I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was very well written. I cannot speak for the representation of cerebral palsy, as I do not know enough about it. I enjoyed the characters and their journey, and I could relate to how Jenna felt like she was losing control. I enjoyed reading about her relationship with Julian.

*I WAS PROVIDED A DIGITAL ARC VIA NETGALLEY IN RETURN FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. THIS DOES NOT AFFECT MY OPINION*

It's My Life turned out to be a book I really liked, and I was not expecting that at all. This story follows Jenna, who has cerebral palsy and just wants control over a life she doesn't feel like she's truly able to live.

I can't tell y'all how excited I am to see more books that represent people like Jenna. Though I can't speak in terms of how good that representation is in this book, I do think it brought to light a lot of things the majority of people wouldn't understand or know about regularly.

I ended up really liking Jenna's character. I felt that she thoroughly represented a teen in today's standards, and I feel like her feelings and emotions were valid and understandable. Stacie Ramey did a pretty good job in building most of the characters in this book, but Jenna's character was the best done by far.

When it came to Julian's character, however, I do feel that he lacked a bit. Other than the few, specific things that were revealed by him and Jenna, we didn't really know much about his character. The random bout of anger issues at the end certainly came as a surprise, and I took issue with him saying "this isn't who I am" quite a bit.

The pacing of this book was another issue I had. If you aren't a fan of slower-paced books, I wouldn't suggest this one. It took a bit for anything really "exciting" to happen, and even then, there was still quite a bit of build-up that needed to happen.

Something I've seen a few other reviewers argue against is that it'd be unlikely for a teen girl to fight her parents for medical emancipation, but I have to disagree. I think it is realistic in this day and time. Albeit a bit different, take it from someone who was seriously considering regular emancipation at quite a few points in my younger teen years. It's more likely than I think people realize, and that's mainly just a generational shift I think people don't take into account. I think the author's addition of this detail into the story was well-received, at least to me, and even if not believable to some, could be to others.

I did find it a bit weird though that Jenna's lawyer was her uncle, and I definitely found it unbelievable that he just covered up and hid the fact that his niece was considering something like medical emancipation from his brother and sister-in-law. Even if they're a close family, I had a hard time believing something like that magnitude would just blow over that easily.

Overall though, I did enjoy this story quite a bit. For that, I rate it 3.75 stars. I will be looking forward to reading more from Stacie Ramey in the future.

DNF. Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early copy! I decided to not keep reading this one, it was not for me. Thanks!

this is the first book with a main character with CF, and tbh there aren't a lot out their with disabled main characters in general so it's great to see. I enjoyed the book, from the romance to the decisions that Jenna had to make about her life and how CF affected her, so was nice to learn more about that as I'm not educated on that topic. I loved the family relationships as it felt so real and loving! however some of the Julian bits felt a bit repetitive unfortunately. The last 20% of the book was best for me and loved the ending! Would recommend.

Absolutely loved the disability representation in this book. It's not often that I can find a book with a main character with a disability that isn't a sad story where we are supposed to pity them. 

This book was raw, real, and unfiltered. It gave me so many emotions all the way through. The romance in this book was amazing. Julian is one of my favorite male love interests I've read this year. Their friendship in person was adorable but the anonymous messaging really was perfection. 

As soon as I was finished reading this book, I wanted to go back to the beginning and read it all over again. This is definitely a book I will be returning to!

I enjoyed the representation in this book, and it was a relatively light read. But I struggled with the premise a bit -- medical emancipation at the age of 15 seems unlikely, even in a fictional world.

Happy Monday!


I had another full week of reading last week which means another full week of reviewing and blogging! My Goodreads shelf is overrun right now with currently reading books (like 20 plus books I think) and being honest I am not currently reading them all. I have either finished many of them, am actually in progress of reading them, it might be the next book in a graphic novel series and I put it on my list so I can start it when I have more Hoopla loans, or I started it and set it down for now. I started this book a little while back on my Kindle and decided that I was going to buckle down and finish it! I have just been so busy with work and life stuff that I had not gotten back to it. Add on top of that my Kindle screen going weird (every time I would turn it on half of it would stay off or something?) but I got a new Kindle about a week ago and I am back in business!


