We all have our dreams and our goals that we strive for in life. All is Not Lost is written by a woman who worked to achieve her dreams of being a famous actress, but didn't reach the heights that she had hoped for.

Shannon Kelly Carbonell had wanted to be an actress since she was a child. She acted in both her native Australia and in the United States. As a married mother of two, she sometimes struggled with being simply a mom, a wife, or a daughter. When her husband, Nestor Carbonell of TV's Lost, took the family to Hawaii. It was there that Shannon began to heal.

This book was beautiful. Shannon spoke candidly and openly about her struggle. Her experience could be a lesson to so many others. I highly recommend All Is Not Lost to anyone whose dreams seem out of reach.

Honest real raw a book many women will identify with.The author now a mother of two an actress with a husband who is a busy actor during the book he is in the series Lost.She has made the choice to stop acting instead she is a hands on mother.Giving up her career has her feeling lost unhappy.Women who have given up their careers will relate to the lost identity loving your children but who are you.#netgalley#greenleafbooks

This was not at all what I expected. The author's connection to the tv show LOST, and its promotion by actors from that show, led me to believe that there would at least be some intertwining of personal memoir and anecdotal tales from the show. Alas this was not the case at all and as a result not something in all honesty I wanted to read.
I'm sure the author is a lovely person, but there was no substance to this book at all. It reads more like a personal journal and maybe should have been an article or short essay instead of an entire book. There is just not enough there to fill the pages.

I really wanted to like this book, but it fell short quite a bit and I honestly wonder why it was turned into a book, because it really feels like a bunch of journal entries.

Firstly, I feel manipulated by the author tying this book so clearly to Lost and getting a bunch of the actors from Lost to promote her book. It was the reason I wanted to check this out, and while I knew it would be a more personal memoir and not Lost-centric, I thought it would atleast have some behind the scenes stuff occasionally. Unfortunately, there is nothing. Instead, she just kept pointing out scenes from Lost that mirrored how she felt. It felt extremely ham-fisted to me.

But on the non-Lost front, I also struggled with this memoir because, while the author is dealing with depression and depression is hard and different for everyone, she does not come across as very likeable at any point (and I say that as someone who was depressed for 10 years) and her reasons for falling into depression-'I want to be famous and I'm not, instead my husband is'- is just very shallow and her reactions to her kids/husband's behaviors are usually quite rude and self-centered.

The problem is, at the end of the book she reaches some sort of clarity, but it is set 11 years ago. I feel that she could have included some more current insights into why she was acting that way, or how she feels now. Another squandered aspect is that part of her depression is due to the unrealistic criteria put on actresses and the constant doubt and ridicule they are put through, and I think this isn't really dived into but is just briefly mentioned as reasons why she's insecure.

Ultimately, this book was a whole lot of almost interesting. I'd probably have given it 3 stars if it didn't pimp the tenuous Lost connection so hard.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Shannon Kenny Carbonell's memoir for a myriad of reasons. Despite her impressive accomplishments in the cutthroat field of acting., she's unflinchingly honest about her personal and professional insecurities.

I'm a Los Angeles native, and I come from an entertainment family. I've read countless actors' memoirs and I found "All Is Not LOST"" to be unique in the sea (pun intended) of this literary genre. "All Is Not LOST" is a worthwhile, fascinating read.