As her 30th birthday approached, Jen Ruiz realized it was time to pause and take a look at her life. She didn't have the husband or kids or home she thought she would have, but she had a good job, she had friends, and she had a sense of adventure.⁠
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So she made a promise to herself: take 12 trips in 12 months.⁠
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This book is the story of that journey--that journey to twelve (+) different places and that journey to think about herself and her life and what she wants.⁠
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Jen takes us with her on adventures around the world and the United States and shares the people she met, the things she saw, and the things she learned. (I really liked that she included quite a bit about the places she visitied--some travel memoirs, especially recent ones, neglect that part). There is certainly discussion of her relationships along the way, but it's balanced with her travels.⁠
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This year of adventure also serves as the beginning ofJen's travel writing/blogging/content creating career, so we see some of the privilege, but also some of the hard work that comes from creating a career out of travel.⁠
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Overall, it's a short fast, but mostly interesting read (for those of us interested in travel and content creation). I can't say that there's anything particularly deep in the book, but it's still a read that reminded me of just how much I love to travel...and why.⁠
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Book: 12 Trips in 12 Months @12tripsin12months⁠
Author: Jen Ruiz @jenonajetplane⁠
Format: Digital⁠
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir/Biography, Travel/Adventure⁠
Places Featured: Several⁠
Review Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⁠
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*I was given a free version of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to @netgalley and @blackstonepublishing

12 Trips in 12 Months is a must have for any woman who has ever felt burdened by society's expectation on the time of their life. Empowering and relatable, Jen Ruiz takes readers on an inspiring journey of "just do it." It's time to go after and live your best life unapologetically alone. Meet people, give it your all and be unafraid of what others think. Get going out there and living life for yourself, seeing the world, taking that joy and love and filling your heart. Not only does she have a great sense of humor but you will vicariously through your journey and find yourself inspired to follow your path.

THANKS for sharing this book with me.
I loved seeing my review/quote on her AMAZON page
"Prepare to be inspired, uplifted, and galvanized to set off on your own adventures to find extraordinary experiences as you accompany Jen Ruiz in her remarkable odyssey."
-- "Lisa Niver, author of Brave-ish"

I loved the idea of a book about solo travel, but the book seemed to be more about how she didn't like being solo than about the travel. There was some good advice and there were good stories about traveling, but the story dragged when she talked about trying to have romance. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.

Jen takes the reader on a trip around the world while sharing her life lessons. It was a fast read with lots of humor and great storytelling. I loved reading the descriptions of the places she visited and the activities she experienced. I thought she was very trusting by letting a taxi driver and a random French car rental guy be her tour guide of their respective countries. She also showed bravery by hiking to the top of the Angels Landing Trail in Zions National Park and experiencing two extreme adventures on the same day in Ecuador. I especially appreciated her attitude of hope for finding true love one day despite her previous relationships with men. I found the book to be uplifting and inspiring. The audiobook is read by the author and was so fun to listen to. I highly recommend it! It also made me antsy to book another trip!

Thank you NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

At 29, author Jennifer Ruiz felt lonely and dissatisfied with her personal life. While she doesn’t share much her work life except that’s she’s a lawyer and switched from the corporate to the nonprofit world. I got the sense that her job gave her very little satisfaction. Her personal goal to find a partner and become a mother has so far eluded her. She decides to shake things up and travel solo and 12 trips in 12 months - the title of the book. This is what drew my interest - the solo travel odyssey around the globe. But while there was a good part devoted to the travel part, it felt more like superficial travel - parachute in to a destination, do a couple of activities, take photos of famous sites, post to social media, then race to the next destination. There was little about the culture, people, history of the places - disappointing, but lots about guys she met at various locations that she hoped would be potential partners. It got a bit old after a while. So overall 3 out of 5 stars for this read. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The year before her thirtieth birthday, Jen Ruiz decided to change everything. Despite being professionally accomplished and contributing to the world as an attorney at a nonprofit, she had yet to achieve the most important goal, according to society: becoming a wife and mother. So, after more ghostings than a graveyard, tired of dating apps and sitting in a windowless office, Jen embarked on an epic challenge to send her twenties out in style. Twelve months, twelve trips, no excuses.

She started booking flights instead of swiping right, teaching English online to cover costs. Over the course of the year, Jen descended into a volcano in Iceland, volunteered at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand, called in sick to fly in a hot air balloon, and went scuba diving at an underwater museum in Mexico.

I was super excited when I was approved for this ARC. This is my dream, so maybe I'm biased, but I think this book is perfect for those of us who have the wanderlust that she did. While this author doesn't really have a voice that particularly stands out from other travelog writers, I definitely enjoyed her wide variety of trips and adventures. For me, that's what makes this one stand out. Fun read!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced digital reader's copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review!

