Source: Netgalley
Five strangers. Countless adventures. One epic way to get lost. Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: a girl named LEILA. She crashes into their lives in her absurdly red car at the moment they need someone the most. There's HUDSON, a small-town mechanic who is willing to throw away his dreams for true love. And BREE, a runaway who seizes every Tuesday—and a few stolen goods along the way. ELLIOT believes in happy endings…until his own life goes off-script. And SONIA worries that when she lost her boyfriend, she also lost the ability to love. Hudson, Bree, Elliot and Sonia find a friend in Leila. And when Leila leaves them, their lives are forever changed. But it is during Leila's own 4,268-mile journey that she discovers the most important truth— sometimes, what you need most is right where you started. And maybe the only way to find what you're looking for is to get lost along the way
I kept seeing the cover of Let’s Get Lost popping up all over the blogs I follow – whether on Top Ten Tuesday or Waiting on Wednesday – so when I saw it was available on Netgalley for us UK folk I just had to request and keep my fingers crossed. I will always have a soft spot for road trip novels and Let’s Get Lost certainly didn’t disappoint.
The opening chapter was absolutely beautiful and hooked me straight away. It’s quite difficult to create an authentic yet instant romantic connection between two characters but Leila and Hudson’s meeting was near enough perfect. It wasn’t too sweet or sappy or unbelievable, which was nice. I always think the litmus test for these kinds of set-ups is: would you want this to happen to you? In this case, I can most certainly answer in the affirmative.
However, the dreamy romance doesn’t last long as we’re dragged into a high energy Thelma and Louise type section. The subsequent chapters take on different tones as Leila weaves in and out of lives whilst she snakes her way up to Alaska. I really liked the structure with each character having their own self-contained section with Leila (bookended with lovely illustrations and correspondence). With the seemingly never-ending amount of series and sequels and whatnot out there, it was nice to have characters who said ‘goodbye’ to one another because that’s life. More often than not people come in and out of our lives for a short time, sometimes they have a profound effect, sometimes not so much, and Let’s Get Lost portrays this beautifully.
As for the characters themselves, I loved Leila – the adorable, pocket-sized ball of goodwill and adventure who I couldn’t help but picture as a younger Mila Kunis type. She’s also a ‘fixer’ but not in an annoying way. Yet there was also a great maturity to her character due to circumstances that were slowly – painstakingly – unravelled throughout the story. All of the people she met along the way were memorable but my favourite was Sonia. There was just something so real and heartbreaking but simultaneously uplifting about her character. I would love to read her story.
Overall, I loved Let’s Get Lost with it’s dreamy, indie like vibe. I couldn’t help but have that Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros ‘Home’ song playing in my head every time Leila set off on her travels. This is certainly not just a summer read – I know I’ll probably re-read it at some point - but if you’re heading off on your own travels soon, I would recommend you take a copy of Let’s Get Lost with you.
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