>What I Thought I Knew hit me hard.

Imagine with me please – go to a place where there are no judgments. You are a point in your life when you are done having children. You already have one or some … but the thought of being pregnant and raising a little baby – it’s not where you are. Your mindset isn’t there. And if you were told – today – that you were 4, 5 or even 6 months pregnant – right now – how would you feel?

It’s a hard question to answer. It doesn’t matter your age, what matters is your mindset. This memoir, by Alice Eve Cohen is an emotionally charged work that forces you to go deep inside your heart to find these answers. I found myself in Alice’s shoes, every step of the way. I’m not going to tell you what happens in the book. How Alice responded works its way through this memoir so intrinsically that to tell you would ruin the experience for you.

I love my three children. With a passion. But if I found myself to be pregnant right now – for a time – I would go into a dark place before I could come to grips with how my life is about to change. Again. I know what the outcome would be – but Alice didn’t. She was on hormones that had a high chance of damaging the child she carried. Two gender baby – how would you cope? A baby with genetic defects – would you be ready? What if everything you had been told was wrong, that it was worse?

What I Thought I Knew was hard for me to read. Emotionally. I took my time. I let it sit inside my heart (not my brain). I love the style of writing – it is so personal and brings me into her journey. It’s a story that I won’t be able to let go and I know each time I read it I will shed tears.

At less than 200 pages, Alice has packed so much raw emotion, humor and honesty into What I Thought I Knew. It reads like a diary with the suspense of a thriller. After Alice was told she was infertile in her 30s, she became pregnant at 44 and didn’t know it until over halfway through her high-risk pregnancy. Her book tells the story of her metamorphosis from a woman struggling with infertility to one who struggles with having a baby she didn’t know about, and frankly wasn’t sure she wanted.
Oprah Magazine called it “An unexpected bundle of joy” and selected it as one of the “25 best books of summer.” People Magazine described it as “gripping” and Elle Magazine called it “deeply moving.” And Lifetime has optioned it for a TV movie.

website

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Alice-Eve-Cohen/1046733364

twitter
www.twitter.com/AliceEveCohen