While Jen Hatmaker firmly re-establishes her prowess as a compelling writer and entertaining story teller, the book feels slightly disjointed. While a reader may appreciate the ability to pluck out the useful chapters without needing the context of previous chapters, it also leaves the traditional sequential reader a bit dizzy.  Alas, I am not sure the book is meant for the traditional reader.

Each individual chapter has funny tales and personal experiences written in an easy-to-read format. Each chapter had good tid-bits of life lessons to learn from; however, the deeper lesson or central theme falls short due to this compilation format. While it could never be contested that Hatmaker has a deep love for Jesus, the overarching theme does not lean towards a need for Jesus thus making its' classification genre as 'Christian' a bit confusing. 

Would I recommend this book to a friend? Sure--as an entertaining read to enjoy in small segments.

I have been a fan of author, podcaster, humorist, truth teller, speaker Jen Hatmaker for almost a decade. I started following her on Facebook, then discovered her books, listened to every single “For the Love” podcast, and somehow as a fan, was selected as part of the advanced launch team to read an e-copy of her newest book, “Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire”.
In her newest book, Jen shares from her heart all the life lessons she has learned. She challenges us, no matter our ages, to take a look at our own lives in the same ways. She has five bigger categories, “Who I Am, What I Need, What I Want, What I Believe, and How I Connect” and through the 12 subjects within those, helps us discover our own truest, freest selves. In the introduction she says, “I discovered the world is hungry for women who show up and tell the truth, unafraid and free, expanding to the very edges of who they were always meant to be.”
Jen writes with transparency, honesty, and touches of her natural humor, using stories from her life and childhood and backed up with solid research and references. She teaches us to fully recognize that we are “literally created by love, with love, and for love by a God who loves us and is Love itself…..it’s for all of us.” In her chapters we learn we are enough, fully interwoven in all our parts, that we deserve goodness, we can ask for help, that we all need more connection, we can pursue our dreams and choose our yeses. That we can be spiritually curious and believe in justice and our causes with a passion. That we can connect with honesty and without drama. In all of this, we can teach our daughters and the next generations some of these lessons so they can be that much further ahead in their personal growth.
I would recommend this book to all ages of women who are Jen Hatmaker fans, and to all of you who are just learning about her. If you are looking to fully know who you are (even if you thought you knew!), as personal as some chapters may feel, she is walking right through this with you with some laughs along the way. I always buy Jen Hatmaker books for my daughter and daughter-in-law, and have already preordered Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire: The Guide to Being Glorious You for them. Have a highlighter and pencil handy because there is so.much.good.stuff! Purchase this book at any of your usual book sellers.
#FierceFreeFire
#FierceFreeFullofFire
#JenHatmaker

Full disclosure:  I have loved Jen Hatmaker and her books for years and Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire is no exception.  This may be her best book yet.  Jen's style is feisty, funny, and real.  This is everything I wanted the Rachel Hollis book to be (it wasn't).     Jen takes you through who  you are, what you need, what you want, what you believe, and how you connect with a firm but loving guiding hand.  Some parts of the book will not apply and others will resonate deeply.

I have highlighted so many passages in this book that I am going to go back and read again.  She touches on many truths and in doing so, truly empowers the women she is writing for.

Jen Hatmaker is a Christian and she freely talks about her faith.  That said, if you aren't familiar with her, she has been ostracized and effectively kicked out of the church club for being inclusive to the LGBTQ community and for her advocacy work.  She doesn't write from a preachy place, she writes from a welcoming one.  Even if you are not a christian, I think you will find a great deal of value here.  

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

If I could re-write this book it would be called "Permission Granted." That's how reading Jen Hatmaker makes me feel. We dont always land on the same conclusions, and I can't achieve funny like she does, but she's liberating. I'd say this is her most targeted-message book yet. Necessary research was included but it's still Jen. What a sister!'

The best thing I can say about this book is that I immediately bought a copy and sent it to my sister! Jen Hatmaker did it again! I loved how raw, real, and honest she was about her lived experiences. Thank you, Thomas Nelson, for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Jen Hatmaker shares openly about her life and encourages readers to be who they were created to be. Although she and I have different convictions, I respect the way she loves people.

Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire is the book we needed. It details Jen's experience in finding her voice and using it, loudly and proudly. Jen has lived her life publicly so I believe the truths she tells. I find her humor refreshing. Her reflections encouraging. This is an excellent book.,. ready to shake some things up.

I will start by saying I love Jen Hatmaker and I read everything from her I can get my hands on. Now, with having to stay home, she continues to inspire and motivate me with her new book. It is a good reminder that I am not only who people think that I am, that I am much more. This is the pep talk you didn't think you needed. She gives you the hard truths that really cause you to look inside, and use your "weaknesses" as your strengths. I'll definitely be reading it again.

I really love Jen Hatmaker and the truths that she speaks and this book is another representation of that. My only disappointment is that it ended too early and I felt like it could have gone on forever.

