As a Canadian, my little ears perk up whenever I hear about an f/f romance that has anything to do with Canada. So, when I saw that Hairpin Curves is a road trip romance that takes the characters from Florida to Quebec, I said “Oh yes, please and thank you!” Although we see very little of them in Canada, I still enjoyed parts of this story because the angst is low, which is my speed these days. However, the conflict hinges on what could be solved by one conversation, which is frustrating.

Megan Harris’s day goes from boring to bad when her former best friend, Scarlett, shows up in the diner where Megan works. They haven’t spoken in seven years, when Scarlett bailed on Megan right before college. Turns out Scarlett is there because their childhood friend, Juliet, wants to video chat with them that night so she can share some big news. Juliet is getting married in Quebec City in a month and she wants Megan and Scarlett to be there.

Scarlett has the best worst idea ever: they should drive to the wedding together. Megan may not like Scarlett, but she’s never left Florida, so she agrees with one condition. They have to stop for visits along the way, so Megan can make some memories for her scrapbook.

Through beach and city visits, and games of Truth or Dare, Scarlett and Megan’s friendship slowly starts to mend and each quietly crushes on the other. But a snowstorm near the Canadian border forces them to stop for a few days, giving no place to run from the real feelings that have developed against their best judgement.

As much as I was into the premise, I wasn’t sure at first if I’d like Hairpin Curves. Scarlett is kind of judgy about Megan for a while. After they first reconnect, Scarlett dismissively reflects on whether Megan has the same phone number as she did in high school: “Of course, this was Megan: she wasn’t really into change, was she?” That bothered me because I wondered how Scarlett could possibly know if that were still true.

Another example is when they’re on the road and Scarlett uses Megan’s car as a jumping off point to declare that Megan’s life is too boring:

“Red? Yeah, it’s red, but the whole inside is beige. Everything is beige! Why do you live such a beige life?”

Megan shifted even more over toward her, an incredulous expression on her face. “I don’t live a beige life.”

“Yes, you do. Your life is so fucking beige it’s killing me.”

Friends, I was ready to throw Scarlett out of the car myself. I mean, yes, Megan’s life hasn’t been very big to this point. But Megan is so sweet and lovely that I wanted her to have every good thing.

One of the things I love most about Megan’s arc is that it’s all about a simple message I saw on a pair of socks one day: carpe the fuck out of this diem. The day Scarlett comes back into Megan’s life, Megan is given a severance package because the owners are closing the diner. I’m the kind of person who would take that money and just look for my next job, so I enjoyed seeing Megan decide to do something for herself for once. Saying yes to a multi-stop road trip is Megan’s first step towards building a life she’s proud of and she only grows increasingly more confident from there.

Scarlett might love to call out how small Megan’s life is, but her own isn’t much better. One of my favourite moments between them is when Scarlett reacts badly to the news that Megan’s never left Florida before and Megan catches her out for being a hypocrite:

“Fuck, really?” Scarlett gaped. “But this state is so bad!”

“This state is not bad. I happen to like it here. People come from all over the world to the beaches, and the cost of living is so low, and I have a Disney yearly pass…” Megan ticked off the pluses on her fingers.

Scarlett interrupted her. “It’s hotter than Satan’s taint, and you can’t go thirty feet without hitting a nail salon or a Wal-Mart, and alligators just fucking show up in the drainage ditches, and don’t even get me started on sinkholes—”

“So move away, then!” Megan said, practically shouting. “Why do you even live here if you hate it so much?”

“Because it’s cheap! And because I don’t want to shovel snow! And because I grew up here and it’s like a damn wart, you can’t get rid of it. And…” Her voice fell. “And I like it.” Scarlett hated that she actually liked the sunny weather and the beaches and the quirky people.

Megan was nodding like she knew everything, and that was its own annoying bullshit. “I see.”

I appreciated this moment for a couple of reasons. The first is that it shows Megan isn’t afraid to stand up for herself when Scarlett is rude. Even better? It hints that maybe Scarlett’s life isn’t as perfect as Megan had always thought.

Megan believed for seven years that Scarlett ditched her to go to a better school because Scarlett had outgrown her. I, on the other hand, thought Megan was wrong and Scarlett left because of fears that Megan would never return her crush. And while Scarlett DID have a crush on Megan in high school, we were both wrong.

The fallout of their friendship breakup drives the bulk of the conflict in Hairpin Curves. This is kind of frustrating because if Scarlett had just had the damn conversation with Megan in high school, they could have had an awesome seven years together. So, instead of the romance following the pattern of “fall for each other, break up because of reasons, make up and go off kissing into the sunset,” it all hangs on whether Scarlett can be honest about why she abandoned Megan and if they can move on from there. They have their conversation and it takes a little time for Megan to get over her hurt feelings (she had the same “you mean THAT’S IT?” that I did), but that’s why there’s so little angst to the story. Working through their friendship was just enough to hold my interest, but it left me walking away from the book feeling kind of “meh” overall.

Unlike Megan’s character arc, Scarlett’s arc is entangled with their relationship development. To fully unpack what went wrong between them and make way for the possibility of a friendship in the present, Scarlett has to get vulnerable. That means putting all of her worst insecurities out in the open for Megan, hoping it will be enough to explain how she could walk away from a nearly lifelong friendship. Despite thinking Scarlett a jerk for a while because she was so busy judging Megan’s choices instead of facing the results of her own, I came around and was cheering her on as she worked through her issues with Megan.

One thing to note is that the romance has a SUPER slow burn. It makes sense for the relationship arc because Megan and Scarlett have to work through their baggage before they figure out what to do with their mutual crushes. This includes questioning whether their feelings are real or if they’re the result of being on the road and in close quarters together for a week. Because the burn is so slow, I worried in the last quarter whether Hairpin Curves would deliver a believable HEA. Thankfully, it includes an epilogue that has a perfect ending and takes place long enough after the main events of the book that I was able to wholeheartedly believe in Scarlett and Megan as a couple.

There’s one other moment I want to call out because it is particularly adorable. It’s like the perfect payoff for watching so many Jane Austen miniseries over the years.

“I feel like a Jane Austen character, brushing my hair by the fire.” [Megan’s] smile beamed up at Scarlett, who was very glad she was sitting several feet away on the couch so she didn’t lean in and kiss that smile. “Although I think they probably brushed each other’s hair.”

“I’ll brush your hair,” Scarlett offered before she could stop herself. Shit, what a terrible idea.

And yes, Scarlett totally brushes Megan’s hair by the fire and it super worked for me. I mean, they were snowed in…and there was only one bed…. It was great.

Friends, I struggled with choosing a grade for this one. On the one hand, I enjoyed it, especially once Scarlett stopped being such a jerk. On the other hand, it didn’t change my life and I’m unlikely to reread it because it didn’t give me that certain something that makes me clutch my favourite books to my chest. If you like the idea of a sapphic road trip romance, you’ll probably enjoy this book. And like I mentioned, the angst level is very low, so if that’s your jam, you’ll have a good time with it. If you need more conflict and angst in your romances, however, this won’t be a great fit for you.