Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard

Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard
Published: March 13, 2012 by Delacorte Books
Received: ARC from the publisher - thank you!

It all begins with a stupid question:

Are you a Global Vagabond?

No, but 18-year-old Bria Sandoval wants to be. In a quest for independence, her neglected art, and no-strings-attached hookups, she signs up for a guided tour of Central America—the wrong one. Middle-aged tourists with fanny packs are hardly the key to self-rediscovery. When Bria meets Rowan, devoted backpacker and dive instructor, and his outspokenly humanitarian sister Starling, she seizes the chance to ditch her group and join them off the beaten path.

Bria's a good girl trying to go bad. Rowan's a bad boy trying to stay good. As they travel across a panorama of Mayan villages, remote Belizean islands, and hostels plagued with jungle beasties, they discover what they've got in common: both seek to leave behind the old versions of themselves. And the secret to escaping the past, Rowan’s found, is to keep moving forward.

But Bria comes to realize she can't run forever, no matter what Rowan says. If she ever wants the courage to fall for someone worthwhile, she has to start looking back.

Kirsten Hubbard lends her artistry into this ultimate backpacker novel, weaving her drawings into the text. Her career as a travel writer and her experiences as a real-life vagabond backpacking Central America are deeply seeded in this inspiring story. {goodreads.com}

I'm a creature who loves to travel.  So when I first heard about this novel, my interests were definitely on high alert.  However, my preferred form of travel involves airline tickets and hotel reservations.  The idea of sleeping in the jungle under a mosquito net and washing my body with a bucket of well water (that may or may not have been used already) didn't exactly scream Ginger's Dream Vacation!  But that's the beauty of literature, we can escape to places we never thought we'd venture to, and completely lose ourselves among the pages.  That is exactly what I did with Kirsten Hubbard's Wanderlove. 

Bria has just graduated high school and is on the brink of the rest of her life.  She's caught between her past, the mistakes she's made, and the future which she is not so certain about.  On a whim, which is so not Bria, she decides to take a couple weeks vacation to Central America with a group of total strangers - the Global Vagabonds!  Once Bria steps off the plane in the muggy air of Guatemala, she soon realizes what a horrible mistake she's made.  The tour group she thought she signed up for turns out to be a bunch of middle-aged typical tourists, fanny-pack and all.  Just when she thought her life could not get any better, she literally runs in to Rowan, the seasoned backpacker that reeks of experience and adventure.  On another whim, Bria decides to follow Rowan and his sister on the not so mapped out adventures across Central America.

The journey that Bria travels along contains vast jungles, endless blue waters, and a million new types of insects she'd rather forget about.  Aside from the physical journey that Bria descends upon, it's the personal growth that stood out the most in my eyes.  She is caught between the girl she thought she was, and the ambition to become a bold and daring new Bria.  I admired her want to be someone new, but understood her fears of actually taking the plunge.  It's a scary reality to face.  With the help of Rowan, and her love for art, she begins to shed her old skin and discover the girl she's meant to be.

I love stories that are about self-discovery, but not in a preachy way.  This novel flowed so nicely that I forgot just how far and wide Bria allowed herself to grow, until it literally hit me right in the face.  The scenery was so breath-taking that I could image every scene as if I were there, laying in that hammock staring up at an endless blanket of stars.  This is a novel that will linger with you long after you've finished.  It's a journey you won't want to see end, with that feeling of not being ready to unpack your bags just yet.  Wanderlove has definitely captured my heart.