The synopsis and overall idea of this book really drew me in and made me so excited to read this book! Then I actually started reading it...

The beginning started out really slow, but I was optimistic. The author was setting up the scene nicely and I recognized there were some things I, as the reader, needed to learn before I could jump into the adventurous part of the story. However, it all seemed to drag on for too long. Even once the main character embarked on her great adventure, I wasn't feeling the excitement of it with her. I was still feeling bored and almost like I was being dragged along.

I stuck with it though, hoping things would get better. They somewhat did, just not as much to the extent that I would have liked. I appreciated that we were able to experience a lot of different activities and highs and lows with the main character, but it didn't feel exciting.

Even the romance fell a little flat for me in this book. We'd get little glimpses of her love interest, but not enough to really progress the relationship in my opinion. Again, I was hopeful at the beginning because things seemed to be setting up nicely, and then it just dragged. There were some cute moments, but I wasn't completely swept up in it.

The evolution we see in the main character was probably the only thing I really liked about this book. She was almost in a rut in her life at the beginning of the book so it's nice to see her learn more about herself and what she wants in life as she goes on this crazy adventure.

Overall, this was a thumbs down for me. I've been seeing lots of great reviews for this book so maybe it was just me, but whatever the case may be, I won't be recommending this book.

This book. I have so many mixed emotions. It is truly a book for book lovers. How awesome would it be to go on a literary journey or to work for a company that creates them?!?! SIGN ME UP! The locations were so well described that you could feel the author’s passion for them. I just think the story got lost in the details and the frenzy. I missed finding a way to connect with the character’s personalities and I definitely didn’t feel their connection to each other. There were some very important topics included here: systemic racism, white privilege, and plight of refugees - but it didn’t dive too deep into them. My favorite part was their relationship with a teenage refugee that they met while traveling by ship from Egypt to India. I loved Romy’s growth and definitely got a big women’s fiction vibe from this more than romance.

So, if you are longing for a travel fix (who isn’t right now?!) with important political issues and a touch of romance thrown in, this might be just the thing! A big thank you to @berkleyromance and @netgalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!!

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an eARC.

I am not completely sure about how I feel about this story. I really enjoyed the premise - woman, Romy, decides to take a job retracing the journey featured in Around the World In Eighty Days. Along the way of she meets a variety of people who help her continue to her next stop. But I didn’t love Romy as a character. Perhaps it’s the way her personality was shared throughout the story, but I didn’t quite connect. She is incredibly unaware about the world around her, which makes sense since she’s only left New York once (reasons explained very late in the book). But some of the things she says and does makes her feel a little too naive.

In terms of the romance, I didn’t quite buy into the relationship. Romy spends so much time maintaining that she is competing with the guy, Dom, then after minimal actual conversation she flips a switch and decides she loves him. Perhaps I am just a little cynical about this one.

This story becomes more than the recreation of the literary journey. And I did enjoy seeing how the travel really opened Romy’s eyes up to the things happening in the world. I will say, reading this book when you can’t travel is both a blessing and a curse. *sigh*

Overall, a nice story. 3.5 stars (rounding up to 4)

I wanted to love this book, but just couldn't get into it. I think it could have been really fun but I just couldn't get into the writing.

I was intrigued by the premise of this story, and whilst there were parts that I really enjoyed, by the end I was just " finally is over".

I was quite over the travel dramas at every turn. It ended up feeling like the world's longest road trip.

I liked Ramona putting herself or there and the adventure she embarks on.

However as each new destination was reached, I was all "oh god, what will happen here?", But not in an excited way.

I felt that this book could have been cut down a lot, and have at least a few times what nothing went wrong.

I found myself putting this book aside a few times, and was tempted not too finish it more than once. I am glad i persevered though.

This book was a DNF for me. I really wanted to like this one. I loved to idea behind this book but was not wowed by it. I had a really hard time getting through this. I got through about 55% before I gave up.

Pro: this book has amazing imagery and makes you wish to be on an around the world trip. I wanted to instantly get on the next plane to anywhere (although I cant currently)

Con: I was not a fan of Romy's character. You can tell she was making a lot of progress through the book but she still fell a little flat for me. I wanted her to be able to enjoy some of her trip but she was too focused on getting home the entire time.

Pro: The enemies to lovers storyline! I am a sucker for an enemies to lovers trope!

Overall, this book just wasn't for me. I think this book will work for a lot of people but there was just something about it I couldn't get into!

EIGHTY DAYS TO ELSEWHERE by K. C. Dyer is a fun literary journey around the world! We follow the travels of Romy and boy does she get into some wild situations. Fellow bookworms will appreciate this character as she works in a bookstore and embarks on a trip to retrace Phileas Fogg's journey from Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. I enjoyed how this book transported you to so many different cities especially during this time when world travel isn’t an option. Of course I loved how one of Romy’s destinations was my home city of Vancouver! Turns out Dyer lives in BC too! I love that connection! This book is categorized as romance but there’s barely any romance in it.

