This book came highly recommended to me and I had hopes to connect with it, given my own experience with childhood trauma and the themes of healing and forgiveness. While the author shared his deeply personal experiences as a child and adult and I commend his vulnerability, I wasn’t able to connect with his story in the way I thought I would.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC.

I love true crime, trauma and hearing of others stories and how they cope.

I really liked this story and reading about the defining moments that happened and what happened to cause the trauma. I feel that the way the author wrote the story that it definitely speaks for itself. Highly Recommend.

Thanks NetGalley for letting me read and review.

It's a memoir about trauma. I love hearing other people's stories. As someone who is studying child development, it is especially interesting to see what were those defining moments that shaped us throughout our lives. This is one of those books where I feel like the story speaks for itself. Cannot recommend it enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC. To Be Loved is an exceptionally written memoir about the author’s journey of finding his identity. The memoir takes us through his childhood trauma through his own encounters in his adult life.

This is an extremely insightful memoir, and I enjoyed it immensely!

Thank you to netgalley for my ARC! I’m so happy I read this book. Frank’s story and resilience was inspiring. I’d give it more than 5 stars if I could!

Frank Anderson, passionate and compassionate trauma healer, reflects on the life that helped form him, turning him into the kind, confident and compassionate person we see today, and what a journey it's been. His story-telling ability, honed by his Italian family over dinners and parties, shares all manner of moments, some benign and entertaining, and many life-changing. Frank's writing evokes these memories expertly, stories interjected with snippets of dialogue that put you right in the moment of the scene.
His journey, not always as expected, covers the madcap antics of his family, his first relationships, the med-school experience, the surrogacy journey, the joys and struggles of parenting, coming out of a life defined by trauma, and finally forgiveness. So many of his experiences are awful, but he makes sense of them in a way that you too can make sense and helps us to see these things differently. As Frank learns, processes and grows, the wisdom and warmth come through. And don't despair, there is plenty of love and joy in there as well, we'd expect nothing less.
Hearing the voice of a gay man who has overcome childhood trauma and its impacts through life gives hope to all who can identify with him, who can hope too to find love, acceptance and belonging in life, shows it is all possible. A wonderful read, thank you to Frank for opening up his story to us.
Thank you NetGalley and PESI Publishing for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

To Be Frank is a good read! We follow his journey from childhood realizing who he is and coming to terms with it through the years. The struggles and traumas Frank goes through are all too familiar for those of us in the LGBTQ+ community. Something I really liked about this book was the playlist of songs that go with each chapter. I think it was such a poignant way to reflect on each chapter! Definitely recommend!

First, I wanted to say thank you to NetGallery for the opportunity to read To Be Loved.

The premise of the book is the story of the transformation of Frank. From the childhood trauma to realizing his true sexuality, the book spares no expense to what Frank went through.

At points, the book was slower than I preferred. So I had to put it down and pick it back up to finish that chapter.

I enjoyed this, especially as somebody who's definitely had their fair share of childhood trauma. I liked the thought process and how he made peace with his childhood and how he could change how he processed it as he got older.

The only thing that bothered me is that it seemed he referred to his wife as Beth and then it abruptly changed to Liz. Yes, I'm aware her name was Elizabeth but it seemed like a shift changed. One paragraph it was Beth and the next Liz. For consistency, I think it should be one or the other.

Many thanks for the opportunity to read this book.