There was nothing especially unique about this voice - it's the voice of every single person's diary who has ever "gone travelling." Yes, this may have been an enjoyable diversion for friends back home (emailed en masse) but published quality?

I also found the premise quite lame - go travelling and think you're amazing because you can't find a man? O Pulease.

Thanks to netgalley for this ARC. I've read Jen's other books that give great travel advice on subjects, like booking cheap flights, planning trips, and making money working from home. They are great resources if you want travel trips! I've also followed her Instagram and blog Jen on a Jet Plane.

I followed her 12 trips in 12 months journey in real time the year she was doing it and am glad she finally published her memoir! Go Jen! This book covers places like Cancun, France, Cuba, Thailand, Cambodia, Italy, Greece, Iceland and other destinations. She usually does these trips during a weekend and packs a lot in. She also does a lot of organized tours instead of planning things on her own. Id say this is more geared towards a beginner traveler for those reasons. You can read some of her other books where she goes more into the details of the logistics of this. I think in general, people for some reason need a romance in a story to be convinced to read it or watch it. Pretty much every movie or story has some type of romantic interest. So its no surprise some romances are included in this story as well. Whereas I am more interested in the solo independent traveling stories, I understand a lot of people probably will like these adventures more because of romance stories. I also enjoyed hearing about the various things she was comped for during her trips.

I was proud of Jen for choosing a trip to Argentina though over meeting up with a former crush in Morocco. I do think as a society, women are very much encouraged that the most important thing we do is basically get married. No matter that there are studies that show things like divorce makes women happier, married women do something like 7 hours a week more in housework than single women, and even studies that married women have more depression than single women. The mom groups I'm in complain more about their husbands than talking about anything related to their kids. Jen mentions the bad relationships she's been in, her family's bad relationships and even mentioned some friends who have been divorced. So I'm not sure why it seems like the most important goal here is to eventually find "the one" when it seems pretty clear that a relationship isn't the key to happiness but that seems like Jen's ultimate goal as she mentions that throughout the book. For those that are happily married, great. For some people it's great but sometimes it isn't.  But at the end of the book,  the catalyst for a big decision she makes is because her coworker decided to do IVF and have kids on her own. She assumes it's because she gave up on finding "mr right " and alludes to her settling when it's a beautiful and strong type of person to decide she wants a family and makes it happen without waiting around for some elusive perfect guy.

Jen has a lot of talent, interests, and has accomplished a lot. I'm not sure why it still seems like its not enough because she's not in a relationship.  I do recommend her memoir and the other books she has written

As someone who wants to travel more, the title for this one was certainly enticing. In her travel memoir, Jen decides before she hits 30 that she wants to send her 20s out by completing a fulfilling challenge to take 12 trips in 12 months. She recounts what ends up being 20 trips, surpassing her goal, and shares the difficulties, joys, and magic of her solo travel. Her experiences both inspire travel dreams and provide helpful travel tips for people with work and time off to consider as well as budgets to mind. Jen took full advantage of extending holiday weekends, taking all of her provided time off from work, working remotely teaching online for some extra income, and featuring comped travel experiences on her blog and socials. With a wide array of destinations, everyone will connect with at least some of the wonderful travel experiences that Jen chronicles. Jen's beginnings with travel blogging and writing, as Jen on a Jet Plane, as well as her earlier books about travel lend well to her new travelouge that is an enjoyable read while still being helpful to those looking to travel too. The real travel accounts with both missed and found opportunities show that travel does not always go according to plan, and that is ok.

This was a great and fast read! I was shocked when I was already half way through the book and next thing I know I was on Jen's last trip.

A lot of people spend time daydreaming of being somewhere else while they are at work; they wish to travel, to see the world, to live their life in a more fulfilling way. Of those people daydreaming at work, most will think it is nearly impossible to find a way to work on the go or find more time to travel. Jen Ruiz is not one of those people that thought it was impossible; she took the leap and made a way for her to take 12 trips in 12 months, and then, she wrote about her adventures and what she learned through it all. 12 Trips in 12 Months is a memoir of a woman solo traveling around the world at the age of 29, where women typically feel as though their youth is expiring. Jen decided she would make the most of her 29th year by traveling in celebration of the last year of her twenties. Throughout the book, she found that she was looking for love in all the wrong places, and that she was able to grow as a person in each of the trips. Some of her adventures include being in two hemispheres at once and hanging from the side of a cliff fearing for her life. Jen survived and lived to write about it. If you are looking for a book to inspire your travels, even traveling solo, this is most likely a book for you. Jen offers a free webinar on how to do a travel challenge on her website: www.12Tripsin12Months.com. She also shares solo travel resources on her website: www.JenOnAJetPlane.com. I give this book a five out of five stars.