Wow. My stomach was in actual knots while reading Jen's story. To not only go through a divorce after 26 years but to add in COVID, parenting, the church and more on top of it...wow. I cried, felt anxious and also so very happy while reading Jen's story. She's truthful, raw and allows all of us an inside look as to who she really is. She is surrounded by incredible people who show up for her which tells me what type of person she is...one whose table you want to be invited to eat at.

Awake by Jen Hatmaker is a truly unique book. Whether or not you agree theologically with her, you will still benefit from reading this book. Jen is so real and vulnerable here about so many things. Readers will come away feeling seen and encouraged and ready to take on their circumstances fully awake. I highly recommend this book. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

I was riveted by this account of how Jen Hatmaker rebuilt her life after the end of her 26-year marriage. As another person who married young out of purity culture and then lost that marriage to infidelity, I related deeply to her feelings, thought process, deconstruction, and reconstruction. Kudos to Jen for speaking her truth without shame. Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

TY to Avid Reader Press and Net Galley for the ARC. Jen's incredible story of the nightmare she endured, how she endured it and how she came out so much stronger and more knowledgeable about who she really is, is a must read for everyone!

Awake was a compelling read, and I finished it in one sitting. While I appreciate her openness and vulnerability, I felt she moved quickly between topics, ultimately returning to the theme of her marriage’s challenges. At times, it seemed she was efforting to define a new, more unchurched identity, such as using strong language like the F-word. I have no issue with the word itself, but it occasionally felt somewhat incongruent with her voice. There were several memorable passages, and I took notes to share with friends. Although this book did not earn a five-star rating from me, I value the overall reading experience.

Thanks to Netgalley and Avid for this ARC.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect going into this. There were moments of laugh out loud and moments of tears. I finished this book quickly but parts of it will stay with me. I can always tell when a book is going to linger and this is a book that will linger. Thank you Jen for your vulnerability.

In AWAKE, Jen Hatmaker welcomes readers into a frank memoir of the end of her 26-year marriage and the aftermath of healing and rebuilding.

The book is filled with short essays on faith, on relationships, on reconstruction, and Hatmaker doesn’t shy away from the most debilitating moments, even as she carefully protects the privacy of others. We find ourselves empathizing with her deep emotions, but we also benefit from the insights she gleaned from therapy, and we celebrate the strong support system she has around her. This is an empowering story, and I appreciate Hatmaker’s vulnerability, entrusting us behind the curtain of the darkest time in her life.

Reminiscent of Maggie Smith’s YOU COULD MAKE THIS PLACE BEAUTIFUL, readers will find another meaningful memoir about the end of a relationship but the start of a new, beautiful awakening.

(Thank you to Avid Reader Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.)

I love a memoir and Jen Hatmaker just wrote a great one! This was funny, sad, and really heartfelt.

This is a moving and raw transformation story. Jen Hatmaker recounts a difficult season of life with an unreasonable amount of wisdom and humor. I soaked up every word.

I've read a few other Jen Hatmaker books and am not a huge fan, but this was her most personal one yet. It was raw, honest memoir that managed to be entertaining and funny despite the serious subject matter.

I haven't heard of this author before, but this soon-to-be-released memoir kept getting mentioned in online blogs and people that I follow so when I saw it was available for request via NetGalley, I jumped at the chance.

What I appreciate about this author is that she is authentic. She doesn't skip over the pain and heartache caused by the destruction of her marriage and its aftermath, but she is also quick to protect the specific details as they pertain to her five kids. She doesn't go into all the nitty gritty because she respects the privacy of her kids and their trauma and you know what, as a fellow human being I respect that.

I also didn't realize this book would venture into Evangelical Christianity and the purity culture of the 80's and 90's but considering the author was raised by a pastor and then became a pastor's wife, that makes sense to me. She shows just how misogynic and toxic and hurtful that environment can be to everyone involved, and the wounds that she, her friends and her children have as a result. That said, it sounds like she is growing, healing and evolving and I hope this book was as cathartic for her to write it as it was for me to read it. I'm glad I picked it up.

WOW! What a book! I've read and loved several Jen Hatmaker books, but this one was on the next level. It was raw, honest, open, and just so very thought provoking. Whether you are a follower of hers or not, just read it. You won't be disappointed.

In this series of essays, Jen Hatmaker delves into the dissolution of her 26 year marriage, the aftermath, and the realizations she came to along the way that awakened her to the ways that both society and the church have failed her and all women over the years. For those who know Hatmaker through her books, blogs, and podcasting, we know some of the story about how her world fell apart in the midst of the COVID pandemic when she found out that her husband was cheating on her, but this is a deeper dive into the emotional side of things. Hatmaker is just a couple of years older than me, so many of the topics she touched on have been dissected in conversations among my friend groups, and I was able to relate closely with many of her struggles. While I appreciated the breadth of stories she told in the essays, I also felt at times like it was disjointed and it didn't really feel like a cohesive reading experience. However, most of the individual essays were poignant and crisp and got right to the points she was making and once I was finished with the entire book, I understood where she was going.

