This read had everything I wanted in it. It made me smile, laugh, and cry. I thought I knew what I was getting into when I requested it, but I was wrong. Take the time to discover the adventure of a lifetime and feel yourself heal along with the main character. I didn't know I needed this book, but I did. It will stick with me for a while and I'm sure I will come back to it again later in life and get something totally different from it. It reminds me of the journey from The Alchemist. You could read it every year and take something different from it.

I loved the set up and premise of this story. A few points fell flat to me: like having travelled around the world, I know what that confusion of immigration/luggage/busses and where to go feels like. I needed more emotion from Maya. I needed some tears of overwhelming frustration.

The beginning was a little slow, but then it began to pick up and I’m glad I stuck with it!

👏🏼👏🏼For Maya being middle aged. Move over 20 somethings!👏🏼👏🏼

Even though the book is part of a series, it is fine as a stand alone!

Tragedy hits on the day of Mayas wedding when her husband passes away. She decides to go on the secret honeymoon that Jon had been planning for them to try and feel closer to him while mourning his death. She travels to Hong Kong, India and Singapore.

I loved that this book had so much attention to details when it came to the traveling. It made me want to hop on a plane and visit these places myself. But since I can’t it was a nice escape reading Hortons descriptions.

I also loved how Maya took what could have been the most tragic, depressing and awful time of her life and put on a brave face and went and did the trip anyway. And grew and became stronger because of it.

Maya's dream wedding to the love of her life ends when her fiancé drops dead just before they take their vows. Grief-stricken, angry and homeless as a result she doesn't know how to pick up the pieces and start again. Instead she decides to go on the magical mystery honeymoon her fiancé planned for them, using his own post-it notes as guidance. This trip takes her from an ashram in India to the luxury of Hong Kong and Singapore. Will this be enough not only to find peace again but also find a new path?
I liked Maya and could relate to her utter devastation and anger at the way things turned out. I could also relate to her desperation to find answers in the ashram and her need to get a 'magic' wand but not really embrace the life of meditation and clean living she finds there. There were times when her behaviour angered me a little (e.g. her behaviour towards Henri) but this contributed to the idea of someone who isn't thinking clearly after her world has disintegrated.
I loved the detailed descriptions of India, Hong Kong and Singapore and they fed my desire to travel to these places. Yes there are massive coincidences and a little bit of unrealism to some of the events but these just contributed to the idea of the magical and mystical journey that she was on. I would have liked an epilogue though just to see how things would have worked out.

3.5-4.5 stars

This book is filled with heart, hope, and healing. It sucks the reader in from the start and is unrelenting in holding on. Maya finds her soul-mate late in life. On their wedding day, but before they can say their wedding vows, her fiancé Jon drops dead of an unexpected aneurysm. This puts Maya in a tailspin of sadness, anger, and frustration.

It’s heartbreaking to see how Maya is treated by Jon’s family, since the wedding didn’t actually occur. The only nice thing that his brother does is to drop off the tickets and itinerary for the ‘magical mystery tour’ honeymoon that Jon had planned for them to take together. So Maya decides to take the trip and follow his instructions and cryptic notes about the trip. This puts her in uncomfortable situations where she has to force herself to face things she’d rather avoid. She finds compassionate friends along the way, and teachers who guide her toward growth and healing. And finally, she finds the courage to risk her heart again.

This is an ARC, and it may be still in work, so it’s not clear if it’s appropriate to take stars away if it is still being worked on. Please note: There are a few frustrating things about this book. It may be a quirk of the process of moving the manuscript from computer to e-reader, or it may be the lack of a proper proofreader, but there were dozens of words that ran together without spaces between them. There were some grammatical errors as well. This reader almost chose to leave it unfinished, but was so compelled by the story that it was no longer an option. The story itself deserves 4.5 stars, but the lack of proofreading and the multiple grammatical errors brings it down to 3.5 stars. Here are some examples cut and pasted directly from the book: untilwe’d, antic ipation (two words), Thathe’s, karmaI’ve...; it’s clear that it takes some deciphering to read some of these words. This can be an amazing book if a decent proofreader can correct the multiple errors within it.

