Sara Barnard has such beautiful writing style and her books always have the most emotion, it is so wonderful to read

A really moving story that I enjoyed a lot, some real great life lessons about finding yourself and being patient, but also taking life by the horns and doing things for yourself. Great!

I love Sara Barnard's writing so had no doubt I would enjoy this to some degree. However, it's not my usual style; yes, I love YA, and I love travel, but I usually like a bit more of a mystery or thriller aspect to my books. I don't particularly like romance, and this does have some aspects of romance in it, but is not centred around it which I definitely appreciated.
First of all, I have to say I related to Peyton in a few ways. No, I never experienced exactly what she did (I'll avoid spoilers, but it was certainly dramatic). But I get the feeling of needing to run away, to start over. I also understand her struggle of finding friends, of wanting to fit in and be liked; it's really quite sad how it all backfired on her. And of course, no 17-year-old should really drop out of school and run away from home, but I'm sure a lot of us had times when we were tempted, right?
The journey that Peyton undertakes is quite wonderful. It made me want to travel more myself. At times, Peyton did get emotional and overwhelmed, and I don't blame her. It wasn't a holiday. She had literally run away. But she managed to enjoy herself, meet some wonderful people, and even patch things up with her family who were halfway around the world from her. (Plus, meeting some family that's not so far away, for the very first time.)
It was a pretty feel-good book overall, despite the rather emotional and traumatic backstory. Peyton was certainly a flawed character, as every single one of us is. That made it so much easier to like her and relate to her. It was really easy to read and just enjoyable. 5 stars, though I wouldn't quite put it on my 'favourites' list.

This was a great story with lovely writing and in-depth characters which kept you invested in the intriguing plot premise.

Thank you for providing access to this book. I'll be reviewing/featuring this book separately from NetGalley as I have purchased a copy.

I was so excited to receive an ARC of this book as I adore Sara Barnard's writing. I was not disappointed with Destination Anywhere! I loved how the chapters alternated between past and present as readers can learn of Peyton's motives for escaping to Canada, and also enjoy the experience and adventures alongside her and the supporting characters. Peyton is an extremely relatable character - what teenager doesn't dream of running away to another country at least once? Furthermore, the setting is entirely engrossing and beautiful, and the characters completely loveable. I also loved the inclusion of the illustrations spread throughout the book as it added a unique and personal touch and created a deeper bond between Peyton's personality and myself.
Overall a quick and enjoyable read, perfect for readers searching for an escape!

This story was travel inspiration, life lesson and engaging narrative all rolled into one beautiful story.

I felt the protagonist Peyton’s desperation to be liked so keenly, having been bullied myself as a teenager. I loved the flashbacks gradually revealing to us how and why she ran away to Canada.

Canada - this book sells it so beautifully that I am planning to go there as soon as I can. The vivid descriptions and occasional illustrations made me fall in love with the country just like Peyton and I want to experience it for myself.

I think the cast of supporting characters are what really makes this book shine - every one has a purpose, a personality, and they’re all flawed and realistic. I grew to love Peyton’s travel companions within pages as they appeared and warmed my heart. The family atmosphere and camaraderie of the group really made me love this story and I didn’t want to finish as, like Peyton, finishing the story would mean leaving the friends I came to know along the way.

This book would be perfect for teenagers discovering themselves and finding themselves lost and confused, wondering where to go next.

An entertaining read. The story goes back and forth from the present - where Peyton has ran off to Canada in an attempt to escape her life and find herself, and the past where we find out how miserable Peyton has been - no friends and her family don't understand her. After a serious incident, she chooses Canada as a place to find happiness. I thoroughly enjoyed Peyton's Canadian journey and her progress as a person. She is a realistic character that you care about, especially when she's making ridiculous decisions.

Peyton spent 5 years at school being bullied so when it is time to start sixth form she is excited by the prospect of starting again and the chance to make friends where no one knows her past. However, the friends she does make might not be the best for her. When something happens Peyton decides to change her life and goes on a trip to Canada leaving everything behind.

This story is told with a then and now narrative. We get to see Peyton develop a friendship with a group that is not healthy for her as she starts drinking and taking drugs in order to fit in. We then get to see her min Canada as she travels around the country with a group of true friends. I think Peyton's desire to make friends and fit in is something that everyone can relate to.

I really enjoyed the travel aspect and enjoyed hearing about the different parts of Canada. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of the side characters that Peyton met in Canada. I would have also really liked to have seen a bit more of what happened when Peyton finally returned home.