Any book that will potentially have a travel aspect will always intrigue me, and when I heard the full premise of Eighty Days to Elsewhere (Ramona "Romy" Keene needs a job to save her family's bookstore, and embarks on an audition journey for Ex Libris Expeditions mirroring the one Phineas Fogg takes in Around the World in Eighty Days as best she can), I was even more excited to get my hands on it. Unfortunately, the concept of this story ended up being stronger than the actual execution. There was too much going on in this story, and it felt underdeveloped. I was particularly bothered by the parts that invited the main character to check her privilege because, though it was a good thing to see her challenged, the way it was done cheapened the included situations. I also didn't feel comfortable with how many of the travel challenges were handled (and yes, I know this is fiction, but having known people who have experienced similar difficulties, I just wasn't into it). To top it all off, I never really clicked with the main character either. While I did find some of the travel adventure bits interesting, overall, Eighty Days to Elsewhere was really a disappointing read.

This was a fun, splashy romance that's great for travel lovers! It was so pleasant to armchair travel while stuck at home in pandemic times and I enjoyed this creative concept. Dyer's light, breezy writing style is a breath of fresh air and I'm excited for more of their books!

Wow, what an adventure! I think I’ve found the perfect quarantine book. It was so fun being able to travel to all of the places and experience the different cultures, especially since COVID has squashed so many travel plans. Romy was a little abrasive and insensitive at times, but it was great seeing her growth! At times, the book felt like it was rambling a little, but overall it was a fun read! I wish I could grab my passport and go traveling with Romy and Dom.

This was such a fun read, especially during the quarantine where it's not possible to travel anywhere. I enjoyed living vicariously through this book.

During this hard time of social distancing, this is a book that can let you travel without leaving home.
The characters fell a little flat for me. I wanted Romy to really immerse herself into the culture of the places she was traveling and really enjoy it but seemed to busy in researching it instead of just enjoying it.
A cute book and fun travel read.

I loved the travel of this book, and it felt like I could explore the world without ever leaving my home! It was fluffy and fun and a delightful romp around the world. However, I had a hard time getting attached to Romy's character. It didn't feel like she was invested in her travels, and she relied so much on the internet without exploring the culture of the places around her. There was a lack of language exploration, sight seeing...it simply felt like transportation was the only part of travel. I would have liked to see a bit more personality.

This was such a fun read. I really enjoyed all the travel info and the descriptions of far away places. I got to explore the world through this book, which was by far the best part of the book.

I did feel like the romance angle and the social commentary were not the best. The romance was really quite slow, which I appreciated. What bothered me was the main character's inner musings about Dom (in the beginning). He wasn't even given a name but was categorized as evil. It just seemed like a lot and that she was going way overboard in her judgements especially before she even really knew him. The social commentary when done subtlety was good. The blatant in your face instances were harder to swallow, mostly because they felt like they should of been handled better. Overall, the author did a fantastic job of giving the reader a good look at different cultures, practices, and religions. I was very impressed by her descriptions of various parts of the world. She had the ability to transport you there. It made me want to travel and see the things depicted in the book.

I absolutely loved this book, and I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did. I was drawn in with the premise of someone traveling the world following a pattern mapped out in Jules Verne's book Around the World in 80 Days.
But I fell in love with Romy as she did just that. This book was more than just Romy and her quest to get the job where she had to follow the path set out by Verne. It had heart, determination, facing your fears, and going outside your comfort level. We got to travel around the world with Romy by visiting places such as London, Mumbai, Hong Kong. We got to meet interesting people, and we got to fall in love. This book wants me to see more of the world.

In a time of social distancing and extremely limited travel for the safety of people all over the world, this tale of travel was full of whimsy and wanderlust. In order to get the money needed to save her uncles’ beloved bookshop in NYC from an evil, rent-hiking new landlord, Romy - who never travels - applies on a whim for the job of a lifetime - planning literary themed vacations. The interview is more of a quest: recreate a modern Around the World in 80 Days, only in MUCH less time, and she’s racing against another applicant. People will be quick to lump this into the romance category, but that’s actually more like a c-level plot line (though very cutely done), so it might more accurately be described as chick lit (I hate that term!! But you all know what I mean when I say it). A great read especially to kick off the summer! (less)

This was a good fluffy summer read that covered a lot of topics I like including bookshops and travel, but I had some issues with the main character. She seemed way to naive about a lot of things for someone who had lived in NYC for so long and went to NYC. To be surprised multiple times that people experience racism just didn’t make sense. The book was fine but it just seemed some parts were trying too hard for social commentary and it didn’t come off as it should have.

