The Wonder of Us by Kim Culbertson

The Wonder of Us by Kim Culbertson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Riya and Abby are: Best friends. Complete opposites. Living on different continents. About to embark on an epic adventure around Europe.

Since Riya moved away with her family to Berlin, she and Abby have struggled to be there for one another, and they haven’t spoken in weeks. But Riya is pretty sure she knows the perfect way to make things better – a grand tour of European cities. Two weeks, six countries, unimaginable fun.

Can the lush countrysides and dazzling cities of Europe fix their friendship, or does growing up mean growing apart?

I love a good summery book to get you in the mood for summer and with the current heatwave we are having here in the U.K there was not a better time to read this.

Riya and Abby have been best friends forever, they lived in California and have attended school together, they pretty much have been inseparable, that is until Riya tells Abby she is leaving and her family are moving to Germany. This hits the girls hard and they seem to drift away, after a few months they have little contact with each other. Riya knows that they both behaved badly but wants to fix their friendship, after all, it was once as strong as anything. Riya sends Abby a plane ticket to meet her in Italy and said she is giving her a holiday of a lifetime around Europe, something that her nan has paid for. Abby touches down in Italy and decides that perhaps Riya is right, she decides to enjoy her time away, but things don't go to plan.

This is a story about friendship and growing up a long the way. I had a slight problem with the narration of the characters, at times it was hard to identify who was speaking at one point and I had to go back to check which character I was reading, it would have helped if the voices were slightly different to aviod confusion.

This is a cute book, with a travel theme of two girls who are trying to repair their friendship but also knowing that sometimes people change. It didn't blow me away but it passed the time nicely in the garden.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.