cover image Better than Okay: Finding Hope and Healing After Your Marriage Ends

Better than Okay: Finding Hope and Healing After Your Marriage Ends

Brandi Wilson. Bethany House, $18.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-764-24141-3

Life coach Wilson (Leading and Loving It) offers encouraging, been-there guidance for those struggling with feelings of abandonment in the wake of divorce. Recalling the devastation she experienced after her pastor husband left her, their sons, and the Nashville megachurch they founded—a debacle that played out in newspaper headlines—Wilson writes, “It wasn’t just my marriage that unraveled... life as I knew it had ended.” Drawing on her experience, she aims to help readers working through the ends of their marriages to “survive your divorce and come out stronger.” Wilson digs into such issues as solo parenting, dating, and the importance of sustaining one’s own dreams: “Think back to who you were pre-marriage... Remember who she was before she became a we,” she advises. Though readers may not always find the inclusion of Wilson’s own journal entries useful, they will be charmed by her at turns vulnerable and humorous anecdotes, as when she describes the travails of dating while raising teenage sons (“As I turned the corner into the family room, I was greeted by a male voice stating, ‘You missed curfew.’ My immediate response was ‘Yes, sir,” before I... remembered that I am the adult”). The result is a fresh perspective on healing from heartbreak. (July)