It was nice to read about and there were even a few surprise adventures along the way, but I didn't feel the thrill I had hoped for.Īlong with this, I didn't feel the spark I had hoped for between Gus and Maya. I didn't feel the excitement I usually feel when there are fun things happening in a book.

There didn't really seem to be a rise in action, although there were plenty of things happening. It was nice to know everything wasn't just laid out from page one. The author hinted at a few demons both Gus and Maya had but didn't come right out and say them. There were quite a few things we, as the readers, had to figure out about both the main characters' pasts. I liked that aspect of the book.Īlso, there was a decent amount of mystery at the beginning. They both have things they want to get out of the summer and feel that the other is standing in their way of those things. The story is told in 3rd person POV and it focuses on Gus and Maya, alternating each chapter.

There was a good set-up for an enemies-to-lovers trope which I was excited about. I enjoyed parts of it and didn't enjoy other parts. I wasn't completely entranced by it, but I didn't hate it either. My feelings for this book are pretty neutral. Soon Gus and Maya discover there are hidden depths to clichéd bucket-lists and secret summer trips, and that sometimes it takes someone half a world away to remind you of all the reasons you're here. But when Maya doesn't scare that easily, sparks begin to fly. So he comes up with a list of his own-one guaranteed to send Maya back across the Pacific, leaving him free to enjoy the last of his freedom before he heads off to agricultural college like every generation of his family has. Gus has an important trip planned this summer- a trip that does NOT include helping an animal-phobic girl from the States tick off items on her seriously clichéd Aussie must-do list.

Add her host brother, Gus, who wishes she landed in someone else's sheep paddock, and Maya is convinced she's in for six weeks of Hicksville hell. When 18 year-old Maya leaves Chicago for a six week Australian home stay, she assumes she's heading to beautiful Barangaroo with its famous Sydney Harbour views-NOT Barangaroo Creek, a stinking hot, fly-ridden, wi-fi dead zone hours from a decent body of water.

Tickets on Himself by Kat Colmer