Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of It's My Life by Stacie Ramey.

Oh, this was sweet, and a good insight into what it would be like as a young person who has Cerebral Palsy.

Jenna has just found out that her CP was a result of an injury she sustained as a baby, and furious, she's ready to take her medical needs into her own hands. But Jenna also has to balance that out with being a high schooler, and right now she's got a mad crush on Julian, who just returned to his school. Seeing that Julian has limitations of his own, Jenna begins an anonymous exchange with him, which draws them closer. But will Julian still write once he discovers who he's talking to?

This is simple, quick, and educational. I know that as a teen I would have enjoyed it.

I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I love that the main character in this story is different and dealing with a difficult disease. It helps kids who are also dealing with difficult things deal. There's a cute love story that starts as anonymous messages.

I really liked the perspective in “It’s My Life.” Stacie Ramey has written a gripping and heartfelt narrative that kept me reading well into the evening.

I'm always on the look out for books with chonic illness representation. As someone who has deals with chronic pain on a daily basis, I grew up having never read a book with someone "like me". Although I don't have cerebral palsy, I can at least relate in some aspects. I found the story to be well written, but a little bland at times. I found myself re-reading paragraphs and nodding off while reading mid-afternoon. Some parts were really good and others not so much. It definitely wasn't a favorite of mine, but not bad by any means! I generally read more fantasy, so it could be biased of me. Someone who enjoys reading more contemporary might like it more!

I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was very well written. I cannot speak for the representation of cerebral palsy, as I do not know enough about it. I enjoyed the characters and their journey, and I could relate to how Jenna felt like she was losing control. I enjoyed reading about her relationship with Julian.

*I WAS PROVIDED A DIGITAL ARC VIA NETGALLEY IN RETURN FOR MY HONEST REVIEW. THIS DOES NOT AFFECT MY OPINION*

It's My Life turned out to be a book I really liked, and I was not expecting that at all. This story follows Jenna, who has cerebral palsy and just wants control over a life she doesn't feel like she's truly able to live.

I can't tell y'all how excited I am to see more books that represent people like Jenna. Though I can't speak in terms of how good that representation is in this book, I do think it brought to light a lot of things the majority of people wouldn't understand or know about regularly.

I ended up really liking Jenna's character. I felt that she thoroughly represented a teen in today's standards, and I feel like her feelings and emotions were valid and understandable. Stacie Ramey did a pretty good job in building most of the characters in this book, but Jenna's character was the best done by far.

When it came to Julian's character, however, I do feel that he lacked a bit. Other than the few, specific things that were revealed by him and Jenna, we didn't really know much about his character. The random bout of anger issues at the end certainly came as a surprise, and I took issue with him saying "this isn't who I am" quite a bit.

The pacing of this book was another issue I had. If you aren't a fan of slower-paced books, I wouldn't suggest this one. It took a bit for anything really "exciting" to happen, and even then, there was still quite a bit of build-up that needed to happen.

Something I've seen a few other reviewers argue against is that it'd be unlikely for a teen girl to fight her parents for medical emancipation, but I have to disagree. I think it is realistic in this day and time. Albeit a bit different, take it from someone who was seriously considering regular emancipation at quite a few points in my younger teen years. It's more likely than I think people realize, and that's mainly just a generational shift I think people don't take into account. I think the author's addition of this detail into the story was well-received, at least to me, and even if not believable to some, could be to others.

I did find it a bit weird though that Jenna's lawyer was her uncle, and I definitely found it unbelievable that he just covered up and hid the fact that his niece was considering something like medical emancipation from his brother and sister-in-law. Even if they're a close family, I had a hard time believing something like that magnitude would just blow over that easily.

Overall though, I did enjoy this story quite a bit. For that, I rate it 3.75 stars. I will be looking forward to reading more from Stacie Ramey in the future.