Ugh, I thought this was going to be more light and Hallmark-y, vaguely feel-good but it's much drearier than I expected and honestly it I so much like Eat Pray Love that I had to do a double take sometimes. It's not that no one else can do a trip through Asia and Europe tale (Gilbert's wasn't even that good) but it has so much of the same feeling and the same reasons for going... Anyhow, not my cup of tea. Very stilted conversation and the cover made me expect something quite different.

Sun, sea, sand and cocktails. A great story that lifted you up and took you away from it all. Lovely story and great characters

I really liked this one. Such a fun and easy read, I will definitely recommend this book to some of my friends.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I really enjoyed this fun, easy to read book, with great characters and bought a smile to my face.

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me. I felt incredibly guilty DNFing this novel as the cover and initial description had me so excited for it. I wish the synopsis had given a more detailed description of the main character and her stage in life, as I am clearly not the intended audience for this book. I found the MC’s voice quite dry, and the writing style felt like she was making a list and then pumping in adjectives. I’m sure the plot gets rewarding further in but unfortunately I just couldn’t get there. There was also an issue with the Kindle version of this ARC which caused extremely odd formatting and spacing that made it difficult to get in a rhythm.

A fairly standard concept. The main character’s voice is a bit grating and judgemental. However, what is most offensive about this book is how little research went into depicting some of the cultures correctly. She got a lot of things wrong about what’s in the food at dim sum, haw gaw is shrimp, not finish. Also Yum cha means to drink tea, not the tea the waitress is pouring out. I could list several other inaccuracies as well.
*please note I’m Chinese so I know what I’m talking about.

OMG, this book was so moving, I prefer to tell you, prevent you, you're gonna cry a lot if you're as sensible as I am. We follow a woman who just lost her fiancé in a tragic time at their wedding just after exachanging their vows... Okay, you're crying right now ? Wait it's not finished. She decide to complete the trip her fiancé secretly planned for her in India. India, FOLKS ! I really escape when I was reading this book, such a perfect book with the perfect tone, a beautifully written novel you're gonna love if you love reading about travelling and searching for true identity and what you want in life.

I usually finish every book that I read. I got about 5 chapters in to The Backpacking Bride before setting it down. I'm not sure if it was the main character's voice or the overall set-up, but I just couldn't get into this story. There were also random words in another script that were really hard to read on the digital copy. Thanks to the publisher, the author, and NetGalley for the advance copy of the book!

This was a really cute and easy read. I gravitate towards thrillers so for me, this was a great palette cleanser. In this story we meet Maya, a woman crazy in love and set to be married to Jon. However, a tragedy occurs on the day of their wedding, literally moments before they say 'I do' and Jon passes away. Maya, feeling lost and alone, decided to embark on their honeymoon - a mystery trip that her fiance had spent lots of time planning down to the finest detail. She travels to India, Hong Kong and Singapore alone in an attempt to feel close to her fiance Jon's spirit.

What I really liked about the story was the attention to detail. The places visited were described in such detail that you could easily immerse yourself in the story. It really made me want to travel! I liked Maya and the way she was constantly learning and growing through out the story. She started out very timid and by the end of the story was quite brave and strong.

If I had one complaint it would be that the end of the story seemed very rushed to me. Another couple of chapters would have concluded it nicely. She also had a romantic interest with an old friend of Jon's that she met on her journey. While it was a cute meeting, and I understand the need for some romance in the book, in my opinion it happened a little too quickly after her fiance's death. Otherwise it was an enjoyable and fun read perfect for summer!

An enjoyable tale of finding yourself after loss of a loved one. I really liked the character's journey and the descriptions of her adventures set the scenes well for me. A delightful read.

