Cover Image: Blooming

Blooming

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Member Reviews

I thought I was getting a self-help type book. Instead I got a memoir that was half harrowing and half self-congratulatory. I commend Carrington for overcoming various traumas and obstacles, but some acknowledgment of her privilege as a white, straight, wealthy woman would have been nice.

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This was an incredible novel. the trauma this woman went through amazed me and horrified me. I became so attached to the character and was strongly rotting for her throughout. Definitely not a book for everyone and not a light hearted read but an important one nonetheless.

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It’s my first time reading an autobiography and i really enjoyed it.
Honestly, it’s not a quick and feel good read, but it goes through some deep and hurtful moments bringing the best out of it.
Overall it was very inspiring!

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Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

This was a quick read as I quickly became obsessed with learning more about Carrington and how her life would play out. There were so many instances, especially with regards to her parents and childhood, that I could not believe were real, that she had to endure. Her parents had multiple children, yet they favored only two and excluded the other. In fact, the extended family, aka grandmother, would do the same. This poor child had a hard upbringing, a traumatic rape in college, two divorces and so much more. She is a survivor, not a victim. She has tried her best to surround herself with positive people in her adult life and is no longer afraid of cutting people out. This had difficult content at times, but I really enjoyed and would recommend to others.

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Carrington Smith' is a survivor. And because she's a survivor, she has decided to tell her story, though it's not an easy one to read. Born into a dysfunctional family with a father who can only be described as evil, a mother who put her husband's needs above herself and her children, and a maternal grandmother who treated Smith with disdain and ridicule, it's hard to imagine anyone coming out of this environment as a self-assured adult.

Yet Smith has come out a better person despite the traumas she's gone through. While her stories give rise to her resilience, I found many of them hard to read due to brutal actions of her father.. While reading these stories was difficult, I can't imagine what it was like to live through them. These stories (though disjointed at times) provide the theme (and hence the title) of this book. Out of adversity comes strength. It wasn't an easy path for Smith, but she has made it her point to 'bloom' from all the trauma that she has endured in life.

Smith's strong intuitive nature came out of a life peppered with adversity. And she is to be admired for it.

I want to thank #NetGalley and Lioncrest Publishing for providing me with an electronic ARC of #Blooming in exchange for my review.

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This book at times was hard to read, but I couldn't put it down. The things she has been through, the things she survived, and the strength she found within herself will keep you reading. She didn't give up, she learned from each and everything that she had to face. She went to law school, passed the bar and became a lawyer. She tried many fields until she found the one that was what she knew was meant for her to do.
This is her journey and everything she went through. With all that she had been through, I cried when she wanted to give up when her friends, wanted her to change into whom they believed she should be. But there was strength deep inside that she found, and she picked up the phone and did what she had to do for herself. As the description says, Carrie discovered that her own path to happiness wasn’t based on fitting in but on standing out—celebrating her uniqueness and owning her past. There is a lot of good advice in the book, so much strength, and the willingness to share her story.
I received an ARC from Lioncrest Publishing through NetGalley.

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