{Mini’s} Review: Let’s Get Lost & Falling into Place

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.

~ Goodreads

Source: ARC provided by Harlequin Teen via BEA 2104

Review:
I had VERY mixed feelings reading this book. Let’s Get Lost is told through different POV’s (you basically get five different stories within one book), all connected by Leila, as she meets them during her trip to see the aurora borealis.

At times I loved the connections Leila made, particularly with Bree and Sonia, and other times I was rolling my eyes and almost quit reading, as with Hudson’s story.

I had two big problems with this book. One was that despite the raw emotions of the characters, each story ended up taking something potentially deep and meaningful and adding a wacky far fetched element.

Second was Leila herself. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Alsaid develops her more than most authors do but she still doesn’t seem like too much more than a beautiful whirlwind of a teenage girl, imparting yoda like life lessons at key moments so we can get to the next character’s pov.

I really wish her story had taken up more of this book, rather than a catalyst for everyone else's and a quickie (unbelievable) end for her.

To be fair – I think there’s some leeway to be taken with road trip stories. They are kind of wacky, madcap and impulsive, anything can happen, adventures aren’t they? I guess it’s just not my thing but if you do enjoy that then I still recommend this one. Despite not falling in love with it as much as I hoped, I don’t regret reading it and I will be giving this author another try.

***

On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road.

Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect? Amy Zhang’s haunting and universal story will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman, and Jay Asher.

Goodreads

Source: ARC provided by Greenwillow Books via BEA2014

Review:
Falling into Place is a quite kind of story that slowly works it’s way into your psyche. It’s told in multiple pov, non linear fashion which could be disconcerting but it works for this story.
It’s simple, stripped down and all the more powerful a story for it.

This book really captures high school, popularity and bullying. It explores the way we perceive people, how are actions can change the course of someone's life, and hopefully allow for second chances.