The story begins with Dylan, a bi-sexual writer for a magazine entering a radio contest. The winner of the contest gets to go on a once in a lifetime vacation, but there is a catch. The radio can choose any random person out of your contacts to go with the winner. Dylan, so excited she won, doesn’t even think twice about having a contact that wouldn’t want to go with her. The person that agrees to go with her is a guy named Jack, that she met months ago at a bar.

Jack is a stoic lawyer truly creating a fantastic grumpy sunshine. It included the second chance romance vibe. Most of the book is sharing Jack and Dylan’s adventures, and how they end up falling in love. I felt that in the end it wasn’t enough chemistry for me to buy in overall. I felt like there was something missing.

What I loved: the ridiculous base idea of the book, the adventure, the main characters discovering what’s best for them and the boundaries they set with those around them.

What I disliked: there was a breakdown of chemistry for me, maybe lack of returned banter? Just something small missing.

Spice level: 🌶️
Stars: 4.5/5

A fun, while outlandish, premise made this book pretty fun. The romance was a fun one and believable as well. The traveling piece landed well but I agree with other reviews that more time spent in every locale would have been good - when I'm reading travel stories, I want to FEEL like I'm in that location.

A cute and fun read for fans of Christina Lauren, Emily Henry, etc.

Dylan, a writer for Buxom magazine, decides to call into a radio contest and wins a two month global getaway. The catch? The station gets to choose a random contact from her phone to accompany her.

Enter Jack, a man who Dylan shared a brief encounter with at a bar a few months prior, as the random contact.

While the two don’t know each other well at the beginning, their travels bring them closer together. They share family struggles, work horror stories, and a passion for good food. But how much of what they are experiencing is authentic, and how much is just fodder for Dylan’s travel column?

The journey that these two characters go on felt authentic, and the trials of social media that they both dealt with were (unfortunately) quite believable. I can see readers enjoying this as a beach read this summer!

This was such a good rainy day comfort read. The main characters had an interesting backstory and strong chemistry, the travel descriptions were dazzling, and there was a solid mix of sweet and serious moments. Everything else I want to say is a spoiler, so I'll just add this — it was a really charming book and I'm excited to see what the author releases next.

Absolutely fantastic plot! Could not put the book down once I began reading it. Cannot wait for it to be released. Will recommend it to everyone I know!

I love a book that takes the characters out of their comfort zones and pushes them into situations where what they least expect happens so this one really worked for me. This is truly a vacation in a book and I was right there alongside the characters and loving every second!

Objectively, this wasn't a horrible book but I just never really liked either Dylan or Jack that much for the entire story. I found the first third very promising but it never really built up from there, in my opinion. Instead, it's just more of the same: Dylan is very carefree and Jack is very uptight; they clash; I have to read the phrase "taking the mick" for the millionth time; then they move to a new city. I'd have liked to see their chemistry develop more because I feel like we only get a glance at how they first met (and then later are thrown together on this trip). These are my opinions though, maybe you'll like it more, etc etc.

If you love adventure, travel, forced proximity trope this book is a must read. Wanderlust is a story that takes Dylan, a writer, on a trip around the world, accompanied by someone the radio station gets to choose from her phone. Dylan dreams of having her own column at her job and her boss takes this trip Dylan has won as a chance for her to test her ability for her own column. Both the main characters had a lot of growth on this trip and discovering who they really are. The chemistry they felt the first night is slow. There is so much tension the beginning of the trip. They are both such strong willed characters that really just misunderstanding one another. The book takes you on a world adventure as these two discover who they really are. Many thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

A good read -- I thought the characters were well-developed but I didn't connect with their chemistry as much as I hoped.

This was a fun book, even though it started off a bit awkwardly. There’s nothing that gives me more anxiety than the thought of traveling with someone you barely know. But this author was able to use this as an opportunity for Dylan and Jack to have one epic adventure. She carved out opportunities to allow moments of vulnerability between Dylan and Jack by creating an emotional connection during their travels. It never felt forced or insincere, but rather a natural progression.

My only complaint is that I wish I felt the scenery more. It felt like a missed opportunity to truly immerse the reader in this story by not giving them the whole picture. There would be times that I forgot they were traveling. Also I wished this was a dual POV because this story felt as much Jacks as it did Dylan. To me, Dylan was a hard character to love because she had an A type personality, but I think if we had Jack's POV, it would have softened the rough edges.

Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for this ARC

I'm a sucker for a journalist romance, and this one is just adorable. The concept is fresh and original, and the places they travel are such great escapist fare. Amazing debut from Elle! I cannot wait to see where she takes next!

I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I need. It was such a fun read and I read it in a lazy Sunday afternoon on the sofa. It has such a fun enemies to lovers vibe with such hilarious banter between the two main characters. Dylan wins a radio contest for an around the world trip, the twist to the contest is that they pick her travel companion from random on her phone. It ends up being a random guy she kissed and got his number in a bar, he agreed to the trip and the terms of the contest but arrives grumpy. The banter between them as she is from the North of England and him from the south with her digs at him being posh and entitled start to change a little as she gets to know him. Dylan works for a magazine and she agrees to turn her trip into a column/influencer type instgram stories as she goes. We learn more about her story and her past and his. I love how much depth their is to the characters and I love feeling like I am traveling the world with them. Great book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I’m still not quite sure exactly how I feel about this book. I had a good time reading it, but it’s just a pretty standard romance to me. I liked how they traveled across the world because it was a great setting, but the plot and characters annoyed me a little.

