A few summers ago, I took a two month trip myself and toured around Europe. I found the book very heart warming and loved all the memories Alice's book brought back for me and my trip. I pulled out my maps from the cities I visited to see if Alice and I had been to the same places or not. I love when she talks about sitting at Cafe's and reading - something I fancy very much about Europe. It's not the same feeling to sit in an american cafe and read. There is something inspirational or magical about European cafe's. I have convinced my mother to read the book, in hope that Alice's story will help encourage my mother to take a similar adventure.

This book (Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman) jumped off the store shelf and begged me to buy it! It spoke to me. I absolutely loved reading it. It made me cry several times and made me examine my life as a woman who is approaching 40, as a mother, as a wife, as a friend and as someone who has the potential for great adventures and for wonderful trips. I love to travel and Alice took me back to Paris (my very favourite city, so far!) and to London and she took me to places that I have yet to go to! This book is about longing and adventure and loving yourself. It's about taking nothing for granted and about savouring every precious moment. Every woman should read it and I think every woman would love it.

This book would make a perfect present for any independent woman this Christmas. The style is anecdotal and tells of the travels and travails of a 50-something woman in Europe. Its gentle self-deprecating humor and honest revelations provoke the reader to exclaim, "Why, that's exactly how I feel."
A somewhat quirky character that we can all identify with, Ms. Steinbach charmingly recounts her adventures on a solo European trip, which include a romantic interlude as well as visits to standard tourist destinations, which she portrays as far from standard. She paints pictures so that we can smell the freshly baked bread, experience the biting wind and taste the wine. And throughout her affinity for cats abounds, both through fond memories of her own felines and in introducing her reader to cats encountered during her travels.
This book is thoroughly recommended for today's woman who enjoys any or all of travel, quirkiness, passion, and cats.