DNF. Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early copy! I decided to not keep reading this one, it was not for me. Thanks!

this is the first book with a main character with CF, and tbh there aren't a lot out their with disabled main characters in general so it's great to see. I enjoyed the book, from the romance to the decisions that Jenna had to make about her life and how CF affected her, so was nice to learn more about that as I'm not educated on that topic. I loved the family relationships as it felt so real and loving! however some of the Julian bits felt a bit repetitive unfortunately. The last 20% of the book was best for me and loved the ending! Would recommend.

Absolutely loved the disability representation in this book. It's not often that I can find a book with a main character with a disability that isn't a sad story where we are supposed to pity them.

This book was raw, real, and unfiltered. It gave me so many emotions all the way through. The romance in this book was amazing. Julian is one of my favorite male love interests I've read this year. Their friendship in person was adorable but the anonymous messaging really was perfection.

As soon as I was finished reading this book, I wanted to go back to the beginning and read it all over again. This is definitely a book I will be returning to!

I enjoyed the representation in this book, and it was a relatively light read. But I struggled with the premise a bit -- medical emancipation at the age of 15 seems unlikely, even in a fictional world.

Happy Monday!


I had another full week of reading last week which means another full week of reviewing and blogging! My Goodreads shelf is overrun right now with currently reading books (like 20 plus books I think) and being honest I am not currently reading them all. I have either finished many of them, am actually in progress of reading them, it might be the next book in a graphic novel series and I put it on my list so I can start it when I have more Hoopla loans, or I started it and set it down for now. I started this book a little while back on my Kindle and decided that I was going to buckle down and finish it! I have just been so busy with work and life stuff that I had not gotten back to it. Add on top of that my Kindle screen going weird (every time I would turn it on half of it would stay off or something?) but I got a new Kindle about a week ago and I am back in business!


SPOILERS AHEAD


Jenna is a high school junior with Cerebal Palsy but she never lets that get in the way of living her life. However, she has made a recent discovery, that her Cerebal Palsy might have been caused by an injury that occurred during her birth. This turns Jenna's whole world upside down. Jenna decides it's time to start taking control of her life. Jenna starts by dropping from her AP classes to normal classes at school and then contacting her lawyer uncle to try to get medical rights for herself. She is tired of all the secrets and wants to be able to make medical decisions for herself. On top of all of this Jenna's childhood crush, Julian comes to back town. Julian seems to be struggling in school and Jenna wants to help but she wants to do it anonymously. However, there conversations quickly turn from helpful with school to a bit romantic. Can Jenna hide who she is forever or will her identity come out and will Julian accept her? Will Jenna find out more about her birth and her Cerebal Palsy?


This was an interesting read. There were times when I did not want to put it down and there were times when I was really not happy with Jenna and her character. I felt like the way she was contacting Julian was a little catfishy (I understand her reasoning behind it) but it still did not feel right once it turned from friendly to romantic. Seeing Jenna struggle with her medical decisions and trying to decide if she should go against her parents or not and learning about her birth was an interesting part of this book and I always wanted to keep reading when we got to those parts. Or when it came to parts about her family (like when we would see interactions between her and her sister or brother). I will say as we got closer to the end I definitely began to enjoy the book more again (like I did at the start). However, I just do not think overall, that this read was what I was expecting/ hoping for. I am going to give this book three stars on Goodreads.





**Thank you to the publisher for an E-ARC copy via Netgalley

This one really wasn't for me, and I ended up not finishing it. I applaud it for its cerebral palsy rep and the wonderful writing style Ramsey used, but I just couldn't gel with the characters or really care about what was happening.

I really enjoyed this contemporary romance. Jenna's story and her development in this book was a real highlight. The anonymous texting was super cute. I recommend this book!

Unfortunately I dnfed this one. The plot was just very unrealistic and I found many problems within it.

This was a stunning, truly heartbreaking book about a teen girl with cerebral palsy struggling to live her best life. I finished it in a couple days, consumed by the romance and the internal and external struggles of Jenna, the protagonist. I love learning from different points of view, and this was perfect in delivering information without being didactic. 5 stars.

You know, just leave it to Stacie Ramey to create still more characters that I can’t help falling in love with. I really, really needed a solid, heartfelt contemporary book, and IT’S MY LIFE totally had me covered. I love Jenna’s awkwardness and her tendency to overthink things. I love her passion and her relationship with her mom.

Actually, I want to say more about her and her mom. Because I felt like that was a really complex relationship, since Jenna’s really pushing back against her parents’ assumptions about her medical treatment and care. She’s feeling lied to by her parents and unable to communicate to them her need to make her own medical decisions.

Though we only see Jenna’s point-of-view, I felt like it was easy to see that so much more was happening between the lines. Her mom felt like this real, complicated character with conflicting desires but a consistent commitment to her daughter. I don’t know if that makes total sense, but I just found myself having a lot of respect for Jenna’s mom because clearly she had a lot going on in her head and heart.

IT’S MY LIFE is at its core, a personal journey story. At the beginning, Jenna feels like her perfect life starring the cooler, better version of herself is completely out of reach. Jenna has two choices: she can sit back and let that life stay a fantasy, or she can pull together all her courage and figure out a way to make things happen for herself.

I love that theme in the story so much, and I think Stacie Ramey does real justice to the part of life where we must choose to become the main character in our own stories. I’m so glad I read this book, and I think it will really stay with me for a long time.

If you liked MY SISTER’S KEEPER by Jodi Picoult or IMPOSSIBLE MUSIC by Sean Williams, or just find yourself in the mood for an uplifting contemporary story featuring a strong protagonist, make sure you check out IT’S MY LIFE.

What a wonderful story filled with ups and downs. Lows and highs. Yes it is a YA book but the subject matter is one that will appeal to anyone no matter what age you are because we've all messed up. We've all thought things about ourselves that aren't true. And yes sometimes we even give up on ourselves but this wonderfully well written book will show you what happens when you finally take that flying leap. Pick up this gem of a book and prepare to loose chunks of time as you loose your self in the story. Happy reading!

I really was excited about reading this one. I loved the concept and the idea of this story. The main character being disabled and having cerebral palsy is a different spin on the traditional YA contemporary. I enjoyed the characters and seeing Jenna learn and grow. I just couldn't make myself finish this book. It felt super slow and it just wasn't gripping me. It also used a plot device that I really hate and I just couldn't continue much after that. Maybe at 28 I'm just the wrong audience for this book, but I just wasn't enjoying the book.

If I could rate this higher than five stars, I would! This book made me ugly cry in the best, best way.

I don't think that I have ever read a book with such an incredible representation of a disability. I honestly didn't know much about Cerebral Palsy, and this was incredibly eye opening.

Jenna is a teenage girl with CP; spastic CP to be a little more specific. She has a wonderful family; supportive and loving parents and two siblings that she shares an incredible bond with. They all band around her so wonderfully. But, Jenna recently discovered that there was someone to blame in her disability. There is a girl (a normal girl, in her words) she could have been had her doctor not made a mistake during her birth, and since discovering that bit of information, it changes her. She doesn't want to be dad's tough little girl anymore. She starts to believe that she needs more of a say in her medical treatments. All they do is casue her more pain and make her sick, but never really make her any better. So she decides to go forth with a medical emancipation to take her life into her own hands.

There is so much more to this story. There are so many layers and levels of self discovery. At the same time as she is dealing with all this loathing, the boy she fell in love with as a child has just moved back to town after years of being away. This book is a journey of Jenna realizing who she is and finding out if she can get mack to that girl who believes in real magic.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. It was so greatly written. I really do believe that this is a story that everyone should read. It isn't just some teenage girl coming of age fairy tale. This is a story about real, raw struggle and pain. About family and about what secrets and truths can do to relationships; what they can do to the way you see yourself and what you feel you deserve. Do yourself a favor and check this incredible story out!