This was a great memoir about a woman who crashed into Jesus and learned how to keep getting up when life knocks her down, and she wants to help you succeed as well. Willow's mother is not the best, she's a hippie alcoholic who puts her daughter in danger and even sends her away at one point. For most of Willow's life she just wants her mom to stop drinking and she wants to heal. And just like we've heard in other's stories about how God works, Willow takes her pain and uses it to help other women heal as well. I appreciated the casual tone of the book and how she weaves in stories from the Bible along the way. She has a lot of wise words:

"If we don't get healing for what hurt us, our wounds start to wound and wound and wound. our wounds begin to speak. Our experiences conversations and memories have a voice and they start to tel us who we are, who others are and who God is. Our view of ourselves, others and God can become so ver wounded. We walk into job interviews, parties, churches, teams, first dates and committees expecting to be hurt again, which wreaks havoc on our lives. We self-protect by controlling, hiding, shutting down, and putting up walls. Some of us build such high walls that they put the Great Wall of China to shame. Nobody will ever climb them. And if someone tries to climb our walls, we will Taser them with our pain. That oughta keep them out!"

"We start blaming others , and we start blaming God for our pain and for not taking it away. Before we realize it, we've become the father we despised, the boss we'd hate working for, the friend we're annoyed by. Our marriages experience mutual destruction, our friendships are damaged by deep seated insecurity and our kids are handed wounded patterns with their breakfast. We pass the baton of hurt on to our children, who pass it on to their children and their children's children. we see history repeat itself and what we see we don't like."

"Jesus sees where you are and how you got here and He understands He makes room for us to have hope in who we can become despite who and where we've been."

"Before she changed a thing, before she even confessed to walking down some sketchy roads, before she went and tried to sin no more, Jesus made sure she knew: "You are already loved. You are already chosen. You are already worthy." Once a girl knows that she is loved, chosen and worthy, she knows she's wanted. She doesn't have to buy love at a discounted rate. She doesn't have to steal love from someone else. She doesn't have to walk down alleys, longing for someone to choose her. She doesn't have to drink to numb the pain of all the unwanted things she's done to feel wanted."


There were so many more that I highlighted but these were just a couple of the first things.

If you are a Christian I'd recommend reading this, or if you are searching for healing from life, I'd also recommend it or if you just like a good memoir and have a rocky relationship with your mother.

This book was soo good. So heart felt, and gave so much great information that I am able to apply to my life. Willow definitely gave good points, and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this genre and type of book!

This was a good book at times hard to get through. I will certainly recommend it to others. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Willow holds nothing back in this perfect book that reaches right in our most sacred scared places. I was completely gripped by her story and related to so many “lessons” we learn from a very young age. Are you “moving on or moving with the pain” and were you also taught that “silence is strength?” Willow invites you to revisit trauma, grief, and heartache and to see all of the ways that Jesus collides with us in all of the messy places. This is a book full of reflection, and hurt, and heartache. It’s also a book of hope, and comfort and healing. As a pastors wife, I am incredibly thankful for this resource and will be putting it in the hands of many. Thank you Willow for telling your story with such openness and tenderness and inviting us in to your hurt and healing so we can begin our own journey of healing in the arms of Jesus.