Title: The Bali Bucket List
Author: Ava Wilde
Pages: 484
Genre: Romance
My Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤

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The Bali Bucket List

Jasmine seems to have it all: a good job, a fiancé, and a great life overall. But one night, everything changes when her fiancé suddenly dumps her. Left heartbroken and questioning everything, Jasmine realizes she has no idea who she truly is anymore.

Determined to rediscover herself, she books a trip to Bali. At the hostel where she’s staying, she quickly meets a group of new friends. At the start of her journey, she creates a “Bali Bucket List” filled with experiences she wants to try, and she also decides to document her journey on a personal blog.

The longer Jasmine stays in Bali, the more new people she meets; and before long, three very different men become interested in her.

But when her anonymous sex blog suddenly goes viral and threatens to expose her identity, Jasmine is forced to confront the person she’s become. Because sometimes, finding yourself is the only way to find the love you’ve truly been searching for.

Review

This book was available on NetGalley, and I was immediately drawn to the title and the cover. I was curious about what the story would be about because it sounded like something I would enjoy.

The book follows Jasmine, a woman who gets dumped three months before her wedding and decides to go on a journey of self-discovery. But her journey isn’t easy. It’s messy, and she makes a lot of mistakes and hurts people along the way. Jasmine tries so hard to become a different person that she (almost) loses herself in the process.

I really liked the storyline, and honestly, it felt different from most of the books I’ve read over the past few years. Every time I thought Jasmine was going to do one thing, she surprised me by doing something completely different instead. There were several unexpected moments, and I always appreciate that in a story. This book wasn’t predictable at all, which made it stand out. I wouldn’t call it a typical romance novel, but in this case, that’s actually a good thing.

One of the things I loved most about this book was the strong Eat Pray Love vibes. Eat Pray Love mixed with Bali created such an enjoyable vibe. Honestly, while reading, I started daydreaming about booking my own trip to Bali. I’ve heard good things about Vipassana meditation retreats before, and this book captured exactly the kind of self-discovery journey I expected from that setting.

There were quite a few characters, but most of them were entertaining. I really disliked Dylan, the ex-fiancé, because he dumped Jasmine to be with another woman. I was honestly surprised that Jasmine stayed in contact with him and still considered him a possible option. I’m not sure whether Jasmine was naïve or simply very lost at that point in her life; probably a bit of both.

Jasmine definitely made choices that I personally would never make, although I would absolutely go to Bali for a Vipassana meditation retreat.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It was fun, empowering, and unexpectedly different, and I loved the Eat Pray Love / Bali vibe throughout the story. This was my first time reading a book by Ava Wilde, but I’m definitely open to reading more of her work. I have a feeling she doesn’t write typical romance novels, and I like that.

The post The Bali Bucket List – Ava Wilde | Book Review first appeared on A happy life.