First of all, I’ve read a book where <b>*the exact same thing*</b> happens to the main character. In both books, the main character (MC) works at some job where she has to provide some sort of dating advice online. She gets to go on a vacation, but it has to be with some person she doesn’t like very much (LI) MC then posts about LI in a way SHE KNOWS he doesn’t like, but of course LI doesn’t see because he doesn’t use social media at all. However, during their trip, MC and LI fall in love! LI then finds out about her posts and gets mad about her. But of course, something happens where MC gets forgiven and they live happily ever after!

I had the same problem with this book that I had with the other one: the main character (Dylan) completely betrayed the love interest (Jack) and they still managed to end up together!?!?!? Although I was definitely annoyed by the ending, it’s a romance book so a HEA is almost always guaranteed.

I also did not like the main character. Dylan annoyed me so much in the beginning of the book. She was the one who wanted to go on the vacation, and (rightfully) got upset at Jack being rude to him, but he started being nice to her when they were actually on the trip!! And she started being rude to him?? Like this whole thing was literally her idea

She also started posting about him and making it seem like a romantic vacation despite his wishes not to do that.

The one thing I actually liked about the characters was how Dylan always stood up for herself and what she believed in, and how Jack learned to do the same over the course of the novel.

I did enjoy reading this book, but it just had some flaws that I couldn’t overlook.

What I loved about this book was how easy it is to fall into and get absorbed. Just short enough to read in one sitting. I love a twist of the forced proximity trope so this was right up my alley.

I will say they disliked each other so much at the beginning of their trip, and were so different, that it did take me a while to see where they could go.

Overall a fun and quick romance that readers will enjoy. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this early!

A absolute wonderful feel good romantic comedy that anyone who is a fan of the genre will fall in love with

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed the first half of this book. The writing drew me in and I found the whole premise to be entertaining and promising. However, once the main characters started their trip, I felt the book started going downhill. The chemistry was lacking between them and them opening up to each other didn't feel natural, as they hated each other one moment and then were sharing secrets afterwards. Additionally, the book glossed over various portions of their trip, where a city/country only got a mention, but other places had whole chapters dedicated to it. Similar to how the author treated those places, I ended up skimming the last third of the book, as the climax and ending were predictable and quite frankly, boring.

<i>Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

[author:Elle Everhart]’s debut is light as a feather. The joys of [book:Wanderlust] are in its glimpses into the nine cities Dylan and Jack visit.

Dylan, overworked and under appreciated magazine writer calls in on a whim to a radio contest for a trip around the world – with the only catch being she has to go with whichever random person the radio station picks from her phone contacts. Months ago, Dylan and Jack met out at a bar, and sparks flew - but she never called. Naturally, it’s Jack who gets selected, and we set off on a whirlwind second chance romance.

Mostly, I wanted <i>more</i> – more of why Jack is such a crabby jerk (it’s hardly a big deal for someone not to call after a single drunken makeout sesh), more of why they fall for each other, more of Dylan’s motivations to get a column in her magazine (for someone who always just <i>knew</i> she wants to write, we never really know about what; travel writing seems like a happy accident).

Perfect for those looking to vicariously escape to some amazing places without too much drama.

[book:Wanderlust] by [author:Elle Everhart]
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.5 rounded up
🌶️ 🌶️ The Mexico City tacos aren’t the only thing making Dylan see God
🤖🎸🎤 Robot cabaret?
🧳✈️🌏 Gave me itchy feet

Wanderlust was exactly the palate cleanser that I needed after all of the dark, heavy books I've been reading lately. It's fun and mostly funny, with some real life stressors thrown in. The main character, Dylan, wins an amazing, envy-inducing trip around the world with one catch - she has to travel with a randomly selected contact in her phone. Jack, the chosen contact, is someone she ghosted a while back. The dynamic between Dylan and Jack is reminiscent of Ali Hazelwood characters (Love on the Brain, The Love Hypothesis), although I ended up liking Dylan more than the male leads of those books.

This book made me want to do some extensive traveling - I was loving the descriptions of all the fun places that Dylan and Jack got to see. I give this book 3.5 stars, rounded up!

Thanks to NetGalley for the early access. This book hits shelves in early July.

This started off great for me. A writer who wins a round-the-world vacation with a random phone contact and the guy chosen is an attractive man who you made out once and then never contacted again? Yes, please.

By chapter 24, Dylan had crossed the line from “highly grating” to “I really dislike this character” - her immaturity, inability to take responsibility for her own actions and decisions, and putting off doing what’s difficult but right, and then the final clinch - laughing when Jack fell (I really don’t think people falling/whatnot is something to laugh at).

Jack has his own issues in this one too.


There’s not much chemistry here between the two that I could detect and the slow burn stopped being enjoyable when Dylan started actively deflecting coming clean to tell Jack something pertinent and important to his own life. I felt like adding this to the DNF list but took a night off, and started again the following day. I kept at it but I wasn't enjoying it any longer.

I think my issues with this one outweigh the positives, including that in some ways the novel was anticlimactic due to the loss of more in-depth round-the-world locale descriptions.

Fun travel romance. When winning a radio station contest clear all random hookups out of your phone or this could be your story... which I guess may not be terrible! This was an interesting (almost) strangers to lovers story and set on the world stage. Fun read and reminded me of many other romance novels I've read. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.