The Legacy of Hope by Carine Jennings explores what the true definition of happiness means to people. Happiness has several definitions for people. Do we need to be in a relationship to be happy? Does having the career you always wanted make you a happy person? Or does the definition of happiness refer to your own outlook on life and yourself? Carine Jennings describes what the true meaning of happiness leads to and how feeling lost is okay. Life works in mysterious ways and sometimes it is unfair. It’s all about your outlook.

I was surprised at how meaningful this book was for me. It certainly gave me a new perspective on the importance of being happy. Happiness and being positive is very important to me and sometimes I take it a little too far. I learned that it is okay to feel rejection, turmoil, and to be sad. This book taught me that we should not be afraid to feel those feelings. Not everyone is happy. I fell that this story is important to all audiences, especially those who are just graduating from college and going into the real world.

It was tough reading the section about Jenning’s abusive marriage. Jennings’s vocabulary is strong and I liked the way she vividly described situations. I could feel the raw emotion in those moments. It’s okay to make mistakes in life. However, we should never deny mistakes. Mistakes are important because we learn from them.

Carine Jennings A Legacy of Hope is an impassioned and thought-provoking book that probes the idea of happiness. As Jennings says, there is hope for everyone. It doesn’t matter who you are or how you grew up, “We all have different stories and different types of suffering. But two things should always be present: Hope and faith.” (Pg. 119).

A Legacy of Hope opened my mind to the difficult trials and tribulations some people face in life when Carine Jennings was assessing her abusive marriage, “Today, I feel like the abuse I endured has formed the basis of freedom…” (pg. 119). Love has always been a crucial theme in life, where some rush into a relationship or a marriage believing that it is the direction to go because other people do it.

Don’t hold yourself back from living the life that you want to live. Jennings took risks and uses A Legacy of Hope to explore how those decisions affected herself either positively or negatively. A Legacy of Hope opened my mind about making decisions and that you are the writer of your own life. Make it a good story.

Pages: 120