
Member Reviews

A cute story, I like the premise and the travel and discovery aspects!
I always enjoy learning about new places and different cultural practices, etc.

Wanderlust was a contemporary romance that was just ok for me. I had trouble connecting to the story and had trouble finishing it.
Thanks Penguin Group Putnam via NetGalley.

I was gifted an Earc of this novel. All thoughts are my own.
A romance with self-discovery, travel, forced proximity, slow burn, with enemies to lovers vibe, but with LOTS of miscommunication. I am currently in a love-hate relationship with this novel. On the one hand, it's cute, quirky, and fun; on the other, it talks about hard-hitting topics. However, it has one of my most minor types of trope: the miscommunication trope. Most of these two MC problems would have been fixed if both just spoke their mind and got it over with. I know we wouldn't have had a story without it, but I feel like it's been overplayed and this novel gave such a unique world-traveling vibe that it could have been better without it. I gave it three stars because I felt I enjoyed it, but I probably won't reread it.

I adored this book. I didn't want to put it down and I had to some times due to life getting in the way. Dylan works for a magazine and while writing her article she listens to the local radio station. They are running a chance to win a trip around the world, but there is a catch they have to do russian roulette for the person to go with you. The chance to go on an adventure of hitting 9 large cities in two months and playing russian roulette with your phone not knowing whom your travel companion may be. Is it someone you know really well? Is it someone you loathe? Or is it someone you barely know?
I really enjoyed the book and would definitely want to read more from this author!
Thank you #NetGalley for the advance copy!

This book was really cute and very aptly named. As someone who would love to be traveling the world right now, this book left me sated.
The main character wins a holiday vacation giveaway on the radio with the stipulation that the radio will choose someone from her phone contacts to be her travel companion.
Of course they pick her almost one-night stand that she didn't even remember almost going home with sooo yeah...
Nevertheless she is determined to go on vacation and use this to leverage her career no matter how impossible her post travel companion is.
Soon things from her past surface and she gets a little more insight into the life of her travel companion.
This was a very delicate and beautiful book. It felt similar to Lease on Love by Fallon Ballard. The details pertaining to travel were also very vivid and it was very appreciated by my enneagram 7 wanderlust brain.
Highly recommend!
TW: abortion, anti-abortion, gaslighting.
Rating: 4.5 rounded up to 5.

When Dylan wins a radio contest for a six week trip around the world. The catch? The radio is randomly picking her travel partner out of her phone contacts, and they choose “Jack the Posho,” a guy Dylan met at a club one night & never called. She had a good reason.
This book is so sweet - it gave me wanderlust indeed! A delightful romance while making you want to pack up & go have an adventure.

Not quite the story I expected, but it wasn't bad! I went in thinking it would be more of a romcom with a second chance romance trope, but I didn't find that to be the case. I would describe this more as a journey of self discovery with elements of romance, but not a pure romance story. The pacing was a little slow at times, but overall it was a solid read. I'd recommend this book to readers who love to travel or may be facing issues with family due to a lack of support.

Such a good and quick read. Def already want to read it again. This book had me in my feelings, laughing, crying and starry eyed

I loved the idea of this book but found the execution lacking. I would die to go on an all expenses paid trip around the world even if I had to go with a random phone contact. What did not work at all for me was the lack of descriptions of anywhere they travel.ed. They literally could have been doing a tour around England for how little the actual locations were a factor in the story. If you don't want to write about places, don't write a travel book. To top it off, it ends in a British potential HEA rather than a full blown HEA.

I wanted to love this one so badly, and while I enjoyed the first 1/3 or so, I quickly became annoyed by the constant influencer speak and conversations around being successful on Instagram (this stuff also tends to age really poorly, which doesn't bode well for the longevity of a novel). The chemistry, the banter, and the getting to feel like you visited all the places with them were all things I loved in this story. But the thing that didn't work was how Jack's ghosting of Dylan felt like just a silly miscommunication, or at least it wasn't explained enough to feel like something the reader could believe. I'd still read Everhart's next book, knowing this was a debut and some of these things could be improved.

Wanderlust - your story has so much potential!! The concept is novel and fun, but the book itself is a mess. Jumps of weeks at a time in the storyline when it's only a six week timeline in which two strangers are supposed to fall in love. The romance itself is a snooze. Yet, I have hope that with lots of editing this story can be told so much better.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC for an honest review.

