Wonderful premise, excellent chemistry, and loved the representation. Would prefer less miscommunication and more immersive descriptions of the locations

To win a radio getaway (weeks of travel around the world) - the host gets to choose ANY random contact from your phone on the spot. Would you do it? Me, if it's a terrible contact. I would hangup and block the radio's number.

Our heroine, Dylan, follows through on the trip and call even though she has no clue who the contact "Jack" is. Apparently, they met months before a club ...hmm a little rekindling then? I loved the premise, who doesn't love self-discovery, travel, and a little will-they-won't they? Though I didn't vibe with Dylan, I related to Jack and he had me swooning. This is a perfect summer read!

This was far too slow and not well paced for me, i needed the story to move a bit quicker

thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review

Wanderlust by Elle Everhart

You know that feeling when you feel stuck where you are? Work is blah, your city is blah—you know you need a vacation. While feeling this way, our protagonist, Dylan, impulsively calls into a radio station and wins a trip around the world. There’s a catch though. The station must randomly invite one of Dylan’s contacts in her phone to join her. Enter Jack, the posh, polar opposite of Dylan who she met during a drunken make-out on a night out and never called again. While planning time away from her work as a writer, her boss is dangling the carrot Dylan’s been racing towards: her own column. The catch? She’s supposed to frame her writing of the trip as a second-chance romance.

This one has some solid grumpy x sunshine and enemies to lovers vibes. It was entertaining to watch the relationship unfold, and Dylan is a pretty dynamic character. I found myself appreciating her charm and sense of humor at times, but really irritated by her carelessness at other times.

I was surprised, given the title, how the travel itself seemed to take a secondary role. I would have loved more details of the places they were staying and their experiences overall, but it’s typically described only in relation to their situation. The characters and plot definitely take center-stage. And obviously there is still plenty of cool experiences and travel details—I just wanted more.

The central conflict is a bit predictable, but what I really enjoyed was how the resolution brought in so much more than I expected in a way that was really refreshing and human. I loved seeing characters who were just so happy with each other without some sort of artificial thing between them.

Overall, this was a lovely debut novel. A solid rom-com with a side of travel. I do recommend this one—it’s pretty cute and had a surprising bit of spice too.

Many thanks to @putnambooks and @netgalley for a digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

A great debut novel! Following Dylan who wins a competition and most travel with who ever is randomly chosen in her contact list. She is thrown into a journey with Jack who she only met one random night and labeled him in her contacts as Jack the Posho. Dylan who is currently employed at an online lifestyle magazine is supposed to use this trip around the world to earn her own column. Meanwhile Jack has secretly quit his job at a law firm he could no longer stand to be at. With no real instant connection you follow them on a journey that’s deeper than will they or won’t they and more like self discovery. A novel that makes you truly realize we only have one life that should truly be lived.

If you're someone who enjoys reading about traveling around the world, then "Wanderlust" is the book for you. Elle Everhart takes the reader to several countries and sprinkles in little tidbits about culture and places to sightsee (Iceland, Mexico City & NYC, to name a few).

In this story, the main character Dylan wins a radio contest which grants her a free trip around the world, but as it turns out there's a catch to her win. She can go on the trip as long as she goes with a randomly selected contact in her cell phone. A person she has listed in her contacts, as "Jack the Posho", an almost one night stand is selected.

However, much of Dylan and her companion Jack's journey is awkward and wrought with uncomfortable tension, and not in a 'cute enemies to lovers' way.
More like two people that once had a previous encounter gone wrong and they don't know how to co-exist with each other, so much so that at times it seems like each is on a solo adventure.
Also, it's important to note for reader's that appreciate trigger warnings that there is a plot line regarding abortion.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for an early release copy of this book.

Wanderlust is being released July 4th 2023.

**Posted to Goodreads on 6/19/2023
**Posted to Amazon on 7/29/2023

This book was so cute!

The forced proximity was adorable, and I really liked the overall trope. I really liked the history that the two main characters had together, and the background as to why they didn’t get together at first. The radio show was so funny when they chose the person to go with the winner.

This book had a little bit of a heaviness to it that I overall really enjoyed, but I do know that some people wouldn’t like that as they did in the book anyway. It dealt with a heavy topic, abortion, and I thought that it was handled really well.

The ending was very cute though a little bit sporadic, and I thought that it was unachievable for a real person. But, that is why I read fiction.

Thank you for the arc. It was amazing!

