WWW Wednesdays #100 – July 20th

100TH WWW MEME CELEBRATION EDITION!!!

WWW WEDNESDAYS is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World Of Words and is all about answering the three questions below.

• WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?

I’m currently reading The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel and it is turning out to be an interesting read. I’m glad the reviews I’ve seen so far convinced me to get a copy of this book! I’ve also finally started my last TBR jar pick The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz, which is ok enough so far, although I do hope the plot will get a little more interesting in the future. I still have to finish The Neverland Wars by Audrey Greathouse as well… I actually thought about DNFing it because I am really struggling with it, but since I already made it this far I will just finish it.

• WHAT DID YOU RECENTLY FINISH READING?

* The first book I finished since last week is Wanderlost by Jen Malone, which turned out to be a quick, fluffy and entertaining summer read. Not perfect and in a way a bit cliche, but I loved the road trip details!
* I then finished The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey; probably one of the first stories with zombies I absolutely loved. I still can’t believe it took me this long to pick up this book! Well written, excellent worldbuilding and Melanie is probably one of my newest favorite characters.
* I also finally continued The Stepmother by Claire Seeber, but unfortunately I wasn’t completely convinced by it. I liked the fact that  it reversed the roles of the typical ‘evil stepmother’ plot, but the pace is quite slow and I REALLY disliked the main character.
* The last book I finished is The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne, which turned out to be a well written, spooky read with great descriptions. The plot was a bit uneventful, but it is without doubt a great read.

• WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL READ NEXT?

Depending on what genre I’m in the mood for, I will read When We Collided by Emery Lord. I might read The Fire Child by S.K. Tremayne first though; especially since I really enjoyed her other novel. Talon by Julie Kagawa is most likely my next fantasy read; I have been wanting to read another dragon story for too long now! Secret Letters by Leah Scheier is another Sherlock Holmes retelling and my newest TBR jar pick.

BOOK REVIEW: Wanderlost – by Jen Malone

Title: Wanderlost
Author: Jen Malone
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance
First published: May 31st 2016
Publisher: HarperTeen
Finished reading: July 13th 2016
Pages: 352

“Lizzie, pushing your comfort zone is what traveling is all about.”

Wanderlost is without doubt a great choice both if you want to escape the cold winter months (like me) and if you are looking for an entertaining summer read. This novel is by no means perfect, but definitely cute and fluffy enough if you can forget about details like the credibility of the plot. First of all, it shows that Jen Malone has traveled quite a lot herself and probably visited the places she mentioned in Wanderlost, because the descriptions are detailed and make you feel like you are traveling along with the main characters. I don’t think that all observations about local traditions are correct though (although I can only speak for the Dutch ones myself; seriously, salty pancakes are NOT breakfast food!), but I guess it’s really hard to understand the local ways in the first place without actually living in that country. I’ve learned that the hard way myself during my travels… Wanderlost is fast-paced though and both easy and entertaining to read. Sam is adorable and I liked the senior group, but I wasn’t too sure about Aubree in the beginning. I mean, I understand that leaving your home and country for the first time can be extremely intimidating, but the total lack of confidence did get a bit annoying after a while. It is however a realistic description, because I’ve had my share of ‘Aubree’s’ during my years working in a hostel. I liked how her character developed though, and overall Wanderlost kind of made me wish I could go on another Europe road trip myself…

When her older sister, Elizabeth, gets into real trouble and cannot make it to Europe for her oh-so-important summer job, she asks Aubree to take over her place. Aubree is not exactly adventurous and has never been far away from home, but she feels guilty about what happened to her sister and reluctantly agrees. In two weeks, Aubree will now be leading a group of senior citizens on a bus tour through Europe, and even the carefully prepared binder full of helpful facts and training of her sister can calm her nerves. Things seem to go wrong from the start and she doesn’t even make it to her first hotel in Amsterdam before their perfect plan starts to unravel… Without phone and binder, Aubree is now on her own while she tries to do the job she was never hired for in the first place.

Even though the plot was not really that credible, I still quite enjoyed reading Wanderlost. In itself it’s without doubt a fast-paced, entertaining and adorable summer read that will most likely appeal to those who enjoy reading contemporary romance novels. It’s cute, it’s fluffy, it has a lot of romance and also a healthy dose of road trip and travel descriptions… Warning: it will most likely trigger your wanderlust!

WWW Wednesdays #99 – July 13th

WWW WEDNESDAYS is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World Of Words and is all about answering the three questions below.

• WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?

I’m currently reading Wanderlost by Jen Malone, which is turning out to be a quick and entertaining road trip story from what I can see so far. I’ve also started reading The Neverland Wars by Audrey Greathouse because I was in the mood for a Peter Pan retelling, but I can’t say I’m enjoying it. The tone and prose don’t seem to fit the theme at all and I’m struggling to continue this one… Same goes for The Stepmother by Claire Seeber: I started reading it last week, but I couldn’t get into the story and decided to keep it temporarily on hold and read a few other titles instead.

• WHAT DID YOU RECENTLY FINISH READING?

* The first book I finished since last week is My Girl by Jack Jordan, which is probably one of the most twisted and disturbing thrillers I’ve read so far this year. If you are into the genre, definitely make sure to check out this book!
* I then finished Out Of The Easy by Ruta Sepetys, which is without doubt my new favorite of this author. The setting, prose and character development are excellent and I really felt like I was right there in the 1950s along with the characters.
* I also read The Night Stalker by Robert Bryndza, which by no means suffers from the ‘weak-second-book’ syndrome. It’s fast-paced, well written and has an intriguing plot and plot twists. It’s without doubt a very entertaining read!
* I then read The Straw King by Danielle Paige. This novella was surprisingly good compared to the last few previous stories, but I still wasn’t overwhelmed by it.
* I’ve also been able to finish Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, a title that was on my 2015 most-antipated-releases list. I enjoyed reading it and I admit it was a ‘cute’ read, but I did have some problems with the credibility of the plot. I mean, if the main character is really that sick, doing what she did is incredibly stupid.
* The last book I managed to finish is The Sister by Louise Jensen, which I ended up really enjoying. It’s dark, messed with your mind and has many plot twists… The story jumps back and forth between the past and present and there are quite a few unreliable characters, but it only added to the whole mystery around Grace and Charlie.

• WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL READ NEXT?

Depending on what genre I’m in the mood for, I will read When We Collided by Emery Lord. Although I really want to read The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne as well, both because I’ve heard great things about it and because I want to The Fire Child by the same author. If I want something different, The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey is also high on my list… And my latest TBR jar pick is still The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz. (Which I should read soon since it’s been too long since I last read a TBR jar book.)