A Walk to Remember: Review of I've Never Been to Vegas, But My Luggage Has

Hey all!! Last month, I got to do something that was pretty cool to me. In case you guys didn't know this, I'm a HUGE fan of reading!! I love that you can just pick up a good book and go on mental vacations whenever you desire to do so. So, back to my story, last month I signed up to join The Single Woman Crew. Now, what is The Single Woman Crew, you may be asking?? Welp, it's an exclusive online Facebook group of women all coming together to promote author Mandy Hale's new book, I've Never Been to Vegas, But My Luggage Has. When each of us signed up, all we had to do is promote her new book on social media sites--Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr--and then we got an advance e-book copy to read and review if we so choose to do so.

But before I jump into the book review itself, I should probably explain a tad bit about who the heck Mandy Hale even is. Mandy is a lovely lady in her mid-30s born in Tennessee that created the Single Woman movement on Twitter in 2010 after the end of a not so pleasant relationship. She had decided that since there was no platform for 'how to celebrate being single', she figured that she could be the pioneer to get it done.  Since then, her fan base has become highly fruitful, to say the least (try over 500,000 followers) and her message  of 'settle for God's best and nothing less' is still reaching so many women every day just as it did four years ago, from the never marrieds to the jilted to the divorcees to the even the widowed. What initially drew me to Mandy's following was actually the constant ads for her first book titled The Single Woman that kept popping up on my Facebook page all summer long while I was working at summer camp. I figured that since these ads were probably not going to go away any time soon, I should go and check her out. Needless to say, I was impressed and decided to go spend the $7.49 cost at LifeWay--formerly known as Berean's--and see what the hype was all about. I kid you not when I say I couldn't put the book down. Her witty sense of humor and humble and realistic tone made it easy for me to sympathize, as well as empathize with her pain (I plan to review the first book in more detail in a later post).

So, when I opened up Never Been to Vegas on my HP Pavilion, I fully expected to have similar reactions that I had while reading the first book. The truth is, my reaction had increased in intensity ten-fold!! I found myself laughing, crying and gasping in surprises as with every syllable was Mandy opening up her heart, world, mind and soul to all of us that were reading the book. My heart broke a little bit when I got to the last page. Suddenly, I was flooded with similar feelings I had felt when reading Mandy's breath-taking highs and gut-wrenching lows is precise and truthful detail. I was reminded of why I had fallen in love with her message & realized that I could never be alone in this  journey towards becoming the best me that God intends for me to be. So, thank you, Mandy Hale, for showing me once again that this life is  not meant to be ran through like a crazed hamster high off of  caffeine , reaching for unattainable status of worth; instead, it is about creating, finding, testing,  exploring, enduring and accepting...a walk to remember.
So, if you are looking for a new book to make you crack a crooked smile or to a sliver of renewed hope, give Never Been to Vegas a chance! I promise you won't be disappointed ;)