I liked the concept of travel in this book. I also thought Dylan and Jack had good chemistry. I enjoyed Dylan's articles and loved all the destinations mentioned. I liked how the opposites attract trope. I also enjoyed how they helped each other grow and I enjoyed reading about Jack and his photography. I enjoyed all the countries they traveled to. The miscommunication in the book kind of annoyed me. Overall this book was just okay to me.

Wanderlust is a romantic travel read. I had mixed feelings on this one. I liked the slow burn romance, the travel concept, and even how the book touched on some pretty heavy topics. I liked the characters Dylan and Jack. Even the concept was pretty fun. Dylan wins an all expense paid touring trip. The catch? She has to take a random person chosen from her phone contacts. Enter Jack, that random person from her contacts, with whom she had a short encounter. When they are brought together, their attraction to each other resurfaces. What starts out as a simple traveling adventure turns into much more. Slowly their relationship develops until the feelings for each other come to light.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. The second chance romance coupled with a slow burn made for a wonderful summer read. I think that Everhart missed an opportunity to focus just a bit more on the travelling adventures. I would have loved to see more description about the places they visited; and furthermore, had those places intertwined with the development of Dylan and Jack's relationship. Despite my desire, I did enjoy the story, the characters, and following them on their journey.

Wanderlust by Elle Everhart
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Dylan wins a radio contest for a once-in-a-lifetime trip around the world. The catch? She has to share the trip with a guy she met once and is essentially a stranger.
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What I liked:
-Forced proximity is one of my fave tropes.
-I love books where the characters get to travel!
-There was some fun banter in the books between Dylan and Jack. Their interactions made me laugh a lot.
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What I didn’t like:
-There was a lot of emphasis on a spat that Dylan was having with her parents, I felt like that part was a separate storyline and didn’t really connect with the Jack storyline.
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3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Review posted to instagram handle @staciathebookworm on 7/31/23

This story was cute, but the pacing is 100% off. It starts slow and ends quickly with this weird perfect period in the middle.

Dylan and Jack are adorable together. The perfect quirky/sunshine and quiet/private mix. The characters are spot in and I love the journey they take both literally and metaphorically.

But be warned, the pacing threw it off enough to take away from the story for me. This is why I gave it a 3 out of 5 stars.

I’m so disappointed that this book wasn’t for me. I loved the premise, the plot, the queer representation, and the pro-choice story arc. However, I did not love the main characters, Dylan and Jack, at all. I found them whiny and immature, each with parental problems that they had let simmer for years and years without addressing. Their interactions with each other were stiff, awkward, and high-school-ish for most of the book. The romantic plot just tried way too hard. The conflict was portrayed as a huge obstacle when it really wasn’t and could have been resolved with a bit more communication along the way. However, what I absolutely loved was the plot line of a trip around the world, with stops in some of the world’s most amazing cities. Yay! Sign me up! I loved the scenes focused on one adventure or another and wished there were even more descriptions of the places they experienced. Great premise, and I’m sure many readers will love it, but the romance just fell flat.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC to read and review. All opinions are my own.

📖 ARC REVIEW 📖

Thank you @putnambooks for an early copy of Wanderlust by @elleeverhart. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 🤍

Wanderlust is a heartwarming story about Dylan and Jack who both won a once-in-a-lifetime trip around the world. The two couldn’t be more different as the two started their trip being aloof of each other, but this trip meant a lot to Dylan as it could be her chance to have her own column at the lifestyle magazine she works at; and her chance to get past the abortion article she wrote the year before. As her articles about the trip get more popular, so does her bond with Jack.

🛑Read on with caution; review may contain spoilers🛑

This novel for me is more of self-discovery for Jack and Dylan than a romantic one; I enjoyed that despite their differences and how they started off their trip, they learned how to be each other’s moral and emotional support as they bonded and got to know each other better. I didn’t particularly enjoy Jack’s lack of emotional response and him being so closed off especially when they started out their trip, but it was enlightening to know him and his layers as the book progressed.

Although I didn’t expect it as the blurb suggested, Wanderlust also touched on issues like access to healthcare and abortion, and online bullying. While a lot of people have different perspectives on abortion, I would agree with both Dylan's and Jack’s stances about the issue.

Rating Wanderlust ⭐⭐⭐.5/5. Released last July 4th, 2023, and available to purchase from book retailers.