SPOILERS AHEAD


Jenna is a high school junior with Cerebal Palsy but she never lets that get in the way of living her life. However, she has made a recent discovery, that her Cerebal Palsy might have been caused by an injury that occurred during her birth. This turns Jenna's whole world upside down. Jenna decides it's time to start taking control of her life. Jenna starts by dropping from her AP classes to normal classes at school and then contacting her lawyer uncle to try to get medical rights for herself. She is tired of all the secrets and wants to be able to make medical decisions for herself. On top of all of this Jenna's childhood crush, Julian comes to back town. Julian seems to be struggling in school and Jenna wants to help but she wants to do it anonymously. However, there conversations quickly turn from helpful with school to a bit romantic. Can Jenna hide who she is forever or will her identity come out and will Julian accept her? Will Jenna find out more about her birth and her Cerebal Palsy?


This was an interesting read. There were times when I did not want to put it down and there were times when I was really not happy with Jenna and her character. I felt like the way she was contacting Julian was a little catfishy (I understand her reasoning behind it) but it still did not feel right once it turned from friendly to romantic. Seeing Jenna struggle with her medical decisions and trying to decide if she should go against her parents or not and learning about her birth was an interesting part of this book and I always wanted to keep reading when we got to those parts. Or when it came to parts about her family (like when we would see interactions between her and her sister or brother). I will say as we got closer to the end I definitely began to enjoy the book more again (like I did at the start). However, I just do not think overall, that this read was what I was expecting/ hoping for. I am going to give this book three stars on Goodreads.





**Thank you to the publisher for an E-ARC copy via Netgalley

This one really wasn't for me, and I ended up not finishing it. I applaud it for its cerebral palsy rep and the wonderful writing style Ramsey used, but I just couldn't gel with the characters or really care about what was happening.

I really enjoyed this contemporary romance. Jenna's story and her development in this book was a real highlight. The anonymous texting was super cute. I recommend this book!

Unfortunately I dnfed this one. The plot was just very unrealistic and I found many problems within it.

This was a stunning, truly heartbreaking book about a teen girl with cerebral palsy struggling to live her best life. I finished it in a couple days, consumed by the romance and the internal and external struggles of Jenna, the protagonist. I love learning from different points of view, and this was perfect in delivering information without being didactic. 5 stars.

You know, just leave it to Stacie Ramey to create still more characters that I can’t help falling in love with. I really, really needed a solid, heartfelt contemporary book, and IT’S MY LIFE totally had me covered. I love Jenna’s awkwardness and her tendency to overthink things. I love her passion and her relationship with her mom.

Actually, I want to say more about her and her mom. Because I felt like that was a really complex relationship, since Jenna’s really pushing back against her parents’ assumptions about her medical treatment and care. She’s feeling lied to by her parents and unable to communicate to them her need to make her own medical decisions.

Though we only see Jenna’s point-of-view, I felt like it was easy to see that so much more was happening between the lines. Her mom felt like this real, complicated character with conflicting desires but a consistent commitment to her daughter. I don’t know if that makes total sense, but I just found myself having a lot of respect for Jenna’s mom because clearly she had a lot going on in her head and heart.

IT’S MY LIFE is at its core, a personal journey story. At the beginning, Jenna feels like her perfect life starring the cooler, better version of herself is completely out of reach. Jenna has two choices: she can sit back and let that life stay a fantasy, or she can pull together all her courage and figure out a way to make things happen for herself.

I love that theme in the story so much, and I think Stacie Ramey does real justice to the part of life where we must choose to become the main character in our own stories. I’m so glad I read this book, and I think it will really stay with me for a long time.

If you liked MY SISTER’S KEEPER by Jodi Picoult or IMPOSSIBLE MUSIC by Sean Williams, or just find yourself in the mood for an uplifting contemporary story featuring a strong protagonist, make sure you check out IT’S MY LIFE.

What a wonderful story filled with ups and downs. Lows and highs. Yes it is a YA book but the subject matter is one that will appeal to anyone no matter what age you are because we've all messed up. We've all thought things about ourselves that aren't true. And yes sometimes we even give up on ourselves but this wonderfully well written book will show you what happens when you finally take that flying leap. Pick up this gem of a book and prepare to loose chunks of time as you loose your self in the story. Happy reading!

I really was excited about reading this one. I loved the concept and the idea of this story. The main character being disabled and having cerebral palsy is a different spin on the traditional YA contemporary. I enjoyed the characters and seeing Jenna learn and grow. I just couldn't make myself finish this book. It felt super slow and it just wasn't gripping me. It also used a plot device that I really hate and I just couldn't continue much after that. Maybe at 28 I'm just the wrong audience for this book, but I just wasn't enjoying the book.

If I could rate this higher than five stars, I would! This book made me ugly cry in the best, best way.

I don't think that I have ever read a book with such an incredible representation of a disability. I honestly didn't know much about Cerebral Palsy, and this was incredibly eye opening.

