Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid Review: ROAD TRIP MAGNIFICENCE

Let's Get Lost, by Adi Alsaid
Publication: July 29, 2014, by Harlequin Teen
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 352
Format: Hardcover
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 

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.

My Thoughts: 

Get into the car, open your traveling carry-on bag full of your most precious things, look out of the window and admire the view of the different environment that you’re driving beside, and pick up this book and enjoy your road trip. This is exactly what Let’s Get Lost made me feel like doing. I was actually ready to concur it all and Seize the Saturday and road trip. But really, this book will help you transform to another place immediately without any regrets. I'll tell you something—I'm in love with this book.

The best thing about contemporary novels is that they're cute and they give you another reckless view on life. You might not be the type of person who tries to sneak into the Canadian border through a forest and risk going into jail, but at least it gives you the experience and you can feel like you've been through it all, right? That's what this book gave me—the feeling of being wild, or at least in my own fictional world in my imagination. It's the thought that counts, no?

"With his eyes closed, Hudson could reduce the world to a single engine and nothing more; a world where he could not only name every little part but knew what it was for, how it worked, how to fix it."

You'd expect this to be a novel about five teenagers who are on a road trip all together and go to different places and experience different forms of love. This is exactly not that. Instead, it was about five teenagers: Hudson, Bree, Sonia, Leila and Elliot, who all learn things about life and about themselves after Leila comes into their lives and helps them out somehow. For Hudson, he's the first individual who meets Leila as she's on her way to Alaska to see the Northern Lights. He's ready to become a doctor, and is about to go to his scholarship interview but she comes into his life and things happen. Next off we have Bree, who's a runaway escaping from the memories of her broken past. Later on, Elliot declares his love for his best friend, who may not feel the same thing back for him. And finally, Sonia is there, depressed over her boyfriend's death, but she falls in love with someone new.

I'll let you know beforehand that this isn't cheesy or something like that whatsoever. It doesn't talk about someone finding who they are or that you only live once. I mean, it does share those themes, but it's not the basic and main point of the novel. It's about having fun in your life and doing whatever you want to be happy. H-A-P-P-Y. I guess that's a thing that most people don't got through much these days.

When I think of summer, I think of popsicles and shorts... and this book. It's such a fun read that I know I'll never forget about, and the morals and just about everything in it was so relatable and true to the heart. It really helped me get lost for a few hours of pure enjoyment and fun, and I'm actually really anticipating Adi's next novel! (I WILL GO MEET HIM AT BEA.)

"It's a lot easier to seize the day than it is to seize a Tuesday. You have errands on Tuesday. On Tuesday you eat pizza again. Your favorite TV show is on Tuesday, you know? But the day... [...] The day is all just hours you're alive for. They can be filled with anything. Unexpectedness, wildness, maybe a little bit of lawlessness even."

Adi's writing is smart and right-to-the-point. When he goes through the different points-of-views of the characters, it's easy to tell that all of their stories are coming from his heart. He can probably make a well-known children story sound unique and interesting, for once. *laughs* From beginning to end, it was like rolling on a bumpy road that gives you butterflies–the story was enjoyable and had bumps in it (plot twists), but that was what made the book enjoyable, you know? It was like being an amateur YA reader again, where I have just began to read some of the most different books ever. No book has ever been written like this one.

And here's the part that I've been most looking forward to, to actually write about: the character relationships and Leila, of course. Leila is the type of girl who anyone can have some kind of connection with. Alongside each of the other four protagonists, Leila found something in common with them, but of course she grew to be hesitant onto how much information she should share with each of them and how far their relationship will go with her. And from the first POV: Hudson's, she already found a piece of love with him.

Hudson was someone whom everyone can actually grow to hate, but we actually turn to love anyways. I mean, they did have a kind of instalove fall-in-love-at-the-moment thing, but it's great to hear and read that they actually knew all about it and realize that. At first, both were kind of lost with their relationship and were surprised at how everyone usually isn't in their situation. But in the end, IT WAS ALL SO CUTE AND I THOUGHT THAT SOMETHING ELSE WOULD HAPPEN BUT IT ACTUALLY DIDN'T. Let the wedding bells ring!

As for: Bree, Elliot and Sonia, all three of them had a story that had to do with love. Whether it was loss and depression for Bree and Sonia, or it was trying to get someone to like you when apparently they don't—Elliot's situation. The guilt, the pity, the sorrow was all real and stayed with me throughout. I just can't pick and choose a favourite character because they're all stuck with me here! *pounds and points to heart*

This was a book—no scratch that—masterpiece of literature that deserves all of the stars. At first, I thought that all of the starred reviews on Goodreads were actually foreshadowing a worser experience, but in return I received something better and a billion times more positive than all of those reviews and through everything I could ever imagine. Adi's writing is hilarious, sweet and throws readers into a fictional road trip with the best crew of characters around. Where else would you rather spend a hot summer afternoon than with this?

Favourite summer road trip reads?