What an amazing book.

When expecting my rainbow I've really struggled with anxiety and worry and needed something to help me through it.

Pregnancy should be a happy time but for someone who has experienced a loss previosly it feels like they have been stripped off chance to ever just feel happy and enjoy it.

Thank you for this lovely book. It made a huge difference.

Wow - this is a beautiful and heartbreaking tale of loss and rediscovery of one's self. It's hard to read at times (and have the tissues ready, I cried my way through much of it) but ultimately, it's a hopeful story that will resonate with anyone who has ever lost someone close to them. And no, it does NOT have the self-help feel. Quite the opposite...it's very slice of life- almost like reading a fiction novel.

Well written and honest account of the feelings surrounding loss and is written in a manner that helps people understand the stages of grief and healing.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC copy of the book. The opinions expressed above are my own.

Expecting Sunshine #NetGalley
Alexis Marie Chute. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Expecting Sunshine is a heartbreaking story of one woman’s loss of her child. It was hard to read this book and would especially be hard for one who has lost a child during birth. The author was very candid about she and her husband’s journey of going through this heartbreak together.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an advanced read copy of this book for an honest review. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"I wished to be free of structured religion, to know spirituality in an intimately personal manner - and to be found, there was indeed someone searching at all".

Expecting Sunshine follows Alexis through pregnancy after loss in a manner that draws the reader in. I've devoured the book in less than 24 hours. Her language use is stunning and creative producing vivid imagery for the reader. This book had me smiling and hopeful, biting my nails with anxiety and heartbroken for their pain at various points.

It is incredibly apparent throughout how Alexis' creative nature has proved therapeutic but I also love the spiritual influences throughout; I felt invited in to the space created for questioning and exploring.

This feels like an incredibly important text full of raw and vulnerable honesty about a topic so often seen as taboo (though many experience). A wonderful insight into grief and redemption through the journey of awaiting a rainbow baby.

I am not a mother and have never been pregnant, however I have several friends and family members who have had miscarriages or lost a very young child. I cannot imagine the emotions a persons goes through when this happens, however this book has given me a glimpse into the grief, loss and other emotions wrapped up in an experience like that. It can help me to understand better what my loved ones went through. Alexis is very honest and vulnerable and shares the variety of emotions she went through including fear, loss, grief, anger and happiness she felt when losing her second child. The book is heart wrenching, heartwarming, and provides hope. Alexis shares her journey of her third pregnancy as well as how she was able to heal from losing her second child. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Heartbreak, heartwarming, hope and happiness too.

I enjoyed this inspiring memoir by Alexis Marie Chute. Alexis and Aaron have a baby daughter, Hannah, at the start of the book. Their second child, Zachary, had originally been due December 2010. Routine prenatal tests revealed there were very serious problems. Zac was born early at 30 weeks. He passed away just moments later.

Heartbreaking. And the struggles trying to get pregnant again. Will there me more obstacles and heartache ahead? Very sad material, especially at the outset, but a beautiful book, with lots of hope too.

The author has really opened her heart and this emotional book is a quick easy read despite the very sad circumstances. A moving story, told week by week through her subsequent pregnancy-sort of like a pregnancy diary/journal-but never repetitive. Rather than enjoying being pregnant, she just gets through it, worrying constantly that the happy ending may be cut short, like before-it could all happen again.

I've read many medical memoirs; midwife memoirs; I'm about to start one where modern surgery can fix things even in babies not yet born-surgery in utero. Sometimes things cannot be fixed and this is Alexis Marie's heartbreaking story.

I have one sibling, a sister. I am a third child. My other sister died a few days after birth, three years before I was born. I don't think it was anything genetic-something like pneumonia I think. My parents would have had two children, I wouldn't have been born had she lived. I often think about everything, and can't imagine what my parents went through-so this book really resonated with me. My parents always talked openly about everything. A neighbour's daughter was born with cancer-when she died they never talked about it, and they didn’t want anyone else talking about it either. I'm sure writing this memoir will have been therapeutic to Alexis Marie, and she is now helping others come to terms with such tragic circumstances. A beautiful portrayal.

This author very bravely released her heart into the world and I applaud her for doing so. I have long been emotionally invested in this topic after suffering three miscarriages. While pregnancy loss can take different forms and different grieving processes, they all leave scars. Alexis Marie Chute wrote a fast paced account of her third pregnancy, which came about a year after her son died at 30 weeks gestation due to a rare genetic condition. She writes in short segments that correspond with each week of her pregnancy. She weaves the present in with memories of her past trauma. After reading more about the work she is doing in this bereavement community, I feel this book will help many people in their grief.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced copy.

Alexis Marie Chute and her husband, Aaron, lose their son at his birth, from a rare chromosome mutation that caused tumors to form all over his body, and in his heart, especially, while in utero. They already had a young daughter, Hannah, and their grief is both unimaginable and and heart-wrenching.

Expecting Sunshine chronicles their experience with a third pregnancy, week by gestational week. In it, Alexis Marie describes in beautiful detail both the grief Sha and Aaron experience, how different each one’ s experience is, how hard it is, often, to communicate and share their feelings with each other, as well as sharing the week by week details of her pregnancy with what turns out to be their son, Eden.

There is nothing at all maudlin or “poor me” about this book. It is a strikingly honest portrayal of one family’s grief, intertwined with living their lives, discovering what is normal for them, while raising a delightful toddler in these difficult times. You can never truly recover from some losses, and losing a child is right up there at the top of the list. I appreciate Ms. Chute’s honesty as she invites the reader to share her journey.

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.