Jenna is a teenage girl with CP; spastic CP to be a little more specific. She has a wonderful family; supportive and loving parents and two siblings that she shares an incredible bond with. They all band around her so wonderfully. But, Jenna recently discovered that there was someone to blame in her disability. There is a girl (a normal girl, in her words) she could have been had her doctor not made a mistake during her birth, and since discovering that bit of information, it changes her. She doesn't want to be dad's tough little girl anymore. She starts to believe that she needs more of a say in her medical treatments. All they do is casue her more pain and make her sick, but never really make her any better. So she decides to go forth with a medical emancipation to take her life into her own hands.

There is so much more to this story. There are so many layers and levels of self discovery. At the same time as she is dealing with all this loathing, the boy she fell in love with as a child has just moved back to town after years of being away. This book is a journey of Jenna realizing who she is and finding out if she can get mack to that girl who believes in real magic.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. It was so greatly written. I really do believe that this is a story that everyone should read. It isn't just some teenage girl coming of age fairy tale. This is a story about real, raw struggle and pain. About family and about what secrets and truths can do to relationships; what they can do to the way you see yourself and what you feel you deserve. Do yourself a favor and check this incredible story out!

If you love reading YA Contemporaries with realistic, unique representation, you will really enjoy this one! 

Especially working in a healthcare field, I could really relate to the writing style. It had those serious tones with a lighter, romantic storyline encompassing supportive, mental health aspects. 

The author also touched on a subject that I've never seen in this genre such as medical mishaps and the effects it causes on a person's world later in their life. 

I gave this one 4 out of 5 stars. It's a solid read that I think readers of YA will take to heart. There are so many parts to life represented.

I'm liking this trend in fiction of the push for medical advocacy. That's the most fascinating arc of this book: the chronic patient who doesn't feel heard. But the central conflict isn't with her doctors or her parents. It's internal. SHe's confident that something needs to change but constantly second guesses her decisions. Is her decision against surgery really what she wants or based on fatigue? This is, of course, more than a medical story. It's plot about perceptions and what we project onto other people. A little lacking in focus but generally a positive experience.

It’s My Life’s main character is Jenna Cohen. Jenna has a great family, a fabulous bestie, and a severe crush on her just-returned-to-town next door neighbor (who no longer lives next door).

Oh, yeah, and Jenna has Cerebral Palsy.

In Stacie Ramey's newest masterpiece, she takes the reader on a journey through Jenna's world - a place where she escapes to a fantasy life where she feels she's the Jennifer she's really meant to be - and its trials and tribulations. Her parents don't seem to want to listen to her when she wants to be included in her medical decisions, prompting her to talk to her attorney uncle about filing for medical emancipation. When Julian - the boy next door who moved away in seventh grade - returns, Jenna finds herself still seriously crushing on him. But instead of talking to him in the real world, she engages anonymously with Julian through texting.

Ramey paints strong pictures of the challenges of Jenna's life while still showing that being differently abled doesn't change the angst of a teenage girl. Jenna still has to deal with her crush, her best friend, and her family, with the added challenge of her CP, a condition that makes her parents even more overprotective of her.

The plot is well-drawn and engaging throughout, and even if Ramey weren't a member of my writing circle, I would praise this book to the heavens. It's a wonderful book with a realistic depiction of living with a potentially crippling medical condition. A must read for 2020.

I got an ARC of this book.

This book was something that sounded perfect for me. There was angst. There was romance. There was angst that got in the way of romance. Maybe even a tragic backstory I am a sucker for a tragic backstory.

The good: I was super excited to read a story about a teenage girl with CP. I can't say if the representation was any bit good. I have no experience with CP, outside of watching a netflix show about a gay man with CP. So please do not expect me to be able to do this topic any justice. The part that I really liked was how complicated everything was emotionally. The parents and Jenna had a complicated relationship, because of the medical decisions. It was a relationship filled with love, but there was more to it. I loved that there was representation of someone wanting more control of their body. Body autonomy is something I want to see more of in life and in literature. I want the idea that people should control their own body and choices that impact their bodies. 

