Book Review: Let's Get Lost

Let's Get Lost

By: Adi Alsaid

Published By: Harlequin Teen, Harlequin Teen Australia

Publication Date: July 29, 2014 (US), August 1, 2014 (Australia/NZ)

Page Count: 352 (US Hardcover), 336 (Australian Paperback)

Buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, & The Book Depository

Source: ARC Kindly Provided by Publisher

Audience: Young Adult - Contemporary

More an anthology or series of vignettes than a novel, Let’s Get Lost follows Leila, who is travelling across North America in order to see the Northern Lights. Along the way she meets and befriends four people who are all lost in their own way. Hudson is about to have the most important meeting of his life, which will determine whether or not he goes to medical school. Bree has run away from home and is floating aimlessly through life, wanting only to “seize the Tuesday” and hoping that the next driver to pick her up won’t be a psycho. Elliot is in love with his best friend who has just rejected him at the prom and he can’t see any point in going on. And Sonia is a bridesmaid at her dead fiancé’s sister’s wedding. Can she admit to his family, and herself, that she’s ready to move on? 

Leila has an uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time, and the impact she has on the lives of those she meets along the way will stay with them forever. The story takes Leila from Louisiana on a roundabout tour of the US and Canada, with a stay in a jail cell and an illegal border crossing along the way. 

 What I loved about this story was Leila’s courage and openness to new experiences. She embraces every day and every situation. We don’t learn much about her until the final section of the book, which explains why she wants to see the Northern Lights so badly. This can be a little frustrating when reading the earlier stories, but it all comes together when we learn about Leila’s past, and her earlier actions are put into context and make sense. 

 Let’s Get Lost is beautifully written. Of the five stories I found Elliot’s a little clichéd, and that’s what stopped me from giving it the full 5 birdies, but it works as part of the whole and makes sense in the context of Leila’s journey. 

 Upon finishing Let’s Get Lost I was left with a smile and a happy sigh and a feeling that all is right in the world. I don’t often read books more than once, but this is one I would definitely revisit.

Summary:

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.