I Never Promised You A Goodie Bag is a memoir that follows the life of successful party-planner, Jennifer Gilbert. Fresh out of college, Jennifer is eager and looking optimistically forward to a bright, successful future … but that all changes one afternoon when she is brutally attacked by a man with a screw-driver. It takes months for the physical scars to heal, but the emotional ones don’t go away quite so quickly. Determined to keep living her life and moving forward, Jennifer bravely launches an event planning business where she focuses on helping others celebrate life’s biggest moments because she isn’t convinced that she will ever be able to celebrate her own. The road isn’t easy, but Jennifer eventually begins to feel life stirring inside of her. She survives each bump and keeps moving forward- and in the end, it turns out to all be worth it.
Honest and vulnerable, I Never Promised You A Goodie Bag is an unforgettable memoir of survival, strength, courage, and self-redemption. To be quite honest, Jennifer is a fabulous writer. Her words flow seamlessly together as she takes you through her life, more often than not onto the next bump in the road … but she does so in such an easy and effortless way that it makes you feel like she were telling you over coffee as a girlfriend.
I laughed, I cried- and even sometimes did them both simultaneously. Overall, this is a wonderful read and I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a great portrait of personal healing, strength, and survival. It’s a tale about sucking it up and learning to let go of the things that are out of our control and forging forward, creating who we want to be instead of letting past events control us.
[Rating: 5]
