Synopsis (taken from Amazon)
I have an around-the-world airline ticket and plans to conquer the Middle East. So why am I hanging around Prague, waiting for a guy who told me to my face that he doesn’t love me? Because I can’t escape kryptonite, that’s why. The two of us travel through the Czech Republic and Germany, eating way too many peanut butter sandwiches and dancing around our feelings—until we don’t.
Once I do get my butt on a plane and reunite with my Australian friends, each step through the blistering heat in the Middle East spins up a slew of new challenges. My trials traveling around Europe have nothing on this place.
We haggle and dodge bedbugs and camel spit from Amman to Cairo. The girls and I take turns in the front seat of the taxi. Bus drivers rearrange passengers so we sit apart from locals. And an unexpected hairy nemesis barges in on my long-awaited felucca trip down the Nile.
But maybe, just maybe, out here in the sweaty, dusty chaos, I’ll find what I’ve been missing. And it’s not a peanut butter sandwich. It’s me.
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Grab your backpack and get ready for an adventure in the ’90s when the Internet was scarce but laughs weren’t. Hello, I Am Here is book three in the five-part Back in a Year series, a true story of a young woman traveling around the world. Each book can be read independently, but it’s more fun to take the full trip.
Review
This is the third installment of the series. If you’ve missed the last two reviews, go and check them out! I highly suggest reading them in order, as the journey continues to build on each book.
If you’ve ever wanted to read a book that doesn’t sugarcoat life — Hello, I Am Here is it. Right from the start, you feel the raw emotion pouring off every page. It’s like having a brutally honest conversation with a friend who doesn’t hold back because, well… life happens, and sometimes it’s shitty (pun intended).
What I loved is how the author takes you along on their journey, not just through the places they visit, but also through the emotional ups and downs. The descriptions of the sights are so vivid you almost feel like you’re there — smelling the food, seeing the landscapes, feeling the weather on your skin. It’s immersive without being overdone.
And then there’s the human side of travel — the emotional truth about friendships. Anyone who’s ever travelled with people knows it can be a rollercoaster, and the author doesn’t shy away from showing that. The awkward moments, the fights, the laughs, and the moments of unexpected connection — it’s all there, raw and honest.
Another thing that made this book stand out for me was the structure. Each chapter delves into a new part of the travel and is subdivided into adventures on the road, complete with quirky and fun titles that made me excited to dive into the next one.
If you’re looking for a book that tells it like it is, with all the ugly and beautiful moments of life mixed in, Hello, I Am Here is it.
Get your copy here (affiliate link – thanks for the support).
