hopeful reflective medium-paced
emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

I have followed Jessica online for many years and continue to be amazed at her openness and vulnerability as she navigated the changes in her life the past few years.  Reading her newest book was not just her personal stories but inspiration to others to look at their situation and find the way to move forward and come out a stronger person then they are right now. 

I know I will keep this on my shelf for years to come and pull it out as I navigate the various twists and turns life is sure to put on my path. 

manders_reads's review

5.0
emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced
hopeful informative reflective fast-paced
emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Jessica Turner’s new book is a beautiful, heartfelt memoir and self-help book combined. This book follows Jessica as she navigated her husband coming out and their subsequent divorce. As she shares her story and what worked for her healing journey she also shares ways that you, the reader, can apply those same principles and techniques to your own journey regardless of the struggles you are experiencing. As a longtime follower I knew that when Jessica shared her story that it would be beautiful, heartbreaking, insightful and inspiring. This book has helped me tremendously in my own journey with divorce and for that I will be forever grateful to her.
emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

Oh yes I did cry. So grateful for Jessica lying her sorry to the page so it would be ready for me to read in this format right when I needed it.
hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

I really enjoyed the focus on grief and making your own happiness. It was really inspiring, and helped me see my personal grief in a different way. 

However, I wish that there was clearer disclosures on if religion will be brought up in books. There were a few places where it began to focus too much on Christianity and some of our grief comes from not being able to move without pain anymore. Between those two points, I had to lower the rating. 

If you're looking for help with grief, but have deconstructed from Christianity, have a negative/complicated relationship with God, or are easily triggered by conversations about food and dieting, or are suffering with chronic pain, maybe think again about reading this one. 
hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

We all have something in our lives that hasn’t turned out the way we had hoped or imagined.  For author Jessica Turner, it was her marriage of 16 years ending unexpectedly and having to navigate life post-divorce. Jessica shares her story and what she has learned along the way beautifully. She weaves in practical advice and action steps that are applicable to nearly any life situation that you hoped would be “better than this”.  Jessica’s writing takes you through steps that feel like something between therapy and a conversation with a friend. 

For many of us, myself included, it is easy to latch on to resentment and to live with one foot in the traumas and stories that formed deep wounds in our hearts.  Jessica teaches us how to redeem our stories in order to live more hopefully in this one beautiful life we’ve been given. 
hehkhatea's profile picture

hehkhatea's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 8%

I don’t want to invalidate the experiences of this author but I do not think going to therapy for a divorce means you can now write a book about a myriad of other life disappointments. Repackaged therapy exercises from a person who makes a living marketing to people how they live their life does not a self help book make. The big thing that got me was coming up with the title, I Thought It Would Be Better Than This, while sitting at a friend’s beach house… wildly out of touch.