Title: Let’s Get Lost
Author: Adi Alsaid
Genre: YA, Contemporary
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Publication Date:
Hardback: 338 pages
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
How did I get this book: Bought
Check out the summary on Goodreads.
What I thought:
I’m going to start this review with what I didn’t like about this book. Mostly because what I didn’t like happened right at the beginning. Leila is on a road trip from Louisiana to Alaska to see the Northern Lights. On her way, she stops by a car shop in Mississippi (I live in MS, so this was cool!) and meets Hudson. I don’t want to give too much away but can you say instalove? Geez. Here’s one of Hudson’s reasons why: “I like her face. I really like her face.” (page 33) Seriously? Ugh. So yeah, that annoyed me because you guys know I hate instalove. Also:
“He only allowed himself a quick glance at her, knowing as soon as he saw her that she was the kind of girl who could make you think your life was not complete unless she was in it.” (PAGE 1)
That was on page one and two. UGH.
On the other hand, here’s a quote I loved:
“Funny, how it took a little bit of pain to remember that certain parts of yourself were alive.” (Page 37)
After Leila leaves MS, she meets Bree. This was probably my favorite section. I should mention that each of the sections are kind of told from the perspectives of the people Leila meets (though they are in third person). Bree lost both of her parents and fought with her sister, so she’s been hitchhiking across the country. This section had emotional depth, which I appreciated, and the friend chemistry between Leila and Bree was pretty on point.
The other two sections we get before we have one set from Leila’s POV were Elliot, a funny guy who’s had his heart broken, and Sonia, a girl still grieving over the loss of her first love who is trying to figure out how to move on. I enjoyed both of these sections; Elliot’s for the humor and for the romance I was rooting for, and Sonia’s for the feels and hijinks. Though it was kind of annoying how Leila was just able to turn up, somehow convince these kids to allow a freaking stranger to help them, and then save the day. Every time practically.
Leila’s a bit of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, though I think that’s partly the point. Leila is kind of kept at a distance from the reader as we only really see her through the eyes of the other people (super attractive, smart, spontaneous, and drive a cherry red car *rolls eyes*). We finally get her real story at the end though.
ROAD TRIP!!! I love travelling and road trips and seeing new places. This book did a wonderful job at describing these places, but not in a touristy way; it did describe some places in it, of course, but it showed how the people there live, what it’s like to live in Vicksburg, MS (which I don’t think is quite as exciting as Hudson does), or what it’s like to camp in Alaska and wait for the Northern Lights. It made my wanderlust flair up for sure.
The bottom line: Even though I didn’t like the instalove and I’m not a huge fan of MPDGs, this book was really entertaining, fun, full of adventures, and quite enjoyable. It made me smile, laugh, and want to road trip RIGHT NOW (thank goodness I’m going on a small one this weekend!).
Rating: 7 – pretty good
Reading next: This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
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Have seen mixed opinions on this one, but it goes sound very interesting! I like the idea of the multiple POVs, and LOVE books with road trips in them! Some of those quotes are a bit ugh though, and MPDGs can be annoying…still adding it to the TBR list. Great review! 🙂
If you like road trip books, I definitely think you should check it out! It does the road trip really, really well!
Thank you!
Great review there! I’ve seen quite mixed reviews on this one, just as I was highly-anticipating LET’S GET LOST. I am curious, however, about Leila’s character. I have never encountered a MPDG trope before, and I want to see how it plays out with the rest of the cast. Also, road trip books and me are like best buddies.
Have you ever seen anything with Zooey Deschanel is the definition of a MPDG: quirky and cute but for no reason; we don’t really know anything about her.
I really love road trip books too. It was definitely really great for that.
I understand your problem with instalove. It reads as unrealistic. However, falling in love CAN happen quickly. What bothers me in books is when instalove stays lovey-dovey and happy. That isn’t realistic AT ALL.
In my experience, after falling in love quickly, I then had to work to stay in love. My husband and I had some rough patches before we got married and in the first few years of marriage (we still have our moments 15 years later) but we worked through them. Our instalove became forever love.
I do think people can fall in love quickly but not immediately. I don’t believe in love at first sight. In this book, like in the quote I gave, he is pretty much immediately in love with her. In my opinion, that is super unrealistic. Fortunately, they do have problems. Big ones. So it helped to make the romance better in the end.