Overall I really enjoyed this story. I've read all of Sara Barnard's books and I like how she writes about difficult topics in a way that feels realistic.

I enjoy reading Sara Bernard's books because she writes the British teen so accurately that its like looking back into my own past at times.

This is such a beautiful book that explores feelings that I think we've all felt at times; loneliness, wanderlust, confusion and angst, the highest of highs followed by the lowest of lows. We've all had that moment of thinking, maybe if I lived somewhere else everything would be better.

The dual story lines really allow for an element of intrigue and the character development of Peyton is the thing that really makes this book shine. The best part of this book isn't necessarily the travel elements, the friendships or the romance plot, the part that you find yourself caring about the most is Peyton and her personal growth and journey.

I will definitely carry on reading Bernard's books in the future.

I could not put this book down! The world is a crazy place right now so this travel related book was just what I needed considering I cannot actually travel anywhere.
It was such a heartwarming story and it makes me think back to all of the friends I have met on my travels.
Good for Peyton for living her best life, she may be a fictional character but I am so proud of her.
I really really want a 5 years forward sequel of this book to see what Peyton's life is like!
The wanderlust is real right now. Beautifully written and full of emotion.

I have real mixed opinions about this book.
I really admire Sara Bernard as a writer and she is not afraid to tackle some hardcore topics with her YA books. This book is no exception. This book looks at the idea of loneliness and making friends, and just wanting to be liked. It does this in a way that looks at bad friendships as a form of PTSD and the psychological implications this could have on a young person. I really like this. I struggled at times to make friends when I was younger, and think this could be why I am such a 'people pleaser' as an adult. I definitely think this type of thing can shape you, and you can see that with our protagonist Peyton.
I also liked the fact that this book wasn't solely focussed on love relationships. The love of a boy - but more so the love of anyone. That desperate need to be liked. It certainly had more substance than other YA books I have read recently.

One of the things I didn't like about this book however, was the use of cocaine within her college friendship group. I just didn't think it was particularly believable - I know young people do take drugs, but think Barnard could have used something else other than the use of cocaine to make her point. Something more young people could relate to. This was the main reason I have mixed feelings about this book.

Overall I did enjoy my reading experience with this book but think it will be controversial to some!

I really liked this book.. Although the main character went through a traumatic time, the author managed to point out her flaws very well without making her unlikeable.
The pace of writing was very good and the back story very cleverly woven in to bring the story full circle.
Would recommend.

This book was so painful. It was heartbreaking. I felt everything with Peyton, and I saw flashes of my own past when I read about hers. It was hard, but so worthwhile.

I love how Sara Barnard told this story, switching between the present with Peyton, to the past and what she had gone through to get to this point. I loved how little pieces of her were revealed over time and each time it got more raw, more painful, more sad.

Peyton is an artist, and in school she has never had any friends. For some reason or another, people just chose not to like her, though no fault of her own. Peyton was lonely, desperate, wanting. So Peyton runs away, to the furthest place she could think of to go.

In Canada Peyton finds a new life, new experiences, meets new people and lives with the same fears. She has the journey she desperately needs to find herself and find peace.

I loved this story. It broke me, irreparably. I was so moved. I went through her pain right beside her. Finishing the book left me empty. Any author that can make me feel that way is a talented one.

Thank you so much to the publihers, Sara Barnard, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

I will be consuming anything else Sara writes, and I just hope to me moved just as deeply as with this one.

Destination Anywhere is another brilliantly written book by Sara Barnard! It’s the book I needed during this lockdown when we actually can’t go anywhere. The main character Peyton has had enough of her life, being friendless and bullied for most of it, she decides on her own to flee to Canada. Without planning anything she gets on a plane and simply goes!

Told through a “then and now” narrative, Peyton finds herself trying to heal from something which is thousands of miles away. It’s really interesting how the story develops, learning more about the heartbreaking life Peyton had left behind, compared to the travelling and exploring a lot of people could only dream of. Reading how positive Peyton is in Canada (now narrative) compared to how she reads at home (then narrative) really gives you a sense how things have not changed for her because of the one big step that she has made and how important the experience is for her, making her grow and try her best to heal.

