A journey that will change the future…

Synopsis

Two best friends. Two one-way tickets. And a future that might just surprise them.
Bex and Amy are best friends and total opposites. Bex is cynical, Amy is romantic. Bex is chaotic, Amy is organised. With the prospect of turning 34 just around the corner, neither is where they expected to be at this point in their lives.
Bex is exploring her sexuality and has a string of failed relationships, while Amy is newly single and desperate to fall in love. Armed with a photographic vision board of the future, Bex and Amy put their trust in ‘The Universe’ and fly from London to Bali, then on to Australia in search of adventure, cocktails on the beach and maybe even love.
Almost immediately, Amy finds someone who is the perfect fit for her dream life. While Bex is stuck playing double dates with his best friend, the most pompous man she has ever met, but also one of the hottest. Travelling via white sand beaches, lush rainforests and road trips through idyllic scenery, the images on their vision board begin to transform into reality.
However, people are not always what they seem, and first impressions are not always accurate. Add in a queer, charismatic love interest and a vindictive ex-girlfriend, and the path of true love begins to get a little more complex.
When ‘The Universe’ has its own agenda, is it possible to manifest a happy ever after?
An Enemies to Lovers destination romance with a sprinkling of Pride and Prejudice vibes.

My review

Despite being complete opposites, Bex and Amy are best friends. Their friendship shows how people can complement each other. Where Bex is a cynical, chaotic and struggling with her own sexuality and has several failed relationships, Amy is organized, romantic and still trying to get over her recently broken heart. One drunken night, where Amy is being anything but organized, the two women decide to create their own personal vision board of how their future should look like. With a result that Bex and Amy find themselves heading of to Bali and later on to Australia, in search of adventure, purpose and perhaps even love. What they didn’t expect is that they would be meeting two men. And while Amy feels an immediate connection with Ben, Bex clashes with JP. And during their travels, they keep on meeting up, while both Amy and Bex start to understand what they truly want in their lives, and that perhaps their vision board can be turned into reality…

I love it when there are friends, best of friends, that are complete opposites. It shows,  in books, how people truly can complement each other, and make it possible to see things in different lights. And Bex and Amy couldn’t be more different, in just every aspect. But their friendship is perfect example of my statement here above.

While Bex is also very different from myself, in a way I could relate with her. There are always expectations from everyone, to make something of your life. Have a good career, have a solid and ‘normal’ relationship, have a family.

But Bex points out in this book, that it is okay to be still searching, no matter if you are already an adult of not. You don’t have to have all the answers yet, and it is okay to be still figuring out who you truly are and what you want from life.

Sometimes, the best things happen when done or planned on a drunken night. And that for sure is applicable in this book, as Amy decides to make this journey after several drinks to drown her heartbreak.

I have to admit, I felt truly sorry for Amy. Not only because she had her whole life planned out, and was in a solid relationship, which ended abruptly. But it is obvious that this one event, the end of her relationship, makes her question just everything that used to be a certainty.

Even if the decision to make this trip was made on a spirited evening, I couldn’t agree more with the ladies, as I think that everyone would benefit to take some time off, to go away for a while, to just find yourself again, to find answers to what you are truly looking for. Although for me, it would have be planned from the very beginning till the end, as I cannot just go with the flow 😊.

Almost immediately on their trip, Amy and Bex meet with Ben and JP. And where Ben is being a nice guy, the guy you want to immediately befriend, JP gives serious ‘leave – me  – alone’ – vibes. Although I could understand JP’s reaction when he first meets Bex, especially after we learn later on who he was talking to…

I could understand Bex’s frustrations as JP acts in a way that would frustrate me too. However, isn’t it true that the more time you spend with someone, the better you get to know them, and you even get to understand their struggles.

And I had to change my mind over JP, as we learn that things aren’t as straightforward as it may seem, as he has a lot of baggage with him. And even he has a lot to learn, has to grow in this book. At a certain moment, he acts in a way that reminded me even as a Mr. Darcy, thinking that he knows things better than what truly is transpiring…

This is journey that is both literally and emotionally. Because while Amy and Bex are discovering the world, with a little bit of help with their vision boards, they are also discovering more about themselves. And also Ben and JP are learning more to follow their hearts.

In this book the author takes also her time to make it an inclusive story. As that is something that doesn’t happen that very often, that there is room for everyone and for who they are, was something that I appreciate it. With Bex and her new acquaintances in this book, we see that just like how everyone looks different on the outside, we are all different on the inside. There isn’t just one label that fits all. Yet we also see how not everyone understands this, and how some are holding onto the old labels, old traditions.

There is romance in this book, both for Amy and Bex, but it felt more a way towards their personal goal, and not the goal itself. Because the feelings that are rising, growing, makes all the characters understand themselves much better too. Even if it is with trial and error…

I enjoyed reading this story, as it shows how at loss people can be, how much pressure there is on all of us. But it also shows us that we need time and space to figure out who we are and where we want life to take us. And self – discovery and acceptance of ourselves, is the only way that we can find happiness…