Country Girl: Letting Love and Wanderlust Take the Reins, by Sarah Reijonen

Review by Jennifer Lu’Becke

Ahhh, young love travels the world. Sarah Reijonen’s conversational memoir will make you laugh at her sass. Sarah begins her story at the beginning of her life—growing up in Washington State—and continues to the trials of dating and finally marriage. Sarah marries Spanky. They work hard to buy property with a house and then they sell their property and house to travel the world.

Sarah and Spanky travel seven months to various global locations. They begin by exploring Europe. In Paris they put the wrong gas into their rental car. Austria, Prague, and Germany—bring on the meat and beer! While in Bangkok, Sarah realized “if there is one thing we’ve learned on this trip, it’s the fact that we are allergic to big cities.” From Bangkok, they spend a month in Australia and try their hand at panning for gold and then off to New Zealand where they hike Middle Earth. Lastly, Sarah and Spanky visit Peru, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica to round off their adventure.

After returning from their world tour—Sarah and Spanky spent two years living in a RV and now reside in a house without wheels in California. Lesson learned: “To live simply is living richly.”

I found the book slow starting, but once Sarah and Spanky sold their house and traveled the world—the real adventure begins! I appreciated Sarah’s raw honesty and humor throughout the tale. They met an elderly man in Australia who had this brilliant advice to share, “Youth is wasted. Don’t wait until you’re 80 to find and recognize the gems of this life.” And to follow those words of wisdom, Sarah remarks, “How you live your life is up to you. You have to go out and grab the world by the horns. Rope it before it ties you down and decides for you.” After reading this book—I wanted to shout out Sarah’s message—go out and live life!

Little Camper Publishing Company (June 11, 2013)