This book is being marketed as a romance novel, but it's really more chick-lit because the relationship isn't the main focus of the book. The trip around the world is - in fact, she doesn't even meet up with the love interest until we're well under way.

The things I liked about the book:
1. The literary premise - who wouldn't want to take a trip based on their favorite books? Sign me up, ExLibris! I wonder if this company exists in real life.
2. The descriptions of the all the destinations. Especially during the trying times we have now, it was nice to take a trip around the world from the comfort of my living room.
3. It was nice to see Romy grow and mature because of her travel. Travel definitely does that - it opens your eyes.

But, that's about it. I had a lot of problems with the characters and some of the more serious issues this book tried to tackle. This book seemed like it couldn't make up its mind on what it wanted to be - a fluffy romance novel or a serious issues novel. So it was both and I didn't think it worked very well.

Here is my biggest (fluffy) criticism: Her job was to travel the world in less than 80 days to prepare an itinerary based on Phineas Fogg's travels in Jules Verne's book. She was supposed to file reports about each destination highlighting mode of transport (without using any commercial airlines) and highlights of the city for an ExLibris client. So, isn't it odd that she herself didn't bother to see these sites and instead did research using Wikipedia? It felt like she just ran from train station to train station (with a few deviations with other means of transport along the way) and she NEVER stopped to see the sights. Yet, she wrote about them with authority. I wanted to go back a reread the beginning to be sure that the assignment was JUST for transportation because that's all she was an expert on during the trip. And since she wasn't able to use ANY commercial airlines to travel, the author expected me to believe that Romy - never having left NYC, never having tried to speak one word of ANY of the native languages in the places she traveled to - would be able to navigate using her smart phone to find alternative modes of transportation? Really? She couldn't even say thank you in French or Italian (forget Arabic, Hindi, Cantonese, etc) and yet she was able to find passage on cargo ships using the internet? This really bothered me.

Also, there are destinations on Fogg's trip that are definitely not safe for Americans to visit. For example: Yemen. There is NO way that any respectable travel agency is going to allow an American to even disembark in Yemen. And really Hong Kong - even before coronavirus - they were having serious political issues. Especially at the airport. I know this is fictional (and not take place during our current state of affairs) but thinking that any American would go to Yemen? No. Just, no.

Here's my biggest (serious) criticism: While travel can be very eye-opening and change your perspective, I had a VERY hard time believing that this character - Romy, born and bred New Yorker - has no experience dealing with racism or bigotry. While her checking her privilege is one of the outcomes of her travel, it is hard for me to imagine that she had no idea that racism was so prevalent in the world. She's from NYC. And her uncles - who raised her - are gay. She can't possibly be so stupid or have been living under a rock that she didn't know that there is so much racism, bigotry, sexism, etc. There were many instances where I wanted to be like, come on honey - you can't possibly be that naive.

I had some issue with the refugee story lines. It felt like the author wanted to throw Romy into the deep end of travel - to really dump a bucket of cold water over her head to wake her up - and highlight a serious issue in the world. The choices the author made with Romy's character made me, as the reader, confused and disappointed because how Romy handled the refugee story line felt inauthentic for the story the author was trying to tell. Romy was uncomfortable enough with just leaving home, but to throw in the worst of what's happening in the world for Romy to process and manage made the rest of the plot difficult to envision. It is clear that the author was trying to shine a spotlight on some very hard subject matter; things that are definitely happening in our world today that need attention. I appreciate the effort - it is a brave and risky choice (she definitely will alienate people with particular political views) - but it just didn't ring true for this story. And it was not something I expected in a romance novel.

The dichotomy between the most indulgent of first world privilege (an Amazing Race style travel to create an itinerary for rich people with loads of free time on their hands) and the worst that the world has to offer (human smugglers ditching a sinking refugee boat) was particularly jarring. I wish the author had picked one to focus on and not tried to cram everything into one book.

Utterly charming and escapist, this is a wonderful addition to collections where lighter women's fiction and contemporary romances are popular.

Fun book but the main character was so dull.

Romy has lived in New York her whole life. After her parents died, she lived and worked with her uncle and his partner at their bookstore. Their building has been bought by an 'evil' man and they need to find a way to make more money. Romy applies for a job where she has to travel around the world in 80 days like Phineas Fogg. However, she has competition with the 'evil' man's 'nephew', Dom.

Romy was a really boring character. I didn't understand why Dom fell in love with her. Dom was an interesting character. It was enjoyable to watch Romy's adventure in different parts of the world.

This is based on an ARC provided by Netgalley for an honest review.