Jen speaks about her life and how she grew into being fierce, free, and full of fire, even when the world was working against her. I really loved the look into both the good and hard parts of her life, but also how she worked to reframe the things that had been placed in front of her her whole life.

I was very inspired through this book to work on taking up the space I need to, and filling up the spaces where I want to be. I am really inspired by the way that Jen examines scripture and how she looks at everything with an inquisitive eye.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and found that it definitely inspired me as well.

Whether she is sitting in her empty bathtub with her wine glass sitting on the trash can, or writing a book like Fierce, Jen Hatmaker always has the perfect words. She was right, there were some sections where I wanted to yell “Get out of my head,Jen!”. Then there were others that I didn’t relate to as much....but I still highlighted these sections because I know of a friend or two who should read these words. In typical Jen Hatmaker fashion there is humor, sarcasm, truth, and heart. You don’t want to miss it.

I liked this book so much I pre-ordered it for a few friends. I like Jen Hatmaker and agree with some of the reviewers, this may be her best book yet. 
It's encouraging, uplifting and thought provoking. 
Thank you NetGalley for my advanced reader copy. This book is a keeper!

Sent invite about this book

If someone tells you something about yourself repeatedly you believe it to be true.

Enneagram can help us see ourselves 
and share with those around us; helps us relate with them and spiritual developmental tool also.

We need to re-village our communities
Become an integral part of something - commit to growing community around 
one area of your life that enlivens you or fills a need.

We need more women comfortable with themselves.

"When this environment gets one part of you but that environment gets another, when you tuck away one piece in front of this crew but pull it out proudly for that one, when the hidden you is screaming in protest because she is not allowed to speak, whatever felt solid about your core self-dismantles. This is an unhappy, unhealthy way to live."

Even though I'm not Jen Hatmaker's usual demographic, I've read and really enjoyed several of her books. Regardless of my background or beliefs, she usually has sound advice/perspective and as with all self-help books (which this definitely leans towards being) I can choose what works for me and leave the rest. 

And there's plenty of great advice in this book. 

It's structured around basic tenets like "I am wired this way", "I deserve goodness" or "I need more connection." Each chapter covers an area and each area offers a combination of Jen's thoughts, a researcher or some science and then Jen's personal stories. Many of them have things you can do to help yourself, shift your thinking, or next steps you can take. 

There was a lot here and I highlighted much of the book. All told in Jen's typical honest, straightforward and funny style. While there might not be a lot of new ideas here if you've been following Jen for a while, the book is organized in a way that makes the content really easy to consume. As many of these were not new to me, I found myself wishing for more. I wished her personal stories went deeper. I wished there were a handful of other stories, too. In some cases, where my issue was similar to hers, her words were very resonant and help me get a pep talk. In others, where my style/issues might be different, I found myself wishing for more. 

The last part where she lists her single sentence for each chapter was very powerful and brought so much of the guidebook part back in focus for me. After seeing that, I almost found myself wishing there were little pause moments at the end of each chapter for Jen to do more of that with an encouragement for the reader to do the same along the way instead of at the very end when there's just so much to process.

As with her other books, I enjoyed my time with this one, took a lot of notes, and have much to think about. Here's to more of us being fierce, free and full of fire.

With gratitude to netgalley and Nelson Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have to admit I was a little hesitant about this book fo some reason even though I love Jen. But this book was amazing. I think it’s just what many of us need at this point in time. Jen kills it again!

The author has written an empowering and inspiring book. The writing is transparent and relevant, and authentic. I appreciate how the author uses wit and candor then grounds it with heart and truth.

Jen Hatmaker has the ability to make me laugh and cry, sometimes in the same sentence. This is the book I needed to read when I was in my 20s, a young mom who felt like everything was falling down all around me and who felt judgement coming from every corner. She talks about the goal being having how you feel on the inside match who you are on the outside, and that is something I still struggle with to this day. I feel like I highlighted entire pages in some chapters. Being a follower of Jen's for a few years now, the lessons that are in this book have been hard fought, and are what we have been privileged to watch unfold. I've already preordered it for the important women in my life.

Easily Jen Hatmaker's best book yet. With the humor and grace we've come to expect from Jen, we see her reclaim her faith, identity, an life, while leaving a path behind her for others to follow.

If you are lacking in confidence and feel that you are not really living as your authentic self, Jen Hatmaker  can help you to stop living a stereotypical life and discover who you really are.

Love, love, love this book!  Jen is always humorous, but this book is uplifting, motivating, honest and helpful! Everyone woman should read this book and take her insight and advice to heart. Jen lets us all into her head and heart to understand how she used to think, what she's learned (personally and as a Christian) and how it impacted her new mindset, attitude and outlook.  A positive book that will help women who want a supportive and instructive view on how to change the status quo ideas of being a woman and especially, a "good" Christian woman.  Thanks Jen!

This is just a middle of the road book for me. A lot of the chapters didn’t correlate with my life so that kinda sucked. But the ones that were good, were very good.