One particular essay resonated so deeply with me that I took screenshots so I could discuss with my own therapist. "Attachment" looks at how women with strong personalities in our age group often end up having an avoidant attachment style because we were taught by those around us that having big feelings and strong opinions was high maintenance and that in order to be likable, we need to be easy-going. This leads to us not opening ourselves up fully and therefore being unable or unwilling to form deep emotional bonds. This is a big topic in my therapy so reading her struggle with the same thing helped me to connect deeper to her story.

Overall this was a good reading experience, and a title I would definitely recommend to middle-aged women who are going through a divorce, in therapy, or have complicated relationship with Christianity OR to anyone with a middle-aged woman in their live who wants to better understand some of the societal issues these women face.

I’ve been a fan of Jen for a long time and was so excited I was able to get an eARC of her upcoming memoir. I started it last night, read 50%, and then read the other 50% this morning! It’s both so quick to read — and yet I feel like I could read it all again so much slower too. Jen shares some hard, painful, personal things, but also shares funny moments, beautiful moments, restorative moments. This is a book about healing and love and found family and finding yourself. I laughed, I cried. I will be thinking about this book for a long time.

Beautiful, hopeful, and gutsy as hell. As a liberation theologian, interested especially in the religious experiences of woman, I was so impressed by the deep work Jen did to undo years upon years of conservative Christian influence. I can't imagine a more powerful voice for such a project, given how many devoted female followers Jen has attracted through her work.

Jen Hatmaker’s Awake is described as brutally honest, funny and revealing - and it is certainly all of those and more.

Through this memoir, she takes the reader alongside her journey of self discovery and healing following the end of her 26 year marriage. She tells her story candidly, while piecing together other parts of her life and experiences that brought her to the present day. I loved the vignette style. I laughed and cried and highlighted bits of text that resonated.

Religion / the church were a big part of her identity, and while I don’t share these experiences and didn’t grow up going to church, I found this aspect of her life to be fascinating - especially as she started to re evaluate what that meant for her today.

Huge thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Awake by Jen Hatmaker

Jen Hatmaker has spent her life in the church.Both her father and husband were evangelical ministers. After 26 years of marriage and five children, she wakes up to a nightmare. Her husband is having an affair.

With no life experience on her own, Jen must navigate the waters of being a single mom. Credit cards? No. Bank account? No. Ever paid a mortgage or taxes? No. Lucky for Jen, she has many good friends she can count on. Need emotional support? Got it. Legal advice? Got it. A place to spend some time away? Got it.

In her memoir, Jen takes the reader back and forth in time from her childhood to the present. She comes to realize that people of her church are bigoted, racist and dehumanize those not like them, meaning white supremacists. She carries it so far as to point out that many of our present government leaders also reflect these attributes.

It’s a solid three star read for me. I will cheer Jen on for growth and a total recovery from her nightmare.

Reading this, having come from a similar background as Jen Hatmaker, I was heartbroken for her as she faced the breakup of her marriage, and also found myself looking back on my own life in the church having had similar life experiences.

At risk of throwing the baby out with a bath water, I hesitate to villainize the entire evangelical/Southern Baptist Church based on one person's experience. Rather, I respect Jen and her sharing her story, and I find myself backing up a step and resolving to read the Bible for myself and not project things on other people just because a church does so.

I may not agree with all of the author's conclusions; we are not all the same people, after all. But I do agree with taking the Bible in its own context, and perhaps turning my back on the rules-based faith enforced by some churches in the effort to follow Jesus and not some man-made thing.

Before I read this, I had already had leanings of my own to get back to the Bible and study for myself, rather than just going with whatever a church tells me.

Honestly, I think that might be what it takes to make your faith your own.


Some might say the author is privileged to pick up and go in all these trips and outings, and to be able to build huge custom tables and pergolas in the backyard. But it's her reality and her memoir, not mine. And I give her that. (also, Colorado is my homeland from which I've been separated for 2 decades - if someone gave me opportunity to go back and spend some time, I'd do it!)

Also, I agree with the author: "... forgiveness sets me free." I think that's really what everything comes down to in life. We need to forgive and let go of things, giving them over to the Lord, so that we can live freely.

I'd recommend this book to others of a similar age and background, to realize they are not alone in these (negative) experiences in the church.
It would make good conversation for the right group of people.

May this book help those that need it.

Thanks to the author for sharing her experiences and to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy to review.

I loved this autobiographical account of Jen discovering her husband's infidelity, how it turned her life upside down an made her a more grounded solid person as the trauma a settled. Jen's writing has always hit ho e wirh me and this one was deeply moving. I appreciated her honesty and rawness.

Do you have one of those friends with whom you’ll go for months not connecting, then think of them, reach out, then talk for hours catching up, like no time has passed?

Jen is that friend

Except time *has* passed.
And things have *happened*.
And great gawd DAYUM.

The book details – not in a salacious way, nosy assholes – her life from Covid onward.

She talks about being a woman (both married and…not), a mom, a friend, a believer, and a public figure.

I know it’s weird to say you liked a book chronicling someone’s heartbreak, but here we are.

I have a few quibbles, but that mostly involves the sourest of grapes, so don’t mind me.

Really, this book is a cozy conversation with a friend as she tells you what’s been going on since you’ve seen each other last.

Grab a blanket, and a tea, and maybe some queso, and catch up.