A very cute story! Dylan wins a radio contest for a two month trip around the world. The catch? Her traveling companion will be someone they pick randomly out of her phone - and she doesn't recognize the man they choose! The story proceeds as Dylan and Jack travel all over, having new and different experiences and learning about each other along the way. The book is well written and you can't help but fall in love with Dylan and Jack's characters (I also loved Dylan's roommate). It's deeper than it originally appears - both are fighting some serious demons and dealing with a lot of family and social drama. The thing that fell flat for me in the book was the descriptions of travel. We got very few windows into things that Dylan and Jack were doing and only a few cities really got highlights. I wanted far more! I think a journal format might have worked for this book - or at least interspersed Instagram posts? Something more to highlight the travel that should have been such a part of the story.

Dylan is a writer for a magazine where she feels stuck. Dylan turns on the radio at work one morning to find herself calling, and winning, an around-the-world traveling experience. The only catch? She has to let the station pick ANYONE in her phone to be her traveling partner. When the station picks Jack, someone she met at a bar one night who she never called, it’s bound to be awkward. He’s incredibly posh and cold. They’re complete opposites. Jack is incredibly reserved, while Dylan dives into everything head first. Over the course of their few months of travel, they begin to grow closer and realize they may have more in common than they think.

This book started a little slow for my liking but overall I enjoyed it! This was a great debut and I really felt connected to Dylan. Cannot wait to read more from this author!

Read if you like..
• second chance romance (kinda?)
• opposites attract
• travel
• The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for sending me a copy of this book to review.

I read it while on the plane to my own vacation, hoping to absorb the jetsetter vibes I thought I'd get from the blurb.

But it didn't work that way for me. I thought Dylan to be too rude, especially to Jack. And Jack's character to be inconsistent. I didn't connect with the characters.

The descriptions of their destinations were also surface level at best and I didn't get immersed in the vibes of the place - which I want to experience when reading a travel-themed novel.

This freaking book!!!!!

Thank you soooooo much netgalley, the author and the publisher for the advanced review copy if this book💗
"I voluntarily read and reviewed the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Did not finish, do not feel like I can give an honest review of the plot, characters and story, There was nothing that turned me off from the book, I was just overwhelmed at the time and couldn't give my attention to reviewing the book in time.

4 stars!

"Wanderlust" by Elle Everhart is a slow-burning romance that sees main character Dylan Coughlin entering and winning a radio contest that will allow her to set off on an all-expenses paid trip traveling the world... the only catch is, she has to go with a contact in her cell phone chosen at random by the radio DJs. The man she's going to be traveling with, known by his contact name Jack the Posho, was meant to be an app date for Dylan several months prior, but she ghosted him before the date even happened. Now, the two are thrown together in some of the world's best and finest cities, sightseeing, drinking, eating, and observing, but they don't know a thing about each other. As they connect with the world around them, they connect with each other, too, in more ways than one, wink wink, though it is a slow, slow, slow burn, slow-moving relationship.

Though this is not a relatable story to me in the slightest, I found myself drawn to both Dylan and Jack as characters. I absolutely love the premise of this book and how they are thrown together, a random radio contest acting as a divine intervention for Jack and Dylan to get their second first chance. Jack slowly warms up to the idea of giving Dylan a chance as Dylan eventually learns to break down her walls. I really like the chemistry between Dylan and Jack once they get to know each other a bit better. Unfortunately, being strangers-turned-friends-turned-potentially-more, there are a lot of miscommunications between them, which I hated. Both Dylan and Jack can be cagey characters who read too much into everything and anything, and I guess I understand *why* this happens, but that doesn't mean I have to like it! I also truly appreciated the plot line about Dylan's abortion and how she received hate and was doxxed online after opening up about it in the online magazine where she works. I think it is important to advocate for the right to choose. It's also vital for readers to comprehend how many people still don't believe this is an inherent right that women have. It shows the lengths anti-choice people will go to to shame, mar, bring down, and even threaten those who get/support abortion/abortions, sometimes with violence. Everhart tackles this subject tactfully and importantly. I also love how Dylan is a proud bisexual woman!

This is the perfect summer read, especially for those who cannot afford to travel! Author Elle Everhart paints such a clear picture of traveling across the world, each city getting its moment to viscerally shine through her text. Give it a go!

Thank you to NetGalley, Elle Everhart, and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for my review.

This was a cute read! Dylan wins a trip through a radio station contest, the catch is that they get to pick anyone in her phone contacts to go with her on the trip. They pick Jack, a guy she met while out one night before her world felt as if it came crashing down around her - so she never called him. The tension is thick when they leave on their adventure but soon, they find themselves enjoying each other's company. I loved how this story had two characters that were forced to let their guards down do to their situation - traveling for a few months together, sharing a hotel room, knowing nobody else in the places they vist. Overall, a great read for a little adventure and romance!