"Lost Edens" by Jamie Patterson - Review

Lost Edens
Jamie Patterson
Publisher: Beaver's Pond Press
ISBN: 9781592983865
Genre: Memoir, Non-ficiton

About the Book:

For Jamie Patterson, the end of her marriage is signaled by betrayal and abandonment. When estranged husband Ben asks to live with Jamie again, she ignores her instincts, her family's concern, and her friends' doubts and sets about making a perfect home in a California beach town.


What follows in 33-year-old Patterson's debut reads more like a mystery (or a horror story) than an account of a relationship ruptured by infidelity. As Jamie's carefully titrated efforts walk a tightrope between wishful fantasy and cruel reality, we watch: enraptured, enraged, and endeared by this fearless yet fragile young woman who must end one way of life to forge a new one.

My Thoughts:

This review took some time for me to write as the stark reality of this book hit very close to home. Jamie writes about the final weeks of her relationship with her husband and tells with both an innocence and purity of a soul that has been battered by emotional abuse. The lack of self-worth is apparent to the reader, but not to the person living it.

Jamie bares her soul and tells from a personal point of view how things transpired and how she discovered she lost herself, but only after losing her husband. She writes with a raw honesty and allows the reader inside the eyes of a person with no self-worth... a person who had it when she started, but doesn't realize that she no longer feels worthy of respect and real love. She shows a woman who feels that if she just tries harder and puts more effort in her relationship, she will receive the love from her husband that she so desperately craves.

This account illustrates how much emotional abuse breaks a person and how it robs their essence. Unlike physical abuse, the scars aren't apparent. The abuse isn't even apparent to the one on the receiving end until great damage has been done. Emotional abuse makes me think of the proverbial frog in the pot - it doesn't notice the heat is being turned up until it's too late.

This emotional account should be read by everyone!

Please Note:

Jamie will be donating a portion of her book sales to the Institute for Human Animal Connection at the University of Denver. After reading this book and meeting Huey, one will understand why.

About the Author:

Jamie Patterson is a writer, teacher, runner, and dog owner who has been writing since she was 9-years-old as the "kids corner" reporter for the Tangletown News in Minneapolis. Since then, she has written her way through life in four states and two continents and has completed four marathons. She is now an academic editor and lives in Minneapolis with her dog, Huey. This is her first book.

To learn more about Jamie, you can visit her at her website: http://www.lostedens.com/
or find her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lost-Edens/169034456471587
or on Twitter: http://twitter.com/PattersonJamie