Melissa Radke

Eat Cake. Be Brave. by Melissa Radke is a delightful read that will make you giggling and smile all along the way.

Seriously, I liked this book! It was sugary sweet, delightfully fun and just all around great. I had not heard of Melissa Radke before, but I did want to sink my teeth into some comedic biographies. This woman is just the kind of girl I want to read about! She's funny, she is real and has an interesting story to read about. I gotta say, she's right. I love her now! She seems like the kind of woman I'd want to be friends with.

This woman wrote a fantastic book that is all about dealing with life, insecurities, following your dreams and being comedic while doing it. She hasn't had the easiest life - things have gone wrong, and that's totally okay. But she came out on the other side of it, and managed to make light of it! She adopted two children, she's made a book, she has a great marriage and is doing her best and living her life. I dig it. I like books like this that feel real but still teach you something.

My negative for this book: There's some more stuff I wanted to read. Melissa will bring up stuff (her marriage wasn't amazing for some of it... but why?) and then never discuss it. If you're gonna bring up the dirty laundry, you kinda gotta air it. Maybe not in excessive detail, but I was actually curious how they overcame the bad hump in their relationship. How?! Why?! Give me advice girl, because you seem to have a good head on your shoulders and you write it well.

Overall, this book is a great comedic biography to pick up if you're seeking something lighter to read.

Four out of five stars.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

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I purchased this book from Amazon to read with my sister. All opinions are my own. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Eat Cake. Be Brave. By Melissa Radke. An incredible true story of a woman who made a vow to be brave. We have all had those moments we fell and didn't want to get up, those times where you just felt like getting out of bed was too much work, the moment when fun out weighed what needed to be done and while those stories are in this book, the message here is keep going, keep fighting, keep pushing forward because the blessings coming are better than where you are right now. The biggest message is BE BRAVER THAN YOU WERE YESTERDAY, oh, and yes if you are offered cake then you might as well eat it too! Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Twitter @jason_stacie, Amazon, Goodreads/StacieBoren, Library Thing, and my blog at readsbystacie.com… (más)

If Goodreads allowed half stars this would definitely be 4.5 for me. The only thing keeping it from a 5 and being shelved on my "need more stars" shelf is the fact that it wasn't what I was expecting.

Melissa Radke is hilarious. Literally laughed out loud numerous times. And she is so relatable! I was screenshotting passages and texting my sister "this is me" and "so you" with double exclamation marks. Not just the funny/embarrassing high school stories either. But the heart-wrenching moments as well.

While I received an advanced copy of this book free from Netgalley I am adding it to my Amazon to-buy list because I do want to own a physical copy, even though I have the e-book and even though it wasn't a 5 star review this time. Maybe I will reread it in a few years and wonder what I was thinking with my slight negativity.

As a collection of narrative essays this was great. But I was expecting a memoir. The summary lead me to believe that this would start off with the pre-41st birthday introductory chapters, then the rest of the book would be about what and how Melissa chose to be brave that year. Instead, there are over a dozen essays illustrating some moment in time when Melissa wasn't brave, when something unfair or unkind happened and how it affected and shaped those first 40 years. Most of those essays ends on the positive, with the new Melissa pointing out what she should have done or what she hopes readers will do in that same situation or what the takeaway is; because of that I expected the next chapter to be about her taking control etc, but there are only 3 essays I think that actually discuss events after her birthday that year. Maybe what I was expecting was a more linear story I guess.… (más)