Gabrielle Stone

A year and a half into our marriage, I found out my husband had been having an affair with a nineteen-year-old for six months. I filed for divorce and left. Two weeks later I met a man, and we fell madly in love. It was a fairy-tale romance for a month and a half, and he convinced me to join him on a romantic month-long vacation in Italy. Forty-eight hours before we were supposed to get on a plane, he told me he needed to go by himself. I was devasted. So, I had a decision to make. Either stay home and be heartbroken, or go travel Europe for a month by myself. And staying at home heartbroken? F%*k. That.What does a woman do when her life has fallen apart and her heart has been ripped out and stepped on twice in two months? She goes on a wild adventure, makes some bad decisions, and does a s**t load of soul searching. But most importantly? She finds out how to love¿herself. This is so not Eat, Pray, Love. This is Eat, Pray, #FML.

Eat, Pray, #FML

Maybe it was because I listened to the audio book instead of reading it but this book made me roll my eyes incessantly and the author was insufferable. She gave off very cocky energy like all of these guys she met were obsessed with her. I didn’t find this book inspiring, which I think was the author’s purpose. 

Alicia Evans

Paige

I really really hate giving bad reviews 😭 but I read them and know they’re helpful to me, so I leave them. This book just fell flat for me. I will say I admire her journey, she really had a rocky road. A lot of the other reviews cast judgement on the partying and men in Europe, honestly that resonated with me 😂 Getting out of a toxic relationship, that’s how I chose to cope too - unhealthy as it may be. I like that she’s able to decipher why she chooses the decisions she makes etc. 

However, the writing just was super cringey for me and the story itself as a whole didn’t do much for me. It’s nothing like Eat, Pray, Love (which I don’t think it claims to be), it just felt surface level. I listened to the Audiobook and I just felt annoyed the whole time 😭 I was so put off by the constant “fat shaming” she was doing to herself, only in the end to find out that she gained…. 5 pounds. 😵‍💫 I really hope she’s able to work through that! I’m sure growing up in the culture/environment that she did + her career has manifested in having those insecurities and I feel for her. 

I hope she finds her person and heals, through her IG it looks like she does and I’m happy that she found success with the book! Everyone deserves happiness and success. It just wasn’t for me.

Megan Oiler 

1.5/2 

I have mixed feelings? Was it enjoyable? Yes. But! I found it quite annoying how she portrayed herself sometimes. Was it admirable that she traveled many countries by herself and to find herself? HELL YES. But she told everyone her story, and wrote their reactions like she cured a disease. You got a divorce girl, you didn’t cure cancer. Another annoying part? Her obsession with her gaining weight on her month long trip, then reveals at the end that her “huge weight gain was 5 pounds”. Girl I fluctuate that in a day. 

Honestly, the last page was probably the most helpful/inspirational part of the story. I enjoyed mostly reading the fun night, partying and experiencing different countries. Definitely won’t read again or probably encourage others to read but also was enjoyable enough to finish.

Corey White

There were really good things to this book, and truly terrible things.

I started out liking it, and maybe because I was sorry about all the things that had happened to her in childhood and then as the catalyst to this story. 

I related to a lot of the messy ways she handled things afterwards (not the drinking, but the going places she didn’t always want to go, thinking about her initial thought and then what was underneath those thoughts) and I figure that if I met her in person we might be able to have a good convo about ways we’ve messed up in dating. 

However... about half way through the book it is impossible to ignore some repetition that was unnecessary and definitely took away from the potential of the story. She repeatedly mentioned fat, getting fat, having to go to the gym when she got home, being too large for her bathing suit she brought, and come to find out she gained a total of five pounds tops on the trip. Even if she had gained 15... irrelevant. This story is about finding a way to heal and love yourself, her language and judgement around fat was absolutely the opposite.

Also, while there were some parts where she got to the deeper roots of why she was doing what she was doing there were some big obvious ones she missed. I suggest therapy with all of my heart. 

I did find it funny that when she was talking to one of the guys she met about the other one and the age gap and he said something along the lines of “once you’re in your 20’s it doesn’t matter much” because I, as a person who looks younger than I am, have been hit on by younger men and every single one said the same thing. It’s like a script. 

I can’t decide between two and three star because I likes it a lot in some ways and other ways I hated it. Benefit of the doubt, I was entertained, three stars.

Kourtney

Tik Tok is amazing for finding new authors! While swiping one day I came across @gabriellestone account where she was sharing her crazy story that she experienced and wrote about in Eat, Pray, #FML. Based on the title alone, I HAD to read this (but 🤫 I’ve never read Eat, Pray, Love. That’s ok. It didn’t matter).

I absolutely fell in love with this story while listening to the audiobook. It felt like I was talking over dinner with one of my friends. And I was hooked. Long story short - girl marries boy, girl discovers husband is cheating on her, girl gets all the dirty details and gets outta there, girl rebounds into the arms of a man and that she falls for and they decide she should go on his backpacking trip overseas. But whoops - he breaks up with her right before they are about to leave! AND SHE STILL GOES!!! I could never so I was so excited to read a book about someone who is stronger than me!!

Along the way she meets many new friends, “friends” and connects with people like she never would have had she stayed at home. And I enjoyed it. It took me out of my pandemic world for a minute and made me remember how life was when the whole world of opportunities was in front of me.

Now there is a sequel - and that is out NOW! I can’t wait to give that one a try as well!! Both are available on Kindle Unlimited 🥰

Eat, Pray, #FML

Reviews