again, or walk away with nothing and risk being sued if she ever speaks out. What do you do in that situation? The answer is “something impulsive.” She joins her friend Lina on the Rally, which consists of a bunch of wildly rich business owners, models, and celebrities taking Europe by storm in their favorite classic cars—no vehicle under 40 years old permitted.

Throughout the journey, Charlotte keeps receiving cryptic emails threatening her to take the deal, preventing her from fully leaving her woes behind in the States. Alongside dealing with that, she starts cozying up to one of the Rally-goers, James, who is a workaholic like her, while navigating the ever-shifting interpersonal dynamics of the other characters.

While I appreciate the mesmerizing quality of this book that makes it feel like a never-ending vacation, including the scenery and food descriptions, there are other things that aren’t so fun.

How do I say this? Charlotte became annoying the further I got. I was about to add that she acts like she’s hardly been around a man before, but the book summary literally says she’s never had a boyfriend, so. To her credit, she does acknowledge this.

Her behavior is off-kilter. One minute she’s super confident and sunning topless on a yacht like the other women, and the next minute—depending on whichever man is present—she turns into a shy and lost wilting flower. That is her entire problem and the crux of her character arc; men completely influence her life and her choices, regardless of whether they’re doing it on purpose.

Maybe I don’t have enough grace for Charlotte. She’s adopted the “grin and bear it” act through years of workplace misogyny, and combining this with her lack of experience in dealing with men on a non-platonic level, she views men through an oddly naive lens. James steadily gets closer to her in a way that’s more than just “road-trip buddy” friendliness, but she’s constantly second-guessing things and making up he’s just being nice excuses. Later, another man pushes and injures her at a party, fracturing her ribs and all—and this isn’t the first time he’s put his hands on her—yet for a moment, she tries to brush it away as maybe I accidentally tripped and fell.

But maybe my real lack of patience is because it seems impossible for me to pick up a book with a female protagonist without being subjected to a scene of sexual violence somewhere along the way. The world may never know.

This book largely struggles from not fully developing its characters, which isn’t helped by the expansive cast. Charlotte and Lina are best friends, and we’re presented with several of their childhood anecdotes, but I never feel sold on their relationship. It doesn’t help that Lina spends most of her time with one of the Rally guys, Matt. To be as tight-knit as they supposedly are, the two women hardly interact through the first 70% of the book, and certainly not in any meaningful way.

Similarly, I’m not moved by any of the side characters or their backstories. I’m not even moved by the story of Charlotte’s parents dying. All of this information feels like it was inserted because the author knows it’s important to give the characters body, but it doesn’t land emotionally. There’s more telling vs. showing; we’re told Lina and Charlotte are childhood friends, and we’re told that Charlotte occasionally misses her dead parents, but it doesn’t get much deeper than that. The disagreement and later-occurring heartfelt talk between Lina and Charlotte flow at such a quick pace that there’s no chance to emotionally connect with either of those moments.

I also don’t love the banter between James and Charlotte. I’m not sure I enjoy the banter between a lot of romantic leads, honestly, whether it’s movies or books. It comes off as try-hard sometimes—or plain irritating. Why does there have to be a smartass quip after every other thing someone says?

Ultimately, this book’s plot is pretty straightforward and you can predict how it’ll end from a mile away, but that might be part of the appeal for people who like quick and simple reads. The parts where everyone’s perpetually drunk and partying are the most interesting to me, but since these activities are what they spend all of their time doing, things can get repetitive. And don’t expect too much in the way of character development for anyone who’s not Charlotte.

As a side note, I remain hung up on the fact that Charlotte just barely knows who Freddie Mercury is but is familiar with other pop cultural references, such as quoting from the movie The Silence of the Lambs. How does that happen? (I could also survive without the Harry Potter references, which I can’t believe authors are still doing in 2026. Why are y’all hell-bent on giving that woman added attention and money?)

Pick up this book if you like:

• Rich people behaving badly
• Vacationing/road-tripping stories
• Girlbosses
• “Reinventing myself” success stories
• Vacation romances

Pass it by if you don’t want to read about:

• Sexual harassment, physical assault
• Driving while intoxicated (like…A LOT)
• Workplace misogyny
• Infidelity, side-character love triangles
• An unexpected amount of startup/corporate jargon