I Got It From Here

A book review of I Got It From Here: A Memoir of Awakening to the Power Within by Francesca Miracola

Stars: ****

She Writes Press (2023)
Memoir
246 pages

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher. This post contains affiliate links.

Summary: Growing up in an Italian American family in Queens, New York, in the ’70s, Francesca Miracola was trained from an early age to keep up appearances at all costs—but behind closed doors, her parents’ toxic marriage served as a blueprint for dysfunction. So when she met Jason Axcel at a bar as a twentysomething, she ignored all the red flags—and there were plenty of them—and dove right in, normalizing his emotional and physical abuse just like she’d learned to do. She even married and had two children with him. But something in her clicked one night when Jason strolled out the door after a vicious fight that left her degraded on the floor, and she decided she was done.

Except Jason wouldn’t let her go.

Even after they finally divorced and Francesca fell in love with someone else, her ex-husband was keen enough to recognize that she was the same broken girl he’d met a decade earlier, and he exploited that fact at every turn. He called the cops to her home with bogus claims; he bombarded her with provoking emails and texts; he stalked her every move; and, worst of all, he used their little boys as pawns in his campaign. Then he went for the jugular and sued her for custody. But Francesca was stronger than he’d given her credit for.

Raw and illuminating, I Got It from Here is one woman’s story of saving herself and her children from the grips of a sociopath posing as a family man—and from the inherited trauma passed down by her own family of birth—while learning to trust in the inner voice that’s been trying to guide her all along.

I Got It From Here

The author’s story is gripping as we see her go through an unhealthy marriage and tough life. Just when you are rooting for her as she gets out of there, her husband won’t let her go. The red flags seem so obvious when you are looking from the outside but I know that’s not the case when you are in the midst of something. I’m glad the author shared her story, perhaps it will help others recognize their own red flags and get out before it’s too late.

Another mesmerizing memoir from She Writes Press. They always have the most intriguing memoirs. Gift this memoir to a struggling woman in your life or read it yourself to put yourself in someone else’s shoes (the best reason to read a memoir.)

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