Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard

Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard

Release Date: March 13th 2012
Pages: 352
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Random House
Also by this Author: Like Mandarin
Buy It: Book Depository

In a quest for independence, her neglected art, and no-strings-attached hookups, 18-year-old Bria 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.

When I said, after finishing Kirsten Hubbard's incredible debut novel Like Mandarin, that I wasn't quite to wait long to pick up her second novel, I wasn't kidding. Two weeks later I was diving into Wanderlove, with only the slightest touch of apprehension, because the storyline itself was not quite as appealing to me. While I didn't have quite the same heart-rush for Wanderlove as I did for Like Mandarin, the novel was still a great read: filled with adventure, growth, and heart.

The unusual settings– Guatemala and Belize– are brought to life by Hubbard's skilled description, and it's not surprising that she's worked as a travel writer for years. Travel love, wanderlove, the pages of this book exude it and it's probably impossible to finish the novel without having an instant desire to book plane tickets to Central America. In a way, Wanderlove makes the reader feel like they've had a firsthand look into what it would be like, that maybe, in a tiny way, a part of them has visited.

As incredible as Hubbard's setting and description were once again, there were a couple aspects that didn't quite live up to her debut novel for me. In particular, the dialogue didn't feel as natural, and in a few instances even came off as insincere. I felt like I had really gotten to know the characters, and it was hard to imagine them speaking that way. My second complaint might not be shared by those with a softer hear than me, but the ending, especially the last few pages, were just way too cheesy for me. Bria's journey hadn't been easy or straightforward, and to end things in such a corny way, felt false for me. But maybe I'm just cold-hearted. Finally, the whole no strings attached hookup storyline seemed a bit juvenile and pointless within the whole novel, the sort of tacked on component I'm not sure I would have missed.

What I definitely would have missed if they weren't a unique part of Wanderlove are the drawings, Bria's drawings, done by Hubbard herself, that are included throughout. As beautiful as they are, at first I was worried they'd be distracting from the story, but there are just enough to add, without taking away and jarring me out of the story. One or two, though well-drawn of course, might have been unnecessary, but I was willing to accept them because of the other 90% that were a complete benefit to the novel.

Bria also has a rich and authentic character development, and even though the novel takes place over 20 days, it really feels like she's changed by the end. Considering how life-altering travel can be, it really does fit, and the way that Hubbard's shows her past, through flashbacks, and her current experiences, made for a satisfying and believable change in Bria.

Overall, Wanderlove wasn't another Like Mandarin: it had its own unique cast of characters, incredible setting, and engaging story line, and while it didn't have quite the magic of my first Hubbard experience it is still a completely worthwhile and wonderful reading experience. I eagerly await Hubbard's next novel, and there better be some kind of announcement about it soon; I don't want to wait too long.

Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard

 Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard

Release Date: March 8th 2011
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Random House
Buy It: Book Depository

It's hard finding beauty in the badlands of Washokey, Wyoming, but 14-year-old Grace knows it's not her mother's pageant obsessions. True beauty is wild-girl Mandarin: 17, shameless and utterly carefree. Grace would give anything to be like Mandarin. Then they're united for a project and form an unlikely, explosive friendship, packed with nights spent skinny-dipping in the canal, liberating the town's animal-head trophies, and searching for someplace magic. All too soon, Grace discovers Mandarin's unique beauty hides a girl who's troubled, broken, and even dangerous. And no matter how hard Grace fights to keep the magic, no friendship can withstand betrayal.

I've been following Kristen Hubbard's blog since way before Like Mandarin was released, and I've owned the book itself for months, so I'm not sure exactly why I stalled at reading it. I think it was just one of those cases where everything I saw said this was exactly a "me" book, one I would completely fall in love with. It wasn't the case of being scared off by hype, like I was with Stephanie Perkins, because this novel hasn't gotten nearly as much as it deserves. It was a case of wanting to save something for later.

Now that Hubbard's second novel, Wanderlove, has been released, I knew saving her debut any longer was getting ridiculous, and I finally picked it up and fell in love. As lovely as the language is from page one, it took me a little while to fall in with the characters, especially Grace. She seems like an incredibly old fourteen year old at times, and she also is prone to saying something when her actions proclaim otherwise. For example, at the beginning of Like Mandarin, Grace says she's not a stalker, then she describes hiding and watching Mandarin go to work... sounds pretty stalkerish to me. But after awhile the minor things didn't matter so much anymore, and as Mandarin and Grace's friendship developed, so did my adoration for this novel.

Like Mandarin is a novel that the reader soaks up, is transported into. I have never been Wyoming, but Hubbard made me feel like that little town was real. It was one of the most beautiful settings I have ever read, and it doesn't surprise me that the author is also a travel writer. Mandarin is also one of those charming bad-girls, like Ruby in Stephanie Guerra's Torn and Nova Ren Suma's Imaginary Girls. The kind of character that may be a terrible influence, but that as a reader you can't help falling in love with. She is sensuous and rebellious. Describing her many sexual encounters, Grace says:

"Mandarin never broadcasted her flings the way other students did. She never parked at the A&W for floats and chicken fingers, or copped feels under blankets at autumn bonfires. All that was too time-consuming. Mandarin treated her men like the apples she bit the good parts from, then pitched; like the still-smoldering cigarettes she famously crushed beneath her bare feet.

I wondered how many of them she thought about afterward, and which ones, and why."

These are the kind of vivid images that last long after the final page of the novel. This is the kind of book that you think about afterwards. Like Mandarin is not only an incredible debut, it's an incredible novel, and as patient as I was with picking it up, I have a feeling I will be falling into Hubbard's second novel, Wanderlove, in the very near future.