Entertaining, engaging and a really fun summery read. I loved it. And so would the fans of People We Meet on Vacation meets The Unhoneymooners!! I loved how the characters were very realistically relatable. I will look forward to see what else author has in store for us

Do you believe in a "one true love"? Dylan Coughlan wins a trip around the world with the person a randomized system picks from her phone contacts. He put his name was in her phone after a hot encounter at a bar months earlier and her life circumstances resulted in a survival mode that eclipsed their attraction. Will their proximity through travel provide time for them to reconnect? Or will her professional ambitions ruin their prospects? Elle Everhart's novel, Wanderlust, is a fun romantic comedy where two people bring all of their baggage, real and emotional, on an adventure that exposes the beauty and danger of our world. Everhart includes modern day technology and challenges to connect with the characters in a way that could have been heavy handed in a less skilled author.

I actually DNF this the first time around. I really disliked the plot set-up and I had the most difficult time connecting with the FMC. I’m really glad I decided to pick it back up. It isn’t one of my favorites but I enjoyed it.
Dylan started out as maybe one of the most unalikable characters I’ve ever read. She was needlessly antagonistic towards Jack and was one of those people who makes fun of others but is “just joking, you shouldn’t take things so seriously”. However, she makes massive strides in self-awareness and maturity as the book goes on and i felt she fully redeemed herself by the end. I liked her more and more as the book went on.
I enjoyed reading the descriptions of the different places they visited. I wish there had been more of that, honestly. I think there was some missed opportunities there.
And I wish romance novel plots would stop acting like a job in the arts is the only way to follow a passion. Every book has someone quitting their job in law or medicine to become an artist. There are truly people who enjoy jobs in STEM or law. Let’s showcase those more often! Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Anyway, slow start to this one but I ended up liking it. I would definitely read something else by the author.

I loved Wanderlust from the start. I loved the idea of the plot and it didn’t disappoint!
I lived vicariously through Dylan and Jack’s travel around the world. Traveling the world will always be a dream of mine. Most of all I loved watching Dylan and Jack finding themselves and realizing sometimes you gotta take chances in life to get what you want.
Definitely recommend Wanderlust!
Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Putnam for a copy of Wanderlust in exchange of an honest review.

I was hooked immediately on this book. I enjoyed the adventure and travels alongside the romance that begins to develop. This was cute British lit (with a little more steam than I usually find in this genre) and was so fun to read. I liked the radio contest a lot.

This was a nice vacation read, it definitely made me.want to travel! It wasn't great though, I don't want to be mean or anything there was certainly nothing wrong with the book it was just very basic very okay. I probably wouldn't recommend it to a big reader but for someone who doesn't read a lot I think they would enjoy it.

I truly wanted to love this book, but the ending completely fizzled out for me. The premise is so fun: the main character, Dylan, gets a trip around the world with one main catch: the radio station giving the trip away gets to choose her travel companion from any contact in her phone.
They pick a random guy stored in her phone from a night out at a bar, and the story begins. There is chemistry in the beginning between the two of them and a “will they, won’t they” vibe begins to develop. However, as times goes on, their communication (especially given the nature of their trip and pure physical proximity), just breaks down and fizzles. Dylan is too stubborn to even try with Jack at times, and Jack is completely closed off. Where this may have been the goal to build tension, it reads as cold and disconnected. Dylan also is incredibly immature. There are times where honesty is paramount and she always puts her own feelings, desires, and dreams ahead of anyone else. For example, she chooses to post on social media and is trying to become an influencer but definitely wants none of the backlash for her controversial posts and opinions. She wants her cake and wants to eat it too: a well paying job with no boss who has demanding deadlines, opinions, or an HR department, friends and family who support every decision she makes (even if it goes against their own personal beliefs or religion), a partner who will always be there for her when she brings her chaotic energy into any given situation, and a trip around the world, too. She is a walking contradiction as well. In one sentence, she’s moving her and her flat mate to a different location and going into hiding because of internet stalking and living this public persona, agonizing over what this has done to her life. In the next? She’s convinced Jack he is a photographer (with no training or even a legit camera btw), to start his own Instagram and serve himself up to the vultures of the internet. If she cared about him, why wouldn’t she share his trepidation in putting himself out in such a public way?
Because Dylan is selfish and values the internets likes and comments more than authenticity, that’s why.
If the “quit your job, travel the world, and do whatever makes you happy without any real world consequence” narrative is your vibe, this might be a really great beach read for you.

Cute story about a girl winning a free trip but the catch is they get to pick her travel companion out of her phone. She gets paired with Jack and the trip has its ups and downs. But do they wind up getting together or does she do something to betray his trust?

A fun story dealing with some heavier topics in a lighthearted way. Wanderlust follows magazine writer. Dylan and "Jack the. Posho" who she met briefly on a night out. After winning a radio contest, Dylan is off on an all expenses paid adventure... as. long as she takes Jack as her plus one. Jack agrees and they take off to jet set to see the world and each other in a new light.
I enjoyed this one, but I wish there had been more chemistry between Dylan and Jack. I struggled to understand Dylan's annoyance with Jack, someone she barely knew, and wish the sparks and flown sooner.