Dylan has been going through some troubles, and things finally get to go her way when she win a radio contest that would allow her to take the trip of a lifetime. The only catch is that they will randomly choose a contact out of her phone to travel with her. Unfortunately for Dylan, the radio chooses one random guy that she made out with and never contacted again. Obviously tensions are high at the beginning, but then the chemistry happens.

This book was cute, but it wasn't great. The beginning was slow, and the ending was wayyyyy too drawn out. Dylan annoyed me at times, and Jack's attitude got on my nerves. It was compared to The Unhoneymooners and Lease on Love, but I did not think the dialogue and connection was as cute in this one.

If someone reads a lot, this might be worth reading, but overall, I would not necessarily recommend it because of how dry some of the parts were.

This is a nice summer travel read, with the center being a quite lovely romance. Dylan is in a work rut, and randomly wins a "trip around the world." The catch being someone random from her phone tags along. A random bar hookup, Jack, ends up by her side. Elle Everhart does a really nice job of building tension, showing a budding romance between two people who are trying to figure themselves out. Dylan definitely had moments of being pretty selfish, but she shows growth over time. I like how Everhart approached some really tough topics, which felt like quite natural conversations. For me for a book that is set "around the world" there is a lot missing for me personally on the travel aspect, the locations, etc. but I suppose it makes sense since there are so many weeks that go by in between. Overall a very enjoyable read! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to provide my honest review.

Overall this was a cute story! A fun idea, winning a radio contest and traveling the world with a randomly chosen person from your contacts list? You know what....yes I'm in!

The wanderlust in me was looking forward to an enemies to lovers, set amidst amazingly an amazingly scenic backdrop and while I enjoyed reading this, it ultimately fell pretty flat. We don't know what caused the rift between Jack and Dylan (I really wish there was a prologue to show their meet cure or at least give us some chemistry to root for later), their initial animosity did not include any of the serial tension we would normally see in an enemies to lovers and they were down right plain rude go each other for far far too long. In the end, I just wanted more. I wanted to feel like I was in each of these locations with them but the author didn't really set the scene, I wanted more interaction between the MMC and FMC, I wanted to see something that would help me root for their, at least, happily for now. And for goodness sake, the number of missed opportunities for a one bed scene?!?!? 🤣

Overall this is a perfect airplane to vacation read. And I'm going to not so secretly hope for some of their itinerary related details to show up in the final version at the end (kind of like how some food related books might share a recipe, or music related books with a playlist), while it seemed like they hit all the major cities, there was clearly some research on possible activities and such that would make a great author's note!

Thank you Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the ARC in exchange for my review!

I very much enjoyed this lovely romance showing that sometimes true love awaits in the unlikeliest of places such as a fluke win of a trip with a total stranger.

This was fantastic and such a fun read. I loved it so much and kept turning the pages. Can’t wait to be able to share this with friends.

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