“The Amazing Race” meets Around the World in 80 Days as a woman desperate to save her family bookstore falls for her competition. Born and raised in New York City, Ramona Keene dreams of attending photography school and traveling to Paris, but her reality never quite catches up with her imagination. Instead, she works at her uncles’ quaint bookstore, where the tea is plentiful and all the … plentiful and all the adventures are between the covers of secondhand books. But when the new landlord arrives with his Evil Nephew in tow, Romy’s quiet life comes crashing down. He plans to triple the rent, something her uncles can’t afford.
In order to earn the money to help save the bookstore, Romy applies for a job at ExLibris Expeditions, a company that re-creates literary journeys. Romy snags the oddest internship ever: retrace Phileas Fogg’s journey from Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days and plan a suitable, contemporary adventure for a client. The task is close to impossible; sticking to the original route means no commercial aircraft permitted, and she’s got a lot less than eighty days to work with. Shaking off her fear of leaving home, Romy takes on the challenge, only to discover she’s got competition. Worse, Dominic Madison turns out to be the – unfortunately hot – nephew of her family’s worst enemy.
Can Romy win the race and circle the globe in time to save the bookstore? And what happens when she starts to fall for the very person who may just be the death of her dreams?
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A contemporary version of the classic but so much more fun! I love Ramona’s race around the world as she desperately seeks to save her family’s bookstore. She would definitely be my travel companion.
To be fair, my lovely bestie KC’s brilliant new book takes you well beyond the borders of Europe, but it does hit this continent as well as many other locations, as it retraces the steps of Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 8o Days”.
This incredible and sweetly romantic story take you on a heart-stopping and life- changing adventure as travelphobe Ramona Keene tries to win the race around the globe to save her uncles’ beloved bookstore…and maybe fall in love with her competitor.
Going into it, I totally expected Eighty Days to Elsewhere by K.C. Dyer to just be a lighthearted romance with lots of travel, but I am here to tell you friends that this is not the case. There is humor and romance to be sure, but there are also very serious subjects like race and class as well. As Ramona (or Romy as she is called) travels the world she comes into contact with so many different people, and this is one of those books that is full of lessons. There are also a lot of issues and basically anything bad that could happen to Romy does. Some readers tired of this, but I thought it kept things interesting and it seemed plausible to me that this could actually happen on a major trip like that.
I listened to the audio while following along in the book and I loved our narrator Lauren Ezzo. I didn’t realize that the book was so long at almost 450 pages, so the audio is long as well and comes in at just under 14 hours. It probably could have been a bit shorter, but I still enjoyed it in its entirety and the audio really helped me along. I loved each chapter heading and the way you see Romy’s likes on Instagram grow as she posts more and more on the trip. I can’t say I loved Romy all of the time, but most of the time I did, and I REALLY loved her love interest. I actually think this would make a really fun movie and if it were optioned for film, I would definitely watch it.
If you are looking for a light romance in a (at times) heavier read, Eighty Days to Elsewhere could be for you. I loved getting a taste of all of the different places Romy travels to and the way Dyer writes really brought each place and experience to life for me. This was an entertaining read/listen and I hadn’t read this author before, but now knowing that this is her EIGHTH(!) novel, I will definitely be looking into her other books.
Thank you to the publisher for my advanced reader copy via Edelweiss. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This book had everything I loved – reading about a quaint bookstore that needs to be saved, an Jules Verne’s adventure by traveling all over the world and possibly falling in love with the enemy. Since I read an early ARC Copy, I was not able to appreciate the illustrations available in the finished copy which I definitely will be snagging very soon.
Ramona Keene a New Yorker and our introverted heroine who dreams of travelling to Paris and going to photography school needs to put on hold her dreams to save her uncle’s second hand book shop as the new landlord is set at increasing the rent which means closing down the bookstore. Romy had an opportunity to save the bookstore by joining the ExLibris Expeditions to perform a literary journey in 80 days to travel around the world.
This was the perfect read for me during the quarantine where my travel dreams are put on hold and yet through this book I was taken to so many adventures. I love the beautiful writing that was vivid, and so beautiful. To get to enjoy the characters in this book especially Romy and Dominic was the perfect escape.
I really enjoyed this book so much!
ARC received via Netgalley for an honest review
I was intrigued by the premise of this story, and whilst there were parts that I really enjoyed, by the end I was just ” finally is over”.
I was quite over the travel dramas at every turn. It ended up feeling like the world’s longest road trip.
I liked Ramona putting herself or there and the adventure she embarks on.
However as each new destination was reached, I was all “oh god, what will happen here?”, But not in an excited way.
I felt that this book could have been cut down a lot, and have at least a few times what nothing went wrong.
I found myself putting this book aside a few times, and was tempted not too finish it more than once. I am glad i persevered though.