No More Faking Fine: Ending the Pretending

Fleece, international speaker, founder and CEO of L&L Consulting, encourages readers to lament past pain and heal through God by accepting disappointment instead of pushing negative experiences away. Her difficult childhood and young adulthood are detailed throughout the book: she suffered heart-breaking paternal neglect and abuse, as well as cruel rejection from her mother and grandmother, and she spent years evading her felonious stalker father. Fleece survived and thrived. After college, she rose through the corporate ranks at New Iron Media before leaving as a vice-president at age 25 to lead millennial outreach for Focus on the Family, a nonprofit. Although her reputation and perseverance will certainly bring readers to her story, succeeding financially or professionally is not the point of the book. Fleece is more concerned with how she “faked” her way, as she says, into her many successes. She writes of the ultimate bankruptcy of “faking fine,” championing instead the value of recognizing and naming pain through the long biblical and religious tradition of lament. Passionately encouraging readers to create space for authentic self-reflection in Christian life and practice, Fleece should gain a whole new audience with this book. [em](Jan.) [/em]