I requested this book because I was seeking a light hearted romance that involved some travel. Something cute, fluffy, and a cheesy level of romance. This sounded like that from the description. Maya's fiance dies suddenly at their wedding just as they're about to say "I do," she feels lost and betrayed. Though it was completely accidental, she feels as if her love, though they'd been together less than a year, had left her and this world on purpose. While he didn't, she has trouble coming to terms with it, especially after his family cuts her out of most of the decisions regarding him. She decides it's fate when his brother drops off their honeymoon book and says he knows his brother would have wanted her to have the trip. So she goes on her backpacking honeymoon, revisiting all the places her and Jon have talked about and the places he loved from his past.

She starts off in India and that's where the book lost me. I feel like the author could have had her go anywhere else, but the narrow-mindedness of the narrator was lost in India. From the moment she landed, wide eyed and acting as if she knew nothing about what she'd experienced, I was turned off. The way her surroundings were described and even some of her interactions in the small meditation village were layered in white privilege and slight racism. I get that she was following the path her fiance had planned for them to take, but it was lost on a character such as Maya. Yet, somehow, she reaches total enlightenment during the last two days of her week long stay in India.

From there, she goes to Hong Kong. The place she was born and the place she longed seek to travel to. While there, the most unbelievable thing happens. Literally unbelievable. Following a note from her fiance to do tai chi in the park, she does it. She enjoys it yes. Oh, but hearing that the tai chi instructor's name is Chen she is reminded of a note from Jon about a Harry Chen and so she asks, WHILE IN HONG KONG, if this man is the one, the only HARRY CHEN. And guess what? IT IS. Magically. I'm all for coincidence, but the fact that she asked this man if he was Harry Chen as if he was the only Chen in all of Hong Kong just blew my mind. Just no.

Anyways, the romance that follows after that, again while unbelievable and not realistic, was the only redeeming factor. Because like I said earlier, I went into this expecting romance. But a lot more of it. Instead, we were served 60% of "enlightenment" or lack there of, and some minor backstory meant to make you feel bad, but instead making you go "eh, whatever." So in having high hopes, I was instead subjected to a slightly racist tale that ended in a subpar romance that ended up being the best part of this novel.

This story about Maya’s journey through her honeymoon without her fiancé was cute and a nice easy read, but I had some definite issues with the pacing. It seemed like her time in India was dragged out and then boom, suddenly enlightened on her final day. Some of the interactions that came after that seemed a little cringey and unnecessary to me. Honestly, you could have cut out most of the part where Maya was in the Ashram, kept the last day or two, and taken the story straight to Hong Kong and I think the book would have read mostly the same.

It was not until about the halfway point that this story started picking up for me and I started really enjoying it. By the end of the book, I was pleased with the way it turned out and felt like the major plot was resolved nicely.

Thanks to HarperCollins UK for providing me an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Enjoyed the third instalment is this series! Loved the romance that ensues during the book! Loved reading about India and Hong Kong too. Was well written and fast paced too

The Backpacking Bride by Janice Horton

A heartwarming story of love found and lost and the journey you sometimes find yourself on in order to find true peace and happiness.

I truly love every single page of this book. At times I could not help the tears it brought to my eyes. As someone who has lost a very special person to me I was able to relate to the main character Maya. Coming to terms with an imaginable loss we find ourselves in a journey of self reflection and discovery that will have you reaching for the tissue books and smiling at the end. One of the best books of 2020

5/5 Stars

Thank you #NetGalley and #haroercollinsuk #onemorechapter for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Maya has recently been through a heartbreaking time. She decides to embark on the trip of a lifetime that should have been her honeymoon, on her own.

This was a lovely book, I read it in one day. The descriptions of places such as India and Hong Kong were amazing. I loved reading about the people, places and food. The writing transported me to these places immediately.

My only gripe, I thought this book was the third installment of the backpacking housewife, following the adventures of Lori. I read the first chapter thoroughly confused, as it is about an entirely different woman. Nevertheless, an enjoyable read.