Rating: ★★★★★

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.

I want to give Wanderlove ten stars, it's seriously that good. I feel bad even putting a rating on it because I feel like that can't really do it justice. This is the first book of Kirsten's that I have read, and I am hooked on her writing. How can you put something into words, when you're completely captivated by it? Authors put their heart and soul into their books, but what Kirsten has done with Wanderlove hits a whole new level. I feel like the fact that she has traveled to these places really makes this book that much better. I can just imagine how much fun she had writing this novel, because I feel like I can sense how naturally this story came to her.

I would love to be able to travel like Bria, Rowan and Starling do in this book. How much fun would that be? The way Kirsten has written this, it's almost as if you're traveling around to all of these different places with the characters. The level of detail is something that I feel can only be accomplished by someone that has actually been to these places, which is why I really like that Kirsten has been to most if not all of the places in this book (from what I gathered from her authors note) I just got such an amazing feeling reading this book. A story about travel, friendship and personal discovery. It's just the way that Kirsten wrote it and how much passion she put into the story that makes it so much more than those simple story plots.

I adored the characters. Bria, Rowan, Starling and even all of the side characters. It really makes me wonder if any of these characters were based off people Kirsten has met on her own travels or even based around herself in some ways. She just put so much life into these characters, and you almost instantly become attached to them. You want to know their stories, you want to know where they are going to go next and what will happen to them. I always have a habit of finding characters I really like, but the amount of life Kirsten has breathed into these characters really makes them something special.

Another awesome thing about this book, was the sketches. I am pretty positive Kirsten drew them all, since she does sketches and everything. It was just a really nice touch, they all go along with the story in someway and it just makes the story much more immersive. Especially since you really get to know Bria more through her sketches, it really turns out to be a huge part of the story. The quotes at the start of each "Part" of the book were also great, I really enjoyed reading them.

I really liked the ending, it was great getting to see both Bria and Rowan rediscover themselves. They both hit a lot of bumps along the way, and it is really interesting to see how those bumps shape the ending. Some of them are good, and some not so much. But I feel like they did an amazing job working through things, and I enjoyed that Starling played such a huge role in all of that. I was really to see how everything worked out for them by the time I got to the end of the book. Kirsten did a fantastic job wrapping up this beautiful story.

In my opinion there is absolutely nothing about this book that would cause someone to not want to read it. I loved everything about it. It's a simple story, but the amount of passion Kirsten put into it makes it extraordinary. I would highly recommend this book to absolutely everyone, I am sure you've been able to gather that by now though. It's just such an amazing book that is honestly so much to read. It takes being able to escape into a book to a whole new level.