Snow has blanketed my little Kentucky home for a week and a half now, which is a long time for the world to stay sparkly white in this part of the world. Each morning I wake up, open the drafts on the wood-burner, stir the almost dying embers, add wood, then sit down with my Bible, coffee, and cozy blankets.

It took me nearly two months of living in my little burrow before I actually liked it here (crazy, I know), but once I made the switch I’ve been overwhelmed by how much I enjoy my home. February has long been one of my favorite months, and this year is no different. Despite the freezing temperatures (I’ve seen my breath inside my home a few times), hardly ever feeling completely warm, and going out to start my car long before I leave for work, there’s something incredibly cozy about being snowed-in, eating soup, and laying in front of the fire to read.

And speaking of reading, here’s my latest review. This book is a winner.

Find the book on: Amazon, Goodreads, or check out the Author’s Website
Pages: 180
Publisher: Bethany House
Release Date: February 2, 2021
Title: Brave
Nonfiction

ABOUT THE BOOK

As a parent, you can use certain strategies to help your teenage daughter when she struggles with worry and anxiety. But it is also important that she learns how to work through her emotions on her own, especially as she approaches adulthood.

This guide–created for girls ages 13 to 18–will help your daughter understand anxiety’s roots and why her brain is often working against her when she starts to worry. With teen-friendly information, stories, and self-discovery exercises, including journaling and drawing prompts, she will learn practical ways to fight back when worries come up. She will find more of her voice and her confidence. In essence, she will find more of herself and the brave, strong, deeply loved girl God made her to be.

WHY I CHOOSE THIS BOOK

There are so many girls – especially teens – who have trouble with worry and anxiety, especially in today’s world. Therefore, I thought it’d be a good idea to give this book a read so I’d possibly have a better understanding of what people who struggle with worry and anxiety are going through. Plus, the author’s last name is the last name of another author I like, and I thought perhaps they were related. 😉 

WHAT I THOUGHT ABOUT THIS BOOK

It’s gold. I’m giving it five stars, and we all know I don’t give out that rating easily. I thought perhaps the book would be unbalanced or just be like “You can do anything because you’re awesome” etc… and in a way, it did say that. But it was more like “God created you with the tools you need to beat this worry, and here these tools are.” I am so on-board with the approach this book took, and it makes me want to read the rest of this author’s work. 

The book was split into three sections: Understanding, Help, and Hope. It talked about why and how girls get anxious, signs of how anxiety plays out, definitions of commonly-thrown-around-words, and how the words should actually be used. 

In addition to the emotional side of anxiety, the author delved into the logical and scientific areas of anxiety, which was incredibly helpful and eye-opening. It’s so hard to triumph over something that you can’t understand or process correctly. The author went a step further and talked about the spiritual side of anxiety and how the Enemy is the Father of Lies and will use lies against you. She talked about how we combat those lies with the Truth, and how important it is to acknowledge the lies and not give into believing them.

The book then gave incredibly practical ways to work through anxiety. The way she presented the information made it feel both doable and worth trying. I really appreciated how she gave facts and reasons to back up the advice she was presenting, instead of just expecting girls to take her word for it. 

While reading the book I learned a lot about how the brain works. Although I don’t struggle with anxiety (it’s not that I never worry, it’s just not something that I do a lot), I think the things I learned while reading this book can help me in other areas of life.  

CONCLUSION

Since anxiety isn’t my struggle there were some aspects of the book that I’m not sure if I agree with fully or not, but overall I really like the book. (Obviously.) I highly recommend this book and would enjoy hearing your thoughts on it if you’ve read it. (Especially if anxiety is something you’re working through in your life.)

RATING

I’m giving Brave 5 out of 5 stars. Thank you to Bethany House Publishers for sending me a copy of the book so I could post this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.