This book had a compelling premise – a domestic violence survivor finding healing through travel. Unfortunately, the execution fell short. The writing style felt jumpy and disconnected, making it hard to truly connect with the main character, Niver. While Niver's journey of resilience is admirable, the story lacked the emotional depth needed to feel truly inspiring.

That being said, I want to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. While this book wasn't for me, I appreciate the chance to explore a story about overcoming adversity.

Good book with several slower parts. Nothing that made me want to stop reading but definitely slowed me down.

I've followed Lisa Niver's travel writings and adventures since early in her career. I've also read and enjoyed the book that she wrote with her husband. Since reading the book I've learned of her divorce and curious about what happened, I knew I had to read Brave-ish. In her memoir/travelogue, Niver writes about their disastrous relationship that included verbal and physical abuse. As she divulged what happened in their relationship, I could only believe that it must have been somewhat cathartic for her to get it all out.

Niver is a unique, talented, and vivacious woman who lives to scuba dive and travel. She thought she met the love of her life who also lived to travel. It was not to be, however. Despite feelings of sadness, loss, and loneliness that she suffered after the breakup, she eventually found the strength and confidence to begin traveling on her own and start her own business. She goes on to detail her excessive adventures and travels as if to prove to herself and to readers that she is fearless and brave.

Brave-ish is an inspirational story that proves a woman can have and do everything she puts her mind to.

I enjoyed reading Lisa Niver's exploration of the unraveling of her marriage and her journey to rediscover herself.

I do love the concept but it wasn't quite what I was expecting and felt odd and not edited enough in places. Having said that I do still feel it is an encouragement for people to be brave enough to change their lives and as a traveller I also enjoyed the travel memoir element of this read.

I loved the style of writing and the tales of the author's adventures. However, the book centered too much on the author's relationship with her ex-husband for me. This was a good jumping off point for the story, but once the husband proved himself as a jerk and worse, I was ready for the author to move on. This book was a huge lesson in why you need to dump guys who are jerks, quickly, rather than stay with them hoping they will improve. They won't.

I hope to read more from this author, but I hope she focuses on her travels more next time.

This review is not a reflection of the quality of the writing or the topic.
I struggled from the beginning to engage with the content of this book. I felt misled by the title. Yes escaping relationship abuse is a brave act, I struggled to find any empathy for the author, and I tried. I know her travels provided context to her relationship, however I couldn’t get over a sense of privilege that permeated the tone and content, as I read on. In short I couldn’t finish this book, and would struggle to recommend it.

I really wanted to like this book. I didn't. The writing was so disjointed that I couldn't even empathize with Niver, a domestic violence survivor. Nor could I glean inspiration from her perseverance and travel. If you're looking for an inspirational story of the brave-ish woman described in the book's description, bring your patience. Reading this book is difficult but not for the reasons you'd think.

Brave-ish : One Breakup, Six Continents, and Feeling Fearless After Fifty is one ladies' memoir of travel and difficulties in her personal life. To be honest I found all the personal bits rather odd and out of balance. It seemed to give irrelevant things in detail, and skim over the travelling a bit. I love these books for the places and the travelogues but this one was lost in the details of problem relationships told from one side. I was a bit disappointed and couldn't really relate to it. The writing was a bit out of balance and maybe with a bit of an edit it would be much more readable.

I had to stop reading this because the author -from the beginning- acted bizarre. She and her husband are on a trip when suddenly, he randomly pushes her to the ground and screams at her "You're a bad wife!!". Instead of being stunned, she replies "I am a great wife!" ????

When discussing on the phone later with her friend, the friend says she needs to tell her husband he needs to go stay somewhere else. She says "That doesn't sound very nice. He's my husband, and I love him."

Just bizarrely written situations and behavior. I could not relate nor be interested.

"Bravish" is a charming memoir by journalist and travel writer Lisa Niver. It opens with a critical incident that is the catalyst for her to change her life--to leave her abusive and controlling husband and strike out on her own. This is not a "rags-to-riches" sort of memoir, and neither is it a "getting a life back together after hitting rock bottom" tale.. The author comes from a place of economic security and her strong family support,which has enabled her to follow her ambitions to travel and go diving. But even with such privilege, bad choices can be made, and despite every warning bell in the world ringing, she marries a man that on the surface seems to share her dreams, but who tears her down every chance. Then the book turns to how she got her life back on track and developed her career while setting up "50 challenges to do before turning 50". While at times the second part of the book read a bit like a travel diary, I think it can offer a lot of encouragement for people to be brave enough to not only follow their dreams but to also take steps (however painful they may be) to change their lives if need be. And of course, arm chair travelers and real travelers will definitely enjoy the writer's descriptions of so many out-of-the-way places.

I am so beyond excited to read and acquire this title! I love the idea of a fifty something going traveling and starting over her life. I feel we don’t hear Anouilh of these types of stories. I think this book will be very inspiring to readers and I can’t wait to share more. Please check back soon for my full review and thoughts.