Name: It's My Life
ISBN: 9781492654230

Stacie Ramey

It's My Life

If she wants a future with him, she'll have to make peace with her past. Jenna's never let her cerebral palsy get her down. But when she discovers that her condition was actually caused by an injury at birth, she's furious with her parents, who withheld the truth. And as they push her to get yet another difficult procedure, Jenna feels her control over her life starting to slip. Enter Julian, Jenna's childhood crush. He's just moved back to town, and he's struggling in school, so Jenna reaches out to him—anonymously—to help. Soon, their conversations are about so much more than class. She's falling for him all over again, hard and fast. But would Julian still be interested in her if he knew who she really was? And can she find a way to take back her own narrative before she pushes away everyone she loves? Also by Stacie Ramey: The Sister Pact The Homecoming The Secrets We Bury

so- interesting book. i don't really have much to say about this story but it was a good read. finished it in a couple of hours spread across a few days of course. i love the tiny detail of typing emojis after we find out about julian's autism. feel like author could've dug deeper into the relationship between julian and jenna, seems very surface at the moment. 

Belle Ellrich

*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.

It's My Life

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