Not Afraid of the Fall: 114 Days Through 38 Cities in 15 Countries

I was fortunate enough to hear the author of this book tell part of his and Ash's story and read from his book. What readers may not know is that the author did not set out to write a book; he set out to challenge our belief that "someday" will come. When he decided that he wanted to share his story, I believe he wanted his message to be just that: Don't wait for your someday. Dare to take action.

I love the casual style of this book. It's real in every sense - the fears, the reservations, the discoveries, the lessons, the friendships... it's all there in a voice that talks to us as if we were there. And trust me - you'll want to be there after every chapter. The book is also easy to pick up and put down for later - I can visit Croatia with the author and his girlfriend and then look forward to Italy!

Fresh and alive - as we all should be, according to Mr. James!

I mean, I don't give up reading books. Ever. I did once, and I can't even remember that the book was about except that it was as basic as pumpkin spiced coffee. Which brings me to this book. I really want to keep reading, because I love to travel. However, this book offers no depth or insights into the locations they visit, save for where to get giant beers (and I do love me some giant beers, but...). I know travel on this scale can be monotonous; take a bus, walk a city, sleep, wake, repeat. But why write a book about travel that focuses on this aspect? While in some of the greatest cities on earth, these two get wasted each day and roam around, never interacting with anyone except vendors. Edit: to be fair, they finally start to talk to people later in the book, but mostly other tourists. Also, how you gonna write a book and ask your gf to marry you in the dedication, when all you talk about is how she shops, is hangry, and can be placated with a piece of chocolate for any wrongdoing. Real eye-roll "hey my gf is such a typical female" stuff. This is how simple you think your future wife?

Ugh, I will plow my way through the rest of it, just to see where they went. But if you're looking for a book starring a "typical white male" and how he sees the world (read: his oyster, or bathroom depending on the country) then you'll love it.

I must start off by saying that I adored the dedication of the book! Way to go Kyle! As far as the actual book itself... I wish that there were more in depth descriptions of each place visited. The chapters were short and the primary focus seemed to be getting from one location to another with some eating and drinking and short banter inbetween. Unfortunately, this made everything feel rushed. The book felt like more of a short hand description in a journal to help himself remember the trip vs an actual travel memoir. It was an easy quick read that takes you to a lot of places and Kyle is awesome with analogies! I say give it a read!

Basically the story is of three months of drinking in different cities. There is Little character development and not at all an inspiration.

Once you read the first day, you've read the book. Couple travels different cities, checks into airbnbs, and gets drunk. Oh, pees in public places too. Very boring.

Kyle has essentially been a member of my family for most of my life. I know he worked incredibly hard to make his dream of publishing this memoir a reality and after reading the entire thing in a matter of days - I'm SO glad he did!!

"Not Afraid of the Fall" is an honest, sweet, funny, and thought provoking piece of work that genuinely reflects the man Kyle has become. He effortlessly uses his innate gift of storytelling to transport the reader into his and Ashley's world, even if just for your morning commute.

I finished the last page slightly heartbroken it was over, yet more importantly, itching to plan my next adventure!

Five stars x100000, my friends! What a beautifully epic way to cement your love story.

This was a really good and well told story of Kyle and Ashley's travels through Europe and Thailand. Kyle's descriptions of the areas they visited were very honest and relatable. It made me see some of the things in a different light, than perhaps I did when traveling in some of the same areas, years ago. That is the beauty of a travel story, as we all see things differently, and can appreciate different views. They had some pretty amazing experiences along their journey.
I loved the way that they related to each other as well, not having been used to being together 24/7 you could see the relationship mature as they learned how to deal with conflict and stress or how they boosted each others morale.
I love the way they sought out people connections and routine in a lot of the places they visited, which gave them a feeling of stability after moving around so much.
One thing he said in the book was: I wish instead of “what do you do” when meeting someone, that people would ask “so what makes you happy”
I learned about different modes of transportation, which I had never heard about, and that is good for future trips.
The only thing I could have read less about was the amount of drinking they did, but I guess that is their age.
Thank you to NetGalley and Inkshares for the ARC copy of the book

Only 50 pages in and probably not going to continue. I love everything about travel and I admire all travelers.. but this book is poorly written/not my type of ‘travel’. I’ve traveled to over 30 countries and there’s SO much to do in every single city!! I feel like the same routine got boring to read a couple cities in - aribnb, drink, rent a car, walk, try not to make Ash mad, drink. I love travel books and journals but unfortunately this one wasn’t exhilarating and not the type of ‘travel’ that inspires personally.

When I saw this interview on GMA, it got me interested but at the same time I thought "quitting your job to travel sounds crazy!" but honestly this book is much more than that. I read most of the reviews (even the bad ones lol) the positive ones won me over and I finally bought it, I should say this book has been sitting in my amazon wishlist forever! So I thought it was time to purchase and read it for myself. I should say I am not a huge reader, I honestly hadn't really touched a book since high school days (well that's a lie, I had to touch them again to pass college) but I have not been able to finish a book. I am terrible or I just have a short attention span. I have been following Kyle for awhile through instagram and his posts are beautiful! I actually finally got up the courage to shoot him a message (I was nervous ok??) about positivity and he's actually a super cool guy! So I suggest anyone to follow him.

Anyway talking to him made the decision to get the book even easier! I purchased it a few days later after our short little convo and started reading it the day after I received it, I procrastinate. Something I need to fix but once I started to read it I couldn't put it down! There were parts I was literally in tears, my favorite pages are 43-44. I had read that page out loud to my grandma and we were both laughing hysterically. It was funny because we could be like "oh yeah that's totally us!" as I read this book, I found myself talking out loud, wether it was laughing or saying "oh no, I feel so bad for them" but laughing at the situation too. Life is never easy and this book shows that it can be a bit stressful.

Him being a big Dan Brown and Harry Potter fan made it super enjoyable for me also! Literally Dan Brown's books are the only ones I have finished all the way through (besides this one). This book talks about more than "drinking" or "Ash going to Zara". He explains the sites, the headaches, stresses and how life is unpredictable. Everyone is going to have a different opinion about it but also who doesn't drink when they go on vacation? Don't lie, you do. For someone who hardly touches alcohol but twice a year. I drink when I would travel somewhere also, you're there to have fun and enjoy your time.

Kyle also explains that he was the one worried about how they would survive on the expenses coming back from their trip, he explains several times "if they made the right choice" but to me is life is too short and you never know when it's gonna end. So what if you're in your 20's and you decide to do something crazy like this. That's the point of life. After reading this for a day and a half, I felt more inspired to get out of my comfort zone. I decided to drop off my social media for a couple days and give it to myself with no distractions. The passed two days not being on instagram has proven to be somewhat stressful (I check more than 10x a day) and great at the same time! I have found my passion to start working on my book I started over a year ago, workout, pamper myself. People today rely so much on social media to entertain themselves they forget life passes by like that.

I also love the message of the book "not afraid of the fall", I always go by a saying "keep moving forward". I still live by that quote today and will live by this new one also. I am in a wheelchair, so it's always hard to stay positive and look forward but this book has helped lift my spirits a bit and I am going to recommend this to everyone I know!

Overall this book is great and I enjoyed every second of it. If you love to travel, want to do something new, get out of your comfort zone, whatever! It's up to you to decide what you want to do with your life, the first step is to do it. Great job Kyle for a great book!

This book reads like the personal blog is should have remained. I found the drink-our-way-around-the-world approach to such a rare experience tragic. Honestly, I didn't finish the book, so maybe I'm completely wrong and the last few chapters are ~awesome~. Doubtful.