Having been bullied myself I know how Peyton felt and sometimes wanting to escape was the only way I thought I could get over it. I did not go to this extreme but I can understand exactly what she was going through to make her do what she did. Such an honest story of what a 17-year-old's life could be like.
I was extremely jealous of the places she got to visit; Sara took me on an adventure through a place that I have never been before, making me want to go even more with the breathtaking background of the adventure of a lifetime for Peyton.

The book makes you feel the complete struggle that Peyton was going through, but then gives you the light and fun side of what she actually achieved and where she grew because of the pain she suffered. It made me laugh and at times really ugly cry. But it was such an uplifting read and really made me miss being able to explore and go somewhere to escape from reality.

Sara Barnard has written another wonderful YA book full of emotion, hard topics, beautiful landscapes, amazing relationships and something to make you smile!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC!

I really enjoyed the idea of this book as well as some of the side characters. I thought the idea and the adventure was a lot of fun and enjoyable to read, especially as someone who has solo travelled and met people along the way. After the first few chapters I wasn't able to put the book down, I wanted to know what happened and I think the "before" and "during" chapter switches had a lot to do with that!

But I also thought this book would've been a lot better had it been just a bit longer. A lot of the side characters seemed underdeveloped, if the story had just been a bit longer readers would've been able to get to know them more and cared more about them, especially when it came to saying goodbye to them. In addition, first person books don't typically bother me but this one seemed to switch between a normal first person POV and a diary type POV (often talking to the reader) and that switch ruined the experience a little bit and made it harder to be "in" the book if that makes sense. I 100% would recommend this book to a younger YA audience, but for the 18+ YA fans this one may be a bit too high school and even then if the preface sounds good to you I'd still definitely give it a shot because, again, the story is really good.

What a delightful read, thank you so much to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read Sara Barnard's latest book!

Trigger Warning: Bullying, anxiety, abandonment, drugs.

I've been meaning to read Sara's books for ages but haven't gotten around to it. Destination Anywhere is my first book by the author, I requested for a digital copy of the ARC after reading the intriguing synopsis. After finishing it within a couple of days, I think it's safe to say that I'm hooked, and I'm more than convinced to pick up Sara Barnard's other books.

Destination Anywhere is basically about a college girl from Britain, Peyton King, who struggled to make friends all through high school and was determined to start afresh at a new school/college. Apparently things hadn't gone the way she had hoped, because at the beginning of the book we find Peyton about to board a flight to Canada, convinced that she needed to run away from home to escape the trauma she had faced and to figure out who she wanted to be.

I really, really enjoyed being on this journey with Peyton. We follow her story in two time frames: the present, which is the part where she travels in Canada, and the past, which was the part where she desperately tried to make friends in college. I really liked the back-to-back storytelling of these two parts. The pace was fast and I feel like Peyton had really great character development throughout the book.

I think this book touched me quite personally because I'm reminded of a very close friend of mine who had experienced something similar to Peyton's struggle to find a best friend at a new place. It was because of this, in addition to my own experiences from traveling and studying abroad, that I found myself getting anxious when reading about Peyton's own social anxiety. I think the author did a wonderful job to portray one's struggles to connect with other people, their desire for meaningful relationships, and the mistakes people are willing to make to get this.

I absolutely LOVE reading about the traveling! In the acknowledgments, Sara Barnard mentioned about writing this book in the middle of 2020, when most of the world is restricted from traveling, and I read this in 2021 when not much has changed. So it's been a while since I've been able to travel, and it's just so wonderful to get to do this in the book, with Peyton and the characters she meets. Canada sounds absolutely breathtaking, and I'm frequently reminded of my unforgettable trip to New Zealand in 2015. I love reading about Peyton and the diverse group of people she meets and travels with, and it was a delight to get to see her in her journey to try to overcome her fear and anxiety about forming friendships.

I also want to mention that the few illustrations in this book were very beautiful, i love that this was included because in the book we see Peyton drawing in her sketchbook and it helped to imagine the places she went to. I'd highly recommend Destination Anywhere to all contemporary YA lovers, i rate this 4.5 stars!

Peyton King is 17 years old and after years of being bullied at school, she thinks she has finally found her place in the world at college, until the ‘friends’ and boyfriend she has built her entire year around let her down in a big way. She feels trapped by her parents expectations and her own inability to be happy so does what we all have dreamed about doing when times are tough, she gets a one way ticket to Canada.

The story is told in two timelines ‘then’ and ‘now’. Now being when she is Canada and the people she is surrounding herself with and the identity she is discovering. Then is her year at college where she forced herself to be happy and to conform to her group of friends scared she would end up alone again.

I actually thought this story was very relatable and relevant. I think most teenage girls; and probably boys too, experience some form of bullying throughout school and have that desire just to effortlessly fit in. And the peer pressure that Peyton experiences is probably more realistic than it is usually depicted; in a way that nobody is actually pressuring her but herself in her desperation to fit in. Although Peyton was very annoying at times, I felt a sense of pride in her for sticking to her own values in her modern day version of events.

A great story for any teenager to read to remind themselves that there is a place in the world for them somewhere and they can be true to themselves because if people don’t love who that person is they don’t deserve them! But a reminder than flying across the world isn’t a necessity to find that peace...

I would add some trigger warnings around bullying, drug use and consent.

Destination Anywhere by Sara Barnard tells the story of Peyton King, a bullied 17 year old who steals her Dad’s credit card and books herself a one-way ticket to Canada. It’s about trying to make the right kind of friends, and relationships, and has the most gorgeous illustrations.
I really enjoyed this and I related to Peyton, as I spent most of my teenage years friendless, and did a lot of solo travel. I was definitely the sort of 17 year old who would have ended up in Vancouver without a plan, but definitely not brave enough to talk to strangers in a hostel!
I liked the way that the novel chapters were split into ‘Now’ and ‘Before’ with really funny self-deprecating titles. Barnard definitely captures an internet teenager’s voice, and it felt realistic. One thing I also like about Barnard is her older sibling characters, I just think she has a real knack of writing believable siblings who are really cool, but also really normal and realistic.
Although Peyton was a strong character, I think that the supporting cast weren’t developed enough. I didn’t realise that Lars and Stefan were even in the RV until halfway through, and Stefan barely had any lines in the entire novel. I honestly think they could have been cut from Destination Anywhere, and nothing would be changed. Also, I wanted to know more about Khalil! He was my favourite, and we barely learnt anything about him. I wanted more from a novel about befriending strangers.
I think the novel started to sag nearing the end, and once Peyton got to her grandfather’s house, nothing really happened? She didn’t learn anything, and Beasey’s presence there didn’t add anything to the narrative. I really wish that there had been a revelation, perhaps her grandfather revealing a family secret, or offering her an illustration job, because otherwise I didn’t see the point of him.
Overall I enjoyed Destination Anyway, and it’s definitely a British Young Adult novel I would recommend. It has a lot of heart, and it’s fun to read about travel during a pandemic.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Peyton King is seventeen and already feels like her life has gone wrong. She never had any friends and was bullied at school so started sixth form with one goal in mind: to make friends. She achieves her goal but loses herself. After a life-changing, traumatic incident she decides she needs to just go somewhere, anywhere so she books a one way ticket to Canada.

We have all been there. That feeling of wanting to run away from everything is so relatable especially in 2021 when travelling is not an option! This was a perfect read to escape reality with Peyton and feel free for a little while! I would love to go to Canada and ‘have the awe’ (my new favourite quote). Destination Anywhere is a coming of age novel about self-acceptance and true friendship; in all its different forms.

The dual timelines and contrast between past and present allowed Peyton to be reflective and compare the healthy relationships she makes in Canada with the detrimental relationships she had previously. Peyton is self-aware and, with the benefit of hindsight, self-critical. There’s no part of this book that condones running away to another country or (TW:) substance abuse instead the character re-examines the decisions she made trying to figure out how she got there but she still thinks that the roots of her problems is that there is something wrong with her. It takes a trip half way around the world, six strangers and a lot of self-reflection to realise there’s nothing wrong with her and the reason she was so deeply unhappy is that she was not being herself and doing what she loves or wants to do.

It’s when she has stopped seeking out friendship that it finds her. Seva, Maja, Beasey, Khalil, Lars and Stefan, the group she meets at the hostel, are kind, accepting and protective; even as strangers they sense that Peyton is a little lost and want to help her because they like her! They all offer different types of friendship but they are patient, respectful, open and gentle. They give her the space and the opportunity to confide in them, to choose to come with them and to be friends. It’s a really special and beautiful dynamic. There are so many beautiful quiet moments of tender friendship in this book and it’s an important reminder that the opportunity to make friends doesn’t begin and end at school!

I love Sara Barnard’s writing and there are so many quotes to live by in this book! One of my favourites from Maja (asides from the amazing cake analogy): “You can’t set your self-esteem by other people. It is never your fault if people don’t see what’s good in you.”