The pathway for catalytic hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of biomass-derived fast pyrolysis oil represents a compelling route for production of liquid transportation fuels. This is a review of the published research and patent literature in bio-oil HDO over the last 6 years performed with actual bio-oils and identifiable strategy for production of an infrastructure compatible liquid transportation fuel. Research is moving towards continuous, industrially relevant processes generating data to inform techno-economic analysis (TEA) and understand the nature of the fuels produced. Research gaps identified include: (1) focus on process integration; (2) developing appropriate quality metrics for intermediates; (3) evaluating research by TEA; and (4) meeting fuel functional requirements and comparison to ASTM standards for existing fuels.