The First Year is the Hardest is an honest, anecdotal accounting of one woman's recovery, discovery, and reinvention of herself after divorce. Jennifer bravely recounts her first year as a newly single woman navigating the aftermath of her divorce. She bares it all--the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful.
Jennifer Raphael conveys the hard work of finding her heart, without shirking the growing complexity of her feelings and present actions. The mixed bag of her emotional past is explored for its secrets and epiphanies.
--Kenneth Buhr, PhD, Marriage and Family Therapist
Raphael candidly expresses her feelings of resentment, loss, trepidation, and excitement and conveys those emotions in a way that reassures readers that they too will heal.
--Laurie Itkin, Financial Advisor and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst, author of Every Woman Should Know Her Options
Jennifer Raphael shares her struggle to rebuild a life and an identity in this layered and deeply personal account of starting over in the aftermath of divorce.
--Cheri Reeder-friend, book lover, happy divorcée