I finished this a little while ago and it was really a beautiful story. I was moved to tears at multiple points. Amazing read.

Allison is an excellent chronicler of events. This book doesn't feel redundant or self-pitying or bogged down in its feelings of despair.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC for my Kindle.
A beautiful story about how life can change in just a few seconds. A testimony of love and faith and determination for a young couple to live and face unexpected challenges.

This is a wonderful story of a young couple and an unexpected turn of events in their life which made them stronger. The story of Allison and Dave is a story of resilience and support coming from people around them.

This is also wonderfully written. I appreciate the style of doing flashback every other chapter. It gives me the perspective on how to see the present in light of the past.

On the side note, the story reminds me how important our relationship with out love ones is.

This is a splendid book, true story, about what happens to a couple when the lives they expected are not the lives they get.

Allison Pataki’s young husband suddenly suffers a severe stroke, and at first it’s not sure if he will survive. He does, but with significant deficits. Rather than viewing Dave’s new persona as a curse, Allison and Dave make a conscious decision to live each day as a blessing.

Beautifully written. I had such compassion and empathy for this family that I felt I knew them.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Highly recommended.

Characters were well developed. The plot was intriguing. Loved the descriptiveness of the book. I would like to read more from this author

Ernest Hemingway wrote that we are strong at the broken places, and Allison Pataki found that to be true when her husband, David Levy, a third-year orthopedic surgery resident in Chicago, had a near-fatal stroke at age 30. On June 9, 2015, Dave and five-months-pregnant Allison were on a flight from Chicago to Hawaii for their babymoon, planning to stop in Seattle to visit Dave’s brothers. But they never made it there. On the plane Dave told her he couldn’t see out of his right eye.The plane made an emergency landing in Fargo, North Dakota and Dave was rushed to a hospital for testing. Doctors found he had suffered a bithalamic midbrain ischemic stroke, even though he’d had no risk factors and this stroke type was virtually unknown in patients of his age. Pataki goes back and forth between the details of this health crisis and her past with Dave. Hers is a relatable story of surviving the worst life can throw at you and finding the beauty in it.

We need more books like this. Books that get to the very essence of what being human is about. The connections made, the stories we build and share, the interactions we have are vital. This book was insightful and reassuring, frightening and humbling. We need more like this.

Beauty in the Broken Places by Allison Pataki is a memoir that is both tragic and filled with hope. This was beautifully written and I'm honored to have read this memoir. It tells of Allison and her husband Dave as they are on their way to Hawaii for their babymoon Dave suffers a tragic stroke. This is their story of tragedy and hope. I highly recommend it.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

Wow, I feel privileged to have read this beautiful and extremely moving memoir of a wife coping with unimaginable events in her life as she works very hard to , not only cope with, but create beauty and meaning after her husband suffers a life-changing stroke. Truly inspirational.

Thank you NetGalley for a digital ARC. This was a raw, honest and loving memoir that I could not put down. It reminded me of the post 9/11 memoir Love, Greg and Lauren. I did not know until I started reading the book that the author is the daughter of the former NY Governor. A wonderful book about love, faith and appreciating your new normal.

This was a beautifully written true story of what I would call a horrific time for a couple. Having a baby and a husband totally dependent on you what would you do? Could you handle it. I think Allison is a very strong woman who did what she had to in order to get her life back to some kind of normal. She stood by her husband after his stroke, never waivering in her love and belief in their futures.
It’s a heartwarming story that all couples, young and old, need to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the honor of reading this beautiful story.

Beauty in the Broken Places by Allison Pataki is the true store of Allison and her husband Dave. While on a flight to their babymoon, Dave suffers a life-threatening stroke. This memoir is a mix of what follows and their life before the stroke. It was both scary and inspiring. I appreciated the author's honesty in becoming a caregiver while being a first time mother. The focus on her faith added to the moving narrative of struggle and healing.

An exciting vacation plan in flight to Hawaii was suddenly cut short for a young couple when Doctor David Levy suffered a sudden and horrific stroke that left him unconscious. His wife Allison, an author and expectant mother, suddenly realized that her life would never be the same.
Allison writes a memoir of this journey with David that encompasses their first year of recovery. The initial fear that David would not survive is followed by the long slow rehabilitation and recovery process. A catastrophic illness can sometimes make or break a marriage. For Allison and David the stroke was devastating but their commitment and love only made their marriage stronger. The author, Allison Pataki, has the ability to make the reader feel her emotional pain and struggles as she learns to be a new mother and the primary caregiver to her husband. Her courage and determination is inspiring. After finishing this book I now have a new appreciation for what is truly important in life and for living each day to the fullest. This was an interesting and insightful true story.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and this is my unbiased review.

Beautiful and heartfelt written without be depressing. Uplifting and hopeful.

Continued thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read favorite authors and discover new ones.

Random House and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Beauty in the Broken Places. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Beauty in the Broken Places is a memoir written by author Allison Pataki regarding her husband Dave. At the age of 30, while on a plane to holiday before the birth of their first child, Dave suffered a very rare and complicated stroke. With his life saved by the heroic efforts of passengers on the plane, the pilot, the EMT personnel, and staff at a North Dakota hospital, a stabilized Dave was transferred to the hospital in Chicago at which he was a surgical resident.

With a particular emphasis on the past, Beauty in the Broken Places chronicles their lives together from the very beginning. Besides the time shifts, the author also includes letters that she wrote to her husband during his recovery. The major nod to her faith in God may be too religious for some readers, but it does show how one family was able to cope with their challenging situation. The biggest problem that I had with the book was the fact that the author spends so much time in the past that she neglected the present. Her husband's struggles, their difficulties as a couple and as parents, and the strain on their relationship are mainly glossed over. The author takes Dave from basically his hospital bed to months later, when he is able to travel alone and move forward more independently. I do like how the author gives the final pages to Dave, so that he can address his own story, but big parts of his recovery are not addressed. The book would have been more inspirational had Dave's progress been chronicled in more depth. All of this being said, Beauty in the Broken Places was exceedingly well written. Readers are taken along with Allison as she struggles to process all that has happened to the love of her life. I would recommend Beauty in the Broken Places to readers who like memoirs with an emphasis on medical emergencies.

It's very difficult to give a memoir a rating because I cannot judge someone else's journey, and that's what memoirs are.

That being said, if you're considering reading this book, chances are good that you already know Pataki's husband suffered a sudden and unexpected stroke. I loved the forward and epilogue. There were just parts of the main book, and not while Pataki is talking about her husband or their situation post-Stroke, where her writing was...irritating to me. I know it was meant to show what she explains is a feeling that they had been too blessed earlier in their lives, and that the stroke was their penance for that. But those parts were a struggle for me.

What sets this story of a woman’s world shattered when her husband has a stroke apart from other memoirs is that she writes beautifully. You’re drawn into both the the catastrophic event itself and her making sense of it on all levels - from the spiritual to the scientific. Engrossing.

An emotional heartbreaking story of love and perseverance, this book shows you the strength of love during a rough time. I can only imagine the anxiety and stress Allison was under, this memoir makes you feel just a little of what it must have been like. To know that she has gone through this and has made herself stronger, can give each of us some hope that we can survive our fears.

Heart breaking story with an enormeous silverlining. This book is a must for anyone who is facing illness,, change in situation, perhaps also old age. I strongly recommend this book.