Unfinished: A Personal Journey of Healing, Self-Discovery and Resilience

This is a story of to whom I can relate to. Abused, rejected, painfully striving for the simplest of rewards in life. Love and acceptance. The struggle against the lies that shouldn't be taken to heart, yet the courage to throw it all down, to stand tall! Surviving the abuse endured, throughout ones life, yet having the strength to strive on. That's the challenge. To have the courage to keep onward.I enjoyed reading about her struggles and then triumphs. To me, she is a true hero. She set the standard high, and succeeded. She did it for herself, and that's all that matters. I appalled her determination. It is proof that abuse can never take our faith in ourselves to overcome adversities.

This is an honest and at times heart-wrenching memoir of a woman's struggles with abuse during childhood, in relationships and at work. I think it was longer than it needed to be, and would have been improved by cutting out the number of incidents so that the most powerful episodes would be highlighted. Kudos to the author for this brave memoir.

excellent book

I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways. As always, an honest review.I was excited to start reading Unfinished: A Personal Journey of Healing, Self-Discovery and Resilience by Isana, and it did not disappoint. This is the story of a woman who was told from childhood that she didn’t matter. She learns to find her voice and go after what she wants in life. She’s inspirational without being preachy. I appreciated her honestly throughout, telling her story through the good and bad times in life. Isana is an example of how negative childhood experiences can make life more difficult. She looked for a lot of external validation during her early adulthood. It then became a messy, tumultuous, and wonderful journey to being in charge of her own life. She is relatable, inspiring, and courageous. I think most people can relate to and appreciate her story, especially those with similar experiences to her. I appreciated the short concise chapters, especially since some contained some tough topics, abuse, to read about. It made it easy to read the memoir in short chunks and put it down when it became too intense for me. I should say, trigger warning for abuse of different types. I did find it a little frustrating at times, because I so badly wanted Isana to make the right choices all of the time. The ones that were best for her and would give her the love, happiness, and respect that she deserved. Of course her life, like anyone else’s, is a learning process. I wish that her early childhood wasn’t so hard. That the adults expected to care for her did so, instead of setting her up for a life of unnecessary challenges. I liked that she was very honest and intelligently self reflective. Unfinished by Isana is such a special book. It’s truly an honor and a privilege to read Isana’s life story. I’m so grateful she was courageous and generous enough to share her beautiful honest words with the world.* I originally posted my review on Goodreads.

Thankful for the honest, authentic, emotional journey shared here that as a”me too” I related to so very often. Sad about the awful religious upbringing that was so lacking love, grace and mercy, acceptance, forgiveness with very little or NO real relationship with Jesus or Frances (Isana) evident! (It seemed all the rigid rules failed and only brought condemnation and negative self esteem. There was no healthy or safe relationship in her parents life toward Frances when she was growing up. So very sad! A terribly wrong representation of Jesus by her parents! I would love to meet Isana and her Terry! Wonderful love they seem to share! I felt a connection with her in things she suffered and feelings she had that related to things I suffered and feelings I have had. Isana is an excellent writer. Really awesome writing! I admire your tenacity, the love you have for your husband and the ability you have to express yourself. I especially love the recovery you have made from such hardships and abuses! I am thankful for the forgiveness you expressed and sharing the lessons you learned with much wisdom in your journey. Congratulations on your first book! I sure hope you write more especially to youth with struggles you have had! Deborah Mott Pen= Deborah Saint author of The Elephant Gospel

This is a book that feels as if it was written to get the author’s troubles off her chest, but it’s an interesting read, nonetheless. She takes you through her troubled life – a pretty loveless childhood, disastrous romantic attachments, religion and alcohol, and difficulty with work relationships – but she comes out on top in the end.It’s a fraught tale, and a well told one at that. Well written and with good pace and drama, even if slightly heavy on daily detail and introspection, each part of her life is filled with ample interest.The author’s troubles are interspersed by little sunshine. Apart from intervals when she is long distance running, sailing or being with her dogs, it’s fairly grim reading, and what comes though from the narrative is that the author has always found it difficult to fit in. But this is what makes the book interesting, and in this way it much resembles Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (one of the greatest books of the last decade, in my opinion).Overall I found it a trifle heavy on introspection, and light on insight into those around her, but it’s a remarkable tale of someone striving to triumph over their adversities – and you feel for the plight of the author every inch of the way.

It's always hard to read about childhood abuse but I think it is really important that people should take the time to read these sorts of books so as not to ignore that child abuse is still going on and it needs to be stopped. I can relate to this book so much as I suffered a similar childhood and I know exactly what this writer endured. I am glad you survived and I hope your journey ends in healing. Thank you for sharing your story and I wish you well for the future. Good luck.

This is an excellent book to show the consequences of childhood abuse in our adult life. In this book the author concentrates on her struggle to understand her way to cope with relationships. She is strong. She wants to live. She doesn’t want to be alone. She doesn’t give up.Abuse, whether sexual or psychological in childhood is a life sentence for an ongoing struggle.The writer also describes her love as a runner, her love for animals and the challenges of being a police officer.I am getting angry when reading about her ignorant parents. While they think they do everything right, they destroy her. Parents should be encouraged to take a course to find out how to be loving parents and how to raise happy sons and daughters. And children should be introduced to psychology in school at an early age. I believe, then, there would be less abuse in families.Towards the end Isana sends a letter to her dying mother. I especially like this non sentimental and honest letter.Thank you Isana for Unfinished. You are a very strong person. It is quite unbelievable how fate kicked you around and you always kept positive and found new solutions: a pet, a new man, a challenging profession, expanding this profession to help people in your neighbourhood. You never lost confidence.The book is easy to read and I give Isana happily 5 stars for sharing her life with us.

This is a compelling account of one woman's journey through suffering. The writing is superb - hard to put it down.