I really enjoyed this book. It's incredibly inspirational and the story is very well told. Recommended.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Highly recommended read! Thanks for providing through Net Galley. Five Stars *****

Beautiful story about survival and resilence. Kilee is truly a hero and great role model.

This story was mesmerizing to me as mother and daughter shared their insights of the tragic house fire that left Kilee with painful burns and scars. The true beauty of Kilee, though, is evident as she shows who she is by telling her powerful story. I was both inspired by her strength and encouraged by her humanity as I read the book. Also, her mother is a hero both to Kilee and to the readers of how she dealt with the emotional and physical pain of someone she loved so much.

My brother was severely burned this past summer - over 40% of his body! It was a hard and traumatic experience for us all. This book was a great reminder that things will get better and that there are people out there that understand the struggle too. Thanks for sharing your story, Kilee!

Kilee Brookbank was 16 years old when a gas leak in her house caused an explosion that burned 45% of her body and almost kill her. This book has Kilee's point of view, Cameron's point of view (her brother) and her mom's point of view. This book shows how triumph can overcome horrible tragedy. This book tells you about all of her surgeries and the struggles that she went through and how she pushed her way through to be able to live a full life. There are pictures included. The only thing that I really struggled with this book is the fact that everything was written with rainbows and sunshine. There are small parts of the book that talk about the stress of what was going on but then it turns around and then it is all rainbows and sunshine again. This was a horrible tragedy and should have had been written that way to tell the truth not sugar coated. I am glad she is ok and that her family rallied and they are closer than ever.

Beautiful Scars

A Life Redefined



by Kilee Brookbank and Lori Highlander

KiCam Projects

Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles



Biographies & Memoirs , Teens & YA

Pub Date 14 Nov 2017

I am reviewing a copy of Beautiful Scars through KiCam Projects and Netgalley:

On November.10.2014 sixteen year old Kilee Brookbank’s life was forever changed. She lived in Georgetown Ohio a small town with a population of around 5000 the kind of town where everyone knows everyone. Her last ordinary day would erupt in an explosion that engulfed the family home, and would burn over 45 percent of her body.

Kilee was a beautiful girl, and modest.

At first Kilee did not realize the extent of her injuries and could not understand why the paramedics were frantically cutting off her clothes. Her hands were badly burned and they feared she could face loosing her fingertips.

Kilee was in the ICU at Shriners for awake before she was moved to a regular room. She would spend a total of 38 days at Shriners. Her parents would learn to bathe her, wrap her and clean out her burns in preparation to go home despite the excruciating pain, it was something that had to be done to prevent infection.

Not only was Kilee facing the reality of her burns, but she and her family faced the reality that there Home was gone.

Beautiful Scars is Kilee’s story, one of resilience, of triumph and determination.

Five out of five scars!

Happy Reading!

This story of 16 year old, Kilee Brookbank's experience with skin burns and her positive outlook to fight back and live a fulfilling life is encouraging and inspiring. The idea to get her story out there, to teach people to love themselves in spite of how they look or the scars they bear is wonderful and I applaud Kilee for the same!

This book brings out the sequence of events from both Kilee's POV and her mother, Lori's POV, thus helping us to understand all sides of the story and the feelings of everyone involved. It is a scary thing that happened, but the way in which it was approached and dealt with, made a huge difference to the recovery.

How do you recover from the pain and shock of the burns to living a normal life again? How does someone accept that they no longer look the way they used to, they are different in many ways? All this is covered and shared in great detail. The strength and support of the family and the people around them is wonderful and this story of hope and healing tells us that we are not alone, as long as we do not hesitate to ask for help. There is always someone out there who has gone through what you are going through and there are support groups and help if we seek it out. This is a story of growth and healing of not only of Kilee but also of her family and her mother who stood by her and supported her. They treated her as a normal person, in spite of her burns and the difficulties she faced initially. She had to re-learn to do all the everyday things by herself and I think Lori deserves a huge amount of credit for her unwavering faith and support. The idea to help people deal with the trauma of burns and healing makes Kilee's story worth a read!

This is an inspirational book about 16-year-old Kilee Brookbank who found herself the survivor of a fiery explosion in her own home one day, saved by her little dog Digger. She managed to stagger outside somehow and call out to neighbors for help, not really realizing how badly burned she was. She had a tough fight on her hands, and her family had the struggle to go through too for almost the next year. They'd lost everything in their home, but Kilee and the 2 little dogs managed to make it out, and that's what was important. And now she had to fight to make a full recovery. A very good inside look at what a burn patient undergoes after a tragedy like this, and how wonderful the care is for patients and their families at the Shriner's Children's Hospitals where Kilee and her family stayed and Kilee received her care and returned for treatments and therapy. Thanks for reading. An ARC was provided by NetGalley for an unbiased review.

Opening line:
"The whole thing happened so fast that it didn't seem real."

This is a tragic yet inspiring story of Kilee Brookbank and her recovery from a house fire. Told alternately between Kilee's point-of-view and Lori, her mom.
Monday started out like any day for Brookbanks. Until Kilee lit a match and ignited something in the house. The rest of the story is about their struggle from burns to skin grafts to recovery. Kilee shows remarkable bravery and insight to what happened to her. And from reading her story, I have no doubt she will continue to grow as the amazing person she is.

Thanks to netgalley for the read!

Kilee Brookbank wrote this book about how she survived a house explosion that burned 45 percent of her body and how she dealt with what came next. She's not left anything out - the excruciating pain, unknown future, hope, her strength and recovery. The story is told by Kilee and her mother Lori along with some comments from his brother Connor. I found this book to be very inspirational. Kilee shows immense strength and optimism after an accident that would've left many others unable to go on. It puts a lot of things into perspective - if it wasn't for the scars, she may not be here to tell the story now.

I'm slowly making my way through this book, which I thought might be a contender for a suggested title for the annual 8th grade memoir project in my community. There is something that keeps me reading this book, even though it is terribly written. The story itself is interesting (a burned teen's recovery), but the writing style (basically transcribed interviews with each of the players) means that some parts of the story are told in multiple places multiple times, but with few new details added with each retelling. Would have benefited from a better writer and an editor with a keen eye for narrative structure.

Inspirational story about Kiley, a strong resilient fire survivor and her supportive loving family and how they all grew thru the experience of having their home explode. I would want young girls going through challenges to read this book with the hope they could model the way Kiley did not let her pain and her scars define her or limit her. The story is told simply and is a bit repetitive at times but worth reading and pondering.

Beautiful Scars is a beautiful memoir. It is told mostly from the perspective of Lori and her daughter, Kilee, who suffered severe burns when her house exploded. This is a story of survival. Throughout the story, Kilee kept insisting that she was not a victim. Her actions and demeanor showed others that being scarred did not define her as a person. Kilee demonstrated perseverance, tenacity, and positively in the face of despair. Her mother and her family also stood strong and helped Kilee to stay on the path toward a full recovery. This is a very inspirational book!

I wanted to like this book. It's not my usual sort of read, but I thought it might be a good memoir to inspire others going through similar difficult times. However, the writing is atrocious, both in quality and in quantity. This is badly in need of a ruthless editor. I can imagine this being enjoyed by family members and close friends of Kilee, but it's definitely not worthy of commercial publication in its current form. Perhaps there is a short book in there waiting to be released from the bondage of endless ramblings?

Kilee Brookbank was sixteen when involved in a catastrophic fire that devastated her family’s home. Burned on over 45 percent of her body, Kilee only made it out alive because of a family dog who stayed at her side, barking continually when she was knocked unconscious until she woke and ran from the house. Kilee spent 38 days in the hospital and months re-learning how to do things with her hands and legs and arms – all of which were burned and required skin grafts. She went through intense pain in the grafting surgeries, infections, and daily stretching of her grafted skin. However, she also experienced the coming together of her community and support and interest from shows like the Doctors and her celebrity crush, Justin Bieber. Beautiful Scars documents her time from the day of the accident to college and the foundation she has created to give back to the hospital that helped her and other burn victims.

Told in alternating voices between Kilee and her mother, Lori, Beautiful Scars is a heartwarming tale of resilience despite the obstacles Kilee and her family faced both in her recovery and in the destruction of their home. The alternating views provide insight into the way the accident affected the whole family which was interesting as it is easy to focus on the main victim, Kilee. Lori discusses the difficulty of watching her daughter go through this, but notes that now, “People always say to me ‘It’s sad…’ And I do cry sometimes still, but when I see her scars, I see life.”

It is hard to review a book like this as obviously it is a telling of a deeply personal story. I enjoyed the story and love that the purpose of the book is to help encourage other burn patients by sharing a story of someone who has been there and letting them know what to expect in the healing process. I wish it were a bit more finessed and edited as it seems to be pulled from taped conversation and the repetitions and filler words don’t translate as well in written form. Nevertheless, the book accomplishes its goal of telling a truly amazing story of a remarkable young woman’s resilience and beautiful strength in the face of incredible obstacles.

Thanks to KiCam publishing for a free ARC of this story in exchange for an honest review.

THank You Net galley for the free ARC.
Good memoir about a house fire and the scars it left behind. I was impressed that this girl really had a go getter attitude about this horrible thing that happened and that nothing stopped her from getting her life back.

Enjoyable book that was easy to read. I do wish the kindle version had maybe some links at the end to Shriners and Kylee gives back websites.

Beautiful Scars is the inspiring true story of Kilee Brookbank. Kilee was burned over 45% of her body in a gas explosion in her home. The hard work and dedication that she shows to rebuild her life, one painful step at a time is heartwrenching to read, but a reflection on deciding what is important in life and going for it. Kilee's recovery is a gift that she has not only given to herself but all those who have suffered burns like her...and to anyone who reads her story. Don't pass this one by, Kilee is truly a miracle!