The bad: the characters were pretty flat. The best friend was a GBF. The sister was just a sister. The brother was a hockey player. The dad was a dad. There really was not depth to them. Jenna's depth came all from reacting to medical decisions and obsessing over a boy. This obsession brings me to my biggest problems with the book. The romance and the romance. I know I just said the same thing twice, but I meant two different things. The actual relationship was weak. Two people who haven't seen each other in years are head over heels for each other in a Boy Meets World sort of back story way? I wanted to ship it, but they have been apart for years. They don't even know each other. The way that Jenna was about Julian was obsession, not love. It wasn't healthy. The romance, meaning the way they wooed each other, was also creepy. Seriously? Texting someone and refusing to say who you are, because you know what you are doing is wrong. Jenna had taken Julian's number without his consent and memorized it, she had it in her phone. If a man did this, it would read as creepy immediately. The conflict and resolution of the conflict for the romance was lackluster. The resolution for a lot of stuff was lackluster. 

The good: I liked the flow of the story. I liked how Jenna had an internal voice she used to help her get through pain and complications. I liked how Jenna made bad decisions. I like how she tried to take control of something, but did so in a way that wasn't exactly healthy. I liked how Jenna wasn't perfect, I especially liked it after she told the story of the saints. 

So overall, it was ok. It wasn't a great romance. It wasn't a great story of triumph. It was just ok. The romance could have been cut entirely and I would have liked the book more. It is pretty rare when I don't ship something. I ship EVERYTHING. So I wouldn't recommend this book as a romance, but as I would as a teen drama.

From the beginning, this book called my attention due to the representation, since I'd never read about a main character with cerebral palsy, I thought it would be something very interesting for me to read. I ended up enjoying it, I think it's a book that despite touching a super-serious theme has the ability to be quite light to read, which is great. It also has adorable scenes and a great family support system. However, it has some weak points that need a little more work and I'll talk more about them later.


In the book we follow Jenna, she's a young woman who suffers from cerebral palsy and after she finds out that her condition was caused due to a bad praxis, she's furious with her parents for having hidden it from her. Soon she must also face a new intervention and all this makes Jenna feel that her life is getting out of her control. When Julian, her childhood love, returns town, Jenna begins to send him messages anonymously to help him with his homework, but soon their conversations become more serious and a stronger feeling begins between them. Jenna starts to have doubts about what she's doing, and wonders if he really wants her once he discovers who she really is.


I think that a type of book where the main character suffered from a condition such as cerebral palsy should be taken very seriously and give it the place it deserves, I'm very happy to have run into this type of book, I must admit I was totally ignorant about this condition, so I think I'm a little bit wiser now, which is always a good thing. Beyond that, I'm not in a position to criticize the rep due to my ignorance on the subject, so based on the author's note, which so gently leaves us at the end of the book, it shows that she's an informed person since she has worked with children suffering from cerebral palsy, so I think it's great that she clarifies that to us. It was super painful to see Jenna going through all those treatments and to see all those devices that she uses to improve her quality of life, but it was eye-opening as well.

There's a huge romantic weight in this story, it's pretty much focused on it, it's a very adorable romance, but there are scenes where I think Jenna could be somewhat obsessed with Julian and they made me uncomfortable, these scenes are all about senseless jealousy, you know? but leaving that aside has super sweet and adorable moments that made me smile. The rest of the relationships in the book are very positive, which I'm very grateful for, the relationship with her family is very supportive and loving, (it's also very interesting to see how much the family is affected when a family member suffers from cerebral palsy), and also presents a very beautiful friendship relationship.


Medical Emancipation is touched upon, which I think is super interesting since I haven't read much about it. I think it's a subject that although it's taken very seriously at the beginning, it doesn't have the necessary depth or seriousness, I think it's touched very lightly and that's why it was unable to have a strong impact for me.

Something super curious and that I think adds another dimension to the story, is the fact that she has another self in her head, as another healthy version of herself, and whenever she has a difficulty she returns to that scene in her head and she revives it with her healthy self, "Jennifer" she calls it and we see how she would react to each situation. I think it's very smart, and it also gives us the opportunity to get to know Jenna better.


Sadly I don't have much to say about the characters, because they don't have a great depth in their personalities or lives, the only one we focus on is Jenna, and although I like first-person POV, I would have liked to know more about the other characters. Another thing that was annoying for me was the transition between chapters, which is done very abruptly and when another chapter begins you almost feel lost by a moment, there are also very strange time jumps and all this doesn't help the plot flows well.

In summary, I think the idea is to give us a look at the daily life of a person with cerebral palsy and I think that's really well achieved, has very solid moments like the family relationship and some of Jenna's internal thoughts, that help us to know her more. But on the other hand, it has weak points that need more work such as the transitions of the chapters and the deep and development of the secondary characters. Anyway, it's a book to highlight due to its representation and I would recommend it, no doubt, it's very